One of my favorite hacks at last weekend’s Music Hack Day is Tristan’s Swinger. The Swinger is a bit of python code that takes any song and makes it swing. It does this be taking each beat and time-stretching the first half of each beat while time-shrinking the second half. It has quite a magical effect. Some examples:
Every Breath You Take
Money for Nothing
Cream
I Will
Update – a few more tracks -by request:
Enter Sandman
Daft Punk’s Around the world
Sweet Child O’ Mine
(one of my favs)
Don’t Stop Believin’
White Rabbit
(this one is hypnotic)
Swinger uses the new Dirac time-stretching capabilities of Echo Nest remix. Source code is available in the samples directory of remix.
Be sure to check out some of the other Music Hack Day hacks like Six Degrees of Black Sabbath, Jason’s Songbird Visualizer or the Artikulator.
![[nick]](http://gravatar.com/avatar/d7cd1419051562e6a6626f6cbd7c3b6a?s=35&d=wavatar){kind=small}
Room en Every Breath You Take lijkt mij wel meer shuffle dan swing
Prepare to boingboinged. I didn’t submit it, but somebody will. Corey loves this sort of thing.
not only boing’d… but now fark’d as well.
Prepare to boingboinged. I didn’t submit it, but somebody will. Cory loves this sort of thing.
Something tells me pounding straight-beat dance music would work well. Try it on Daft Punk.
cool,i like it. nice change of pace
Oh definitely! Try it on Daft Punk. The guys at reddit will go insane! ><
Dedko, Foo – I’ve updated the post to include a Daft Punk example.
Can you make around the world downloadable? I’d like to play the “swing version” when I dj!
download the source, or find a nerd to do it for you
Bad Ass!
this is pretty sweet
How do I use this?
Brilliant.
Crazy Train ?
I actually like “don’t stop believin’” better this way.
Around The World is awesome with this applied to it. What a great py script.
‘Enter Sandman’ is hilarious. Completely destroys Hetfield’s macho posturing.
yeah, it´s sounds like a funny-metal-little-rabbit jumping
Inna Godda Davida!
This is amazing! I had no idea that python was being used to manipulate audio, I’ll have to have a look into this when my finals are done.
Sweet Child o’ Mine works awesomely.
Try it with a They Might Be Giants song?
That is so awesome.
Fantastic! Now I know how it would sound if ZZ Top covered “Money for Nothing.”
Hahahaha, that’s awesome.
Would be great, if any of the tracks played for me.
[...] is so cool. Tristan Jehan, an MIT Ph.D., wrote this Python code to lengthen the first half of a note and shorten the second. The result is really fun. My favorite: [...]
I think you have it reversed. The first half is shortened and the second half is lengthened. As in “Ba-BAA, Ba-BAA, Ba-BAA” etc.
Nopeeee… I’m pretty sure spking had it right the first time. What’s wrong with your ears?
ACDC, Back in Black please!
I thought Cream was C.R.E.A.M. by Wu-Tang – I’d be really interested in hearing something like that swing!
me too. i was disappointed to hear that it wasn’t
Lots of hip hop alrdy has swing, but twice as fast. for example, eminem’s 8 mile song is swing
Cool! Can you try it with a song that already swings? What about something in 3/4 time? I’d love to hear “Swing” by Japan (no kidding).
Lovely!
When listening to this I don’t really understand what exactly is different, I just notice _something_ is. it’s interesting.
and I also thought about and hoped for C.R.E.A.M. :D
Would like to hear that or 99 Problems! Generally interested about what Hiphop sounds like with it.
(But watch out! Copyrights and stuff)
Wow! Subtle, but makes all the difference.
I would love to hear that with something like Hank Marvin and the Shadows, ‘Green Onions’ or ‘Apache’.
You have to try it on ‘Tales from the Vienna Woods’, and ‘The Warsaw Concerto’ (or as spike would have it, ‘The bloody Warsaw concerto’
More bizzarely, how about with ‘Moonlight Seranade’ or ‘A nightingale sang in Berkley Square’? Something from ‘Mary Poppins’? or ‘Windmills of your mind’? Bellowhead’s ‘Copshawholme Fair’ or ‘Minnie the Moocher’?
I don’t think there’s much point in doing it to Green Onion or Minnie the Moocher because they’re already swing
would be cool if the amount of swing were customizable; ie, not necessarily just playing eighth notes as triplets.
tkw – it is customizable.
I gave it a try with Rick James’s Superfreak:
http://soundcloud.com/tfine/freak-swing-33
Very fun…
If you don’t mind, how do you use it? I have echo nest, python, etc., just can’t figure out how to get it to take the file I want. Any help appreciated. Thanks!
Kyle: If you just want to try to swing some songs and don’t want to become a Python programmer, I suggest you try out the web app built by Steve Marx – http://swingify.cloudapp.net/ This app lets you swingify any track and listen to it.
Paul
Whataya Want From Me by Adam Lambert
Dream On by Aerosmith
While My Guitar Gently Weeps by The Beatles
&
Hey, Soul Sister by Train
amazing if you do these.
never knew that this could be done with python – very nice!
I did Rapper’s Delight :)
http://tx87.net/music/delight%202.mp3
What happens to songs that already swing?
I was wondering that, too. Like, Free Four by Pink Floyd.
Wow, haha, great idea.
I wonder if you could set it off phase, so that you could “de-swing” a song. :D
Yes exactly, and make Frank Sinatra sound like ….
I’m an old guy but I really appreciate what you young smart people can do with technology!!!
Don’t Stop Believin’ is an ok song but with what you’ve done with it I really enjoyed it, probablly for the first time.
Sweet Child O’ Mine is very cool, I hope there will be more!
I’ve gotta thank my daughter for hooking me up.
I gotta thank your daughter for hooking me up, too.
You stay classy, Internets.
This is so fantastic in so many ways…. swinging Super Freak rules
Please continue posting updates as new tracks are made!
Someone should build a web-based “swing machine” that accepts MP3′s as inputs, so even non-Python-savvy people can get into the act.
I want a winamp plugin that does this in realtime. To everything.
You lost me at “winamp”
Double Swing!!
How do i download the program? Is it only for max/msp ?
Cheeeers!
[...] [...]
Why does this script not seem to distort the sound or vocals in any noticeable way? Is there actual some subtle distortion being caused by the time manipulation?
Time-streching like this takes into account the pitch shift that normally occurs when speeding up or slowing down the audio. When lengthening/slowing down the first half of the note, the algorithm raises the pitch accordingly (and of course lowers the pitch for the compressed half of the note).
I’m spreading this to everyone I know. A really simple concept that anyone *could’ve* thought of, and anyone *could’ve* implemented, but… the guy who actually *did* think of and implement it is a freaking genius. I do think these should be downloadable, but I guess I’ll just have to get the source and figure out to run it, and run it myself. :p
I think Sweet Child o’ Mine just got made about a hundred times better…
Dude I totally agree about Sweet Child o’ Mine! I’d buy a copy!
This version of White Rabbit is freakin’ fantastic!
Unbelievably nice.
Daft Punk becomes a crazy trip hop backing track…
I wonder what things in off time signatures would sound like. The most familiar one in pop music is probably “Money” by Pink Floyd, which starts in 7/8.
Has anyone tried UN-swinging any country/western songs, by using this to equalize the beats?
?? Not all country/western tracks swing. In fact, most current ones don’t. Curious if there is more to this question than meets the eye.
Swinging “Code Monkey”: http://soundcloud.com/dopplex/03-codemonkey-swing-33
Sound quality seems to have suffered compared to the source mp3, unfortunately.
Telephone or Bad Romance would be epic under this. They both have strong beats, and simple but fast hooks. Still, this is so fucking awesome.
Very cool. I think Enter Sandman gets off track right after the spoken interlude for some reason, though.
Awesome! I did “Canary in a Coalmine” also by The Police, it’s great!
I second the commenters asking what happens if you swingify swing? swing^2? How far can it go before creating a black hole?
Wow, sounds great! Love Sweet Child’o'mine and White Rabbit!
Dang, sounds superb!
Two things:
1) Make the songs downloadable please! :-)
2) Add some more, especially from songs that already swing and “strange” genres like hip-hop, trance.
Thanks a lot!
[...] el blog Music Machinery leo que han creado un hack en el lenguaje de programación Python que convierte cualquier canción no swing que quieras en un [...]
I couldn’t see where I can download this, can you supply a link? Sandman is brilliant as swing, I want to try it on some Evanescence songs!
Put this fucker to the test.
Do a hardcore SlipKnot song.
Ahahaha. Really putting it to the test would be trying it on Painkiller by Judas Priest, with its pounding double bass, falsetto scream, and uber-drum-solo intro. Even better, try swinging Death… or Atheist – death metal that already has a jazz bent. Hell, may as well swing Slayer too just for fun.
that is really, really cool!!
OK, so can anyone help us latecomers / newbs out with a URL or two? It’s not clear to me how to apply this filter. Has anyone described the process? The EchoNest website seems to be all about why you should use the platform… so far, I’m not chasing the right rabbit to the how-to-remix part. I apologize for my abysmal ignorance.
Me’n either. :( I’ve downloaded Python and Echo Nest, but inputting the code into Terminal (I’m on a Mac) doesn’t seem to do anything. Le sigh. I need a tutorial.
Ah HA! OK, I get part of it now.
http://code.google.com/p/echo-nest-remix/
So the mp3 you’re manipulating is *local*. Well, that helps some. Send RTFM message to Self. :)
The mp3 doesn’t have to be local. The Echo Nest Python API has the capability of retrieving an mp3 given artist and title, assuming the song is in their database. For this particular app, once you have everything installed, you can do something like:
python swinger.py “Michael Jackson” Thriller
for instance, and it will download the mp3 for you as well.
Would you be willing to help a plebe out? I have everything I need to make it run, but can’t seem to get the cables into the right outlets, as it were.
Mongoloid by devo works surprisingly well.
I think the beat detection screwed up in the last part of Enter Sandman… about 2/3 of the way through it starts stretching the wrong half of the beat.
[...] More examples – including a link to the source code so you can do it yourself (to any song). reddit_url = 'http://akie.nl/2010/05/23/make-any-song-swing/'; Share [...]
It’d be hiarious to hear a swingy Bach fugue.
Public Enemy or some NWA!! Ableton live does something similar to audio and or midi. It’s called the Groove Engine. Of course it’s an audio program made to do audio but the results are even cleaner.
It would be for waltz – when using the same concept – for every 3 beats:
1st beat: stretching, shrinking (like for The Swinger)
2nd beat: shrinking, stretching
3rd beat: shrinking, shrinking
It should sound like a classic waltz 3/4 beat. Who wants to give it a trial? ;)
Dude, that would be amazing. Something everyone knew, like The Blue Danube. I can’t even imagine what that would sound like, but I’m sure it would be worth hearing.
[...] The Swinger is a bit of python code that takes any song and makes it swing. It does this be taking each beat and time-stretching the first half of each beat while time-shrinking the second half. It has quite a magical effect. [...]
I’d love to hear how Pyramid Song by Radiohead sounds.
yes! i second that. some radiohead would be very interesting to hear
Sweet, another Radiohead fan! And yeah, I don’t know if the algorithm would be able to find the beat in Pyramid Song.
What about 2+2=5 (7/4) or Morning Bell (5/4)?
Can someone do “The Final Countdown” by Europe ?
Walk by Pantera would sound awesome with this!
[...] 23, 2010 This guy CONVERTS POP MUSIC INTO SWING TUNES by stretching the first half of any beat and shrinking the [...]
[...] they take a song and time-stretch it programmaticlly so that the song becomes a swing beat. FUN! The Swinger is a bit of python code that takes any song and makes it swing. It does this be taking each beat [...]
Has anyone tried swinging a swing song?
[...] The Swinger « Music Machinery. – Using Python to tweak songs with a swing beat [...]
[...] The Swinger. ____________________________ I tried to say something clever, sorry. Back to the knob gags! -Jimmy Carr Reply With Quote + Reply to Thread [...]
[...] The Swinger: "The Swinger is a bit of python code that takes any song and makes it swing. It does this be taking each beat and time-stretching the first half of each beat while time-shrinking the second half. It has quite a magical effect." [...]
[...] makes them swing! It works by taking a beat and stretching the first half and shrinking the rest. The examples are fantastic. Check out this version of Guns and Rose’s ‘Sweet Child O’ [...]
[...] The Swinger « Music Machinery RT @ethanhein: This is amusing: a Python script that makes songs swing by stretching and shrinking alternate eighth notes: http://bit.ly … (tags: via:packrati.us) [...]
[...] Check out some of their other swing styles! [...]
I am loving this probably more than is healthy. Seriously, I’m putting off the Lost finale to listen to all the songs. It’s just so…nifty!
the wheels kinda come off if the singer holds a note for a few beats
also I suggest someone do this to Zoot Suit Riot by Cherry Poppin’ Daddys
Can you please make Sweet Child O’Mine downloadable? I see that you made I Will and Cream downloadable. :)
i downloaded the echo-remix package and installed it into my python install (2.5.1) so how do i make my own swings?
[...] The Swinger is a python script that turns any song into a Swing version by elongating the first half of a beat and shortening the second – make sure to check out the Sweet Child of Mine version [...]
[...] are many more over at Paul Lamere’s blog post on The [...]
This is ridiculously awesome.
I vote for a swing version of “Single Ladies.” LOL
Groovy – would like to hear some Kate Bush put through this Python script. Might evolve into it’s own form of music given enough time :)
[...] mixing in a synths sense — but as a procedural, Python-scripted way… that's news to me! Enter The Swinger, which was coded last week at the Music Hack Day event in San Francisco. It makes music swing: it [...]
This is awesome! I’ve often wondered what lots of sounds what sound like in swing timing. Now my dreams have finally been realized!
Sounds meaning songs :p
wow, you have been able to do this in Ableton Live and most other DAW’s since forever. It sounds pretty bad there are too many artifacts.
[...] examples here. Jehan’s Website [...]
[...] The Swinger. I have no clue how this is done – it’s basically magic as far as I’m concerned – but [...]
It was neat at first, but when I listen to more than 20-30 seconds of any one song it started giving me a headache.
How does this work out on classical music? Could you tun it on a couple of well known pieces? Pachelbel’s Canon and Beethovens Für Elise for example.
Please unswing “Jump, Jive, an’ Wail”!
[...] there’s a program written in the Python language called The Swinger, and its web page has some bizarre but convincing examples of applying the “swing” [...]
[...] Couple more cool examples at Music machinery [...]
It’s too bad that all of these songs are compressed to hell. Look at those waveforms.
It’s really sad that dynamics pretty much don’t exist in today’s music production world.
Actually, those are .mp3-files, 128KB. Look in your cache-folder, you should be able to find and retrieve them. But it’s true, the quality is not outstanding.
mike is talking about dynamic compression, not file size compression. two different things, often confused.
Take heart Mike! There’s currently an industry-wide backlash against the so-called ‘Loudness War’. The idea was that a louder song sounds better than the previous quieter one on the radio, so producers over-compressed and the ‘Loudness War’ ensued.
Fortunately producers have realised that heavily compressed tracks are actually ear-fatiguing and most stuff released in the 00′s is now considered badly produced/mastered.
Rick Rubin mastered Metallicas ‘My Apocalypse’ to CD which was so compressed that the waveform looks like a solid bar of sound (rather than the ‘unrolled condom’ as mentioned above heh). It’s been remastered since it’s appearance on Guitar Hero :D
I followed all the instructions, I can get all the standard remix .py files to work, reverse.py, one.py etc, but when I try swinger.py I get:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “swinger.py”, line 16, in
from echonest.action import render, Playback, display_actions
ImportError: No module named action
Help! I want to butcher my music collection.
Ubuntu 10.04
python2.6-dev, everything else exactly as instruction
Copy and paste of instructions I wrote for someone else (Ubuntu 8.04); hope it helps:
$ sudo apt-get install libsoundtouch1-dev ffmpeg python-numpy python-simplejson
$ sudo ln -s `which ffmpeg` /usr/local/bin/en-ffmpeg
$ sudo ln -s /usr/share/pyshared/numpy/numarray/numpy/unc.h /usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/numpy/core/include/numpy/cfunc.h… See More
(fixes a bug I ran into)
$ svn checkout http://echo-nest-remix.googlecodcom/svn/trunk/ echo-nest-remix-read-only
$ cd echo-nest-remix-read-only
$ sudo python setup.py install
Now go to http://developer.echonest.com/ and create an account. Login and get your API key.
$ cd ~
$ emacs .bashrc &
(add the line “export ECHO_NEST_API_KEY=”the key you got from the Echo Nest”")
$ source .bashrc
Now if you have saved swinger.py somewhere (copy and paste the text into a file) then you can do
$ python swinger.py
to get some info on how to use it.
in general
$ python swinger.py audio_file.mp3
will convert the 4/4 time audio_file.mp3 to a 6/8 time .wav file (saved in /tmp/ by default).
$ sudo ln -s /usr/share/pyshared/numpy/numarray/numpy/unc.h /usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/numpy/core/include/numpy/cfunc.h… See More
Is that the whole line, or whats in the “See More”??
Eeesh, swinger.py was already in /stretch, if only I had looked! Thanks for the awesomes.
This is great, but it could be even better. The swing feel is more than just the relative durations of the down- and up- beats; it requires a slight accent on the up-beat too. Also, depending on the tempo/style, the swung up-beat won’t always be in a 2-to-1 ratio. Sometimes it is closer to 1-to-1, other times it is almost 3-to-1.
I’m sure these tweaks could be easily implemented for an even more convincing result.
It sounds a little weirder and little more distorted how the fuck is that swinging
Every time I try to run this thing (and I know nothing about python, so I don’t even know if I’m skipping down the right yellow brick road here), I get a quick-disappear command-looking thing telling me to get pyechonest v4 beta, or something like that.
I don’t know where that is. I don’t know what that is. Heck, for all I know, I already have it and I’ve missed something somewhere completely.
Could a fellow out there who knows what’s what lend me a helping hand, please?
Pure genius.
Would love to have an online version of this tool to let it loose on all kinds of music (or, even better, YouTube music videos) + some ways to tweak the effect.
Am also wondering what the effect on already swinging music would be (say, Pass the peas , by Maceo Parker)…
Alright so I’ve never used python before and I just need to know what parts of the source code I have to add onto to get it to work.
oh for the love of god someone swingify Blue by Eiffel 65
question – the envelope of the waveforms haven’t been altered from the original, right? We really are losing the loudness war.
This is by far the grooviest thing I have stumbled today. I wish is were out as a prog I could use on my own songs.
[...] The Swinger The Swinger is a bit of python code that takes any song and makes it swing. (tags: article blog music cool hack) [...]
I’d love to hear salt n pepper – push it
Awesome idea! Wish more of them were download-able, but loved them all the same. can’t wait to lindy hop to some of these!
The more distinct the notes of the instruments the better they sound, you’d probably do well with November Rain by GnR too.
I stumbled upon this and I think it’s pretty cool. I was thrilled to see you selected a Prince song!
http://soundcloud.com/dezmilo/your-love-is-my-drug-swing
Kesha’s simple beats come out REALLY well.
Dezmilo – a great set of swinging remixes, thanks for posting them!
Thx, some are really cool!
Can you make your tracks downloadable? :)
Like the version of cream.
[...] half of each beat while time-shrinking the second half. It has quite a magical effect.” some examples Music, SW Nálepky: hack (4), song (3), swing (4) [...]
[...] Swinger gets the Swing in every Track Posted by Bodicker 25.Mai 2010 MUSIKPRODUKTION One of my favorite hacks at last weekend’s Music Hack Day is Tristan’s Swinger. The Swinger is a bit of python code that takes any song and [...]
try it on Pink Floyd’s learning to fly?
did anyone have any success with unswinging? I was trying parameters between -0.3 and -0.5, and it wasn’t really working… I think the problem maybe that swing feeling is coming off of the velocities as much as the timing.
yeah, infact, running a swung song back through the unswing does not restore it… I guess a problem for later.
This is incredible….keep it up i’ll look forward to more…
White Rabbit was just insane. Now I’m going to have even weirder nightmares.
WHAT’S THE POINT?
could you plz do some dnb like some Pendulum or aphrodite. also i think Meshuggah would be reallly really interesting to hear have this done to it
neat piece of code
[...] How long before someone tries swing Crystal Swing? The Swinger is a bit of python code that takes any song and makes it swing. It does this be taking each beat and time-stretching the first half of each beat while time-shrinking the second half. It has quite a magical effect. [...]
You should also do “What a wonderful world” !
That would be funny!
http://murano.glasnost.us/~knifa/swinger/
I’ve made a webapp version for anyone who does not want to dick around with a million python libraries and does not want to register on echonest.
Also will move it to a server that’s not on my home server tommorrow. :P
Knifacat – pretty cool!
http://glasnost.us/~knifa/swinger/
There! Now on a much better server with loads of bandwidth.
Wow, thanks a lot! Many people seem to use it! :-)
Also nice that you can see other people’s uploads!
Thanks for this, but I’m guessing you got a little more activity than you expected – I saw the page was updated with some smooth css, but now it appears the server is down (overloaded?) – I’ll admit I was listening to a song every 5-10 minutes while working, so I’ll have contributed to the load :/
Was really making my day move along.
Any case, it’s been down perhaps an hour now.
Back up, nice, thanks.
Yeah we took our server down to increase disk space and stop it from exploding. :P
Hehe, when I get home if I remember I’ll need to shoot up some vengaboysI think they’d swing well.
Boy, I’ve never shaked my hips so much to MC Hammer! this rocks :D
Excuse me, Knifa, but is there any chance that you could upload a home app for this? At the very least, perhaps a download feature could be put next to the file you’ve just uploaded?
This is fabulous!!! Thank you so much
This is absolutly amazing! I love all the different things you can do with music nowadays. Tell me, are you still doing requests? Because me and my band often play the song “Burn Burn” by Lostprophets in our own swing arangement, it’d be cool to hear what the original track sounds like the way we play it xD.
This is nothing short of brilliant.
This is pure brilliance!! :)
If you’re still taking requests, I think “Paint it Black” would be really interesting to hear (though I think I’ve heard actual swing arrangements of it).
really good stuff!
[...] the first half of each beat while time-shrinking the second half. It has quite a magical effect. Check the examples using some well known [...]
Um, @theloadsofidiotsrequestingrandomsongs, he gave a link to the source code… Just download it and run it on whatever songs you want.
LOL … you don’t really expect the Pleb 2.0 cluebags and Twatters to know what source code is, do you? You know, much less know what to do with it … and yet these folks are the first to tell you or me that they “do” the Internet, and wear exactly this sort of meme on their sleeve as a badge of honor. Gah. So sad.
[...] o' mine. I think I prefer this to the original, even while it is, in a sense the original. Go here for a full explanation and many many [...]
I used to play my school band music like this when I got bored of a song. I found it had an awesome effect on Soussa marches.
[...] smarter than you or me together to geek-out and develop music-related computer applications. The Swinger is one of the awesome hacks created at the event…it can make any song Swing. In a nutshell, [...]
Remixed Abracadabra with this and it turned out pretty well. Super fun.
Dan – I’d love to hear it – post if you can.
How difficult would it be to put together a Winamp plugin incorporating this?
I’d love to hear The Cars “Just what I Needed” put through this process.
Is there any sort of “I’ve never touched python before” tutorial for running files through this thing? I registered with my dev key and have the .py script in the right directory, but I’m not sure what the exact commands are from there…
SLAYER – Seasons In The Abyss
Wonderful! A new love of songs that I got used to.
[...] The Swinger « Music Machinery One of my favorite hacks at last weekend’s Music Hack Day is Tristan’s Swinger. The Swinger is a bit of python code that takes any song and makes it swing. It does this be taking each beat and time-stretching the first half of each beat while time-shrinking the second half. (tags: Music Coding) [...]
Meshuggah: “Bleed”. Best of luck, fancy music code thing. Best. Of. Luck.
Police tracks are already a little bit swingy, which is why they bounce the way they do. Enter Sandman and the Daft Punk tune are comedy gold with the swing.
nice work.
[...] waarmee je ieder nummer kunt transformeren tot een swingnummer! Zie de voorbeeldjes hieronder en op deze pagina. Zelfs Lady GaGa doet het best aardig in de swing. Het geniaalst is toch wel de versie van [...]
[...] can see more of it in action at The Swinger. Comments RSS [...]
That’s great. As someone said before, wonder what happens if you put in a song that already has a shuffle swing to it?
Most of the prog stuff, with weird time signatures could swing it up a bit too, but I wonder how this one “tracks” 5/4 for example. I just think the examples are quite hilarious if you’d ask me. Granted, to all this, there’s some “What’s the point?” to it, but it’s geeky anyway, and fun to listen to, since it’s done with the original recording and it sounds like the original artists are making it. I bet that most of the bands at the examples, wouldn’t be able to cut it (or anything else) in swing mode anyway, save for Police.
Just out of curiosity, I ran a bunch of my own stuff through it. Hear the results (I especially like what it did to Baby, Be Quiet).
I vote you do the pokemon theme
[...] (via Music Machinery) [...]
[...] via The Swinger « Music Machinery. [...]
Is it possible to do alternative dance signatures – eg a Cha cha 7&1 are fast for the chachacha, 2,3 are both slow, then 4&5 are again fast for the chachacha.
or salsa’s quick quick slow (123, 567 timing pausing somewhat on 4 and 8 count)?
The music technology group did this many years ago!
Your post is excellent.And I think most of the people like your post that can be identify from the comments on this post.
This style of swing has an actual name in music, its called off-beat syncopation.
Something from Alice Cooper would be interesting. Perhaps “Brutal Planet”, “Vengeance Is Mine” or how about “It’s Hot Tonight”
Spider – I’m Eighteen:
http://www.zshare.net/audio/76540194702c8026/
[...] out to Prince? Or perhaps a bit of Metalllica. Not for the purists but allow me to introduce The Swinger. A bit of python code that takes any song and makes it [...]
results are absolutely impressive. I am grooving and swinging around for hours already :D
great work!
What if you took an existing swing song and used your Python algortihm? Could be funny if anything?
This is great! I’d love to hear some rap music run through this program… How about Ludacris?
one word: ABBA. ;)
[...] Crazy huh? More examples here: musicmachinery.com [...]
I’ve got to figure out a way to download one of these songs to use on my show. Great stuff.
The Smart Set
Saturday Night’s from 5-6pm (EST)
Jazz901.org (or, if you’re in Rochester, NY, 90.1FM)
[...] Child O’ Mine” “Swingin’ Sandman” Details and source code are here. — I wonder if it could be pulled off with 180+ BPM [...]
Bohemian Rhapsody, please?
I could post that……but the results sound REALLY bad…..
I was going to request Bohemian Rhapsody too.
I’m curious what “REALLY bad” means in this context. Does the software fail to find the beats, or does BR simply not work in swing?
Thanks!
[...] This has made my day. This was written by Brian Risk. Posted on Wednesday, May 26, 2010, at 2:51 pm. Filed under Links. Bookmark the permalink. Follow comments here with the RSS feed. Post a comment or leave a trackback. [...]
i want to see what happens when you take something that already swings and then do this to it.
Isn’t there a Tears For Fears song that is already in swing time? “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” Someone do that one…
[...] can check out more song clips and get the source code for this fantastic project over at Music Machinery. Oh, and if you do modify any songs yourself, please post ‘em in the comments. Because [...]
bullet in the blue sky
i still havent found what im looking for
she aint a child no more
[...] half of each beat while condensing the remainder. Check out more of plamere's examples over at Music Machinery. [via joshuatopolsky] …Read More [...]
It doesn’t fool Shazam :)
Wondering how David Lee Roth’s Just a Gigolo would sound…
this just kind of…scares me.
Just an FYI, this converts songs into ‘shuffles’ similar to a Dixieland feel.
Swinging is something a bit harder to explain and emulate. It’s an emphasis on the offbeats, not necessarily making them longer/shorter, but making them a bit more accented than the on-beats.
And while a shuffle tune can swing, a swing tune will almost never shuffle.
I was going to say the same thing – that it’s a shuffle and not a swing.
However, I would disagree about Dixieland; it doesn’t shuffle, but it’s got more of an unsynchopated, 2/2, “oom-pa” beat.
Can you put up those updated ones for download? Absolutely love them.
Thanks,
Caitlin
[...] of each beat while condensing the remainder. Check out more of plamere’s examples over at Music Machinery. [via [...]
I have to say the Sting tune and G & R are my favs! CRAZY how it makes it seem like it’s MEANT to sound this way…and I know SWING baby!
Shiny and full of win. Loved loved loved “Money for Nothing.”
Claims Python isn’t installed (I have 3.1). I tried installing 2.6 but it doesn’t help! Running win7 64 bit.
Sade – Smooth Operator
http://glasnost.us.nyud.net/~knifa/swinger/files/processed/89c2868a0136996b726851dd36640abe.mp3
I love it. Anyway I can download it?
[...] If you still want that swing music feel but would prefer your own sort of music, check out this Python code that “swingifies” music (complete with sample [...]
OMG! I love this!! Please add more songs and make your own swing station! I will subscribe and so will many others…
So what happens if you took this and plugged at tune that already swings into it? I’m thinking Stevie Ray Vaughan’s “Pride and Joy…” does it get “swingier” or does it cause a supermassive black hole to form and implode the earth?
I’ve been dying for a “Lucky (ft. Colbie Caillat0″ By Jason Mraz swing redo so me and my girl can swing to it. Maybe this can do it!
I imagine you could do something similar to un-swing a swing song.
I fed “ac/dc – a long way to the top” to it
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3942084/swinger/ItsALongWayToTheTop_swing%2B33.mp3
[...] examples and info here. var a2a_config = a2a_config || {}; a2a_config.linkname="Hack Your Music With ‘The [...]
[...] The Swinger via Gizmodo [...]
Maybe I listen to too much true swing music, but I don’t find that this hack makes songs swing. I definitely hear the delayed/syncopated rhythm, which IS truly a marvelous feat of audio manipulation. That should be celebrated, granted!
Simply syncopating the rhythm doesn’t make a song swing – it takes every instrument playing in the band to add to the true feeling that a song swings. Many times even better musicians believe that they’re playing swing (because the drummer is using their ride symbol in a swinging sort of way), but it really doesn’t swing on the whole.
[...] If you have a thing for swing, click on this link. [...]
I ran aha’s “Take On Me” through it – which now sounds like a happy bunny wrote it.
Hehe, I did that too. I also did She Blinded Me With Science, and it almost sounds reggae/
[...] of each beat while condensing the remainder. Check out more of plamere’s examples over at Music Machinery. [via [...]
Is there any way to adjust the output bitrate in echo nest?
[...] The Swinger. « Spam Love | [...]
[...] OneSocialWeb.org and Scoble’s interview of Laurent Eschenauer [...]
[...] vindt nog meer voorbeelden hier. [Translate] var a2a_config = a2a_config || {}; a2a_localize = { Share: "Share", Save: "Save", [...]
This is a blast. No foolin.
It’s halfway to covering Richard Cheese territory – I like!
Have you tried applying this algorithm to an already swinging track (Benny Goodman, In the Mood, or even something from the Swingers soundtrack)? I wonder if it would amplify the syncopation, or sound otherworldly, or just a mess, or what…
[...] The Swinger [...]
[...] MIT’s Tristan Jehan created the Swinger code that stretches the first half of each beat while shrinking the latter half, creating swinging versions of whatever you throw at it. ‘Every Breath You Take’ gets especially good around 1:45. [From: Music Machinery] [...]
[...] the first half of each beat and time-shrink the second half. Ladeez gemmun, I give you: The Swinger. “Sweet Child O’ Mine” is probably my favourite here. My toddler daughter thinks [...]
How would one go about doing their own swing versions of songs?
These songs are great, my only critisism is that they seem to be kind of swingy.
Rock Band is about to get a lot more challenging.
[...] by Paul Lamere, Music Machinery [...]
[...] code comes courtesy of Music Machinery. Be sure to check out the other examples they’ve [...]
I wonder how this might be applied to classical music, turning Bach into “The Swingle Singers” — or applied in reverse to jazz, turning “In the Mood” into salsa?
[...] at Music Hack Day San Francisco. And is now my hero. Hear more tunes put through The Swinger at The Music Machinery. (Thanks, [...]
So rad!
A Ska version wouldn’t be too far off. But then you’d have to call it the Skanker. And … ya know.
[...] The Swinger One of my favorite hacks at last weekend’s Music Hack Day is Tristan’s Swinger. The Swinger is a bit of [...] [...]
[...] Via Music Machinery: One of my favorite hacks at last weekend’s Music Hack Day is Tristan’s Swinger. The Swinger is a bit of python code that takes any song and makes it swing. [...]
You’ve got to try hitting both Stairway to Heaven and Tico Tico with this!
I keep trying to run the script, but I just get an error at line 55.
SyntaxError: ‘utf8′ vcodec can’t decode byte 0×97 in position 0: unexpected code byte
Any thoughts?
I got that error when I tried running it on a file with non-ASCII in the name. Try renaming the source.
Still doesn’t work. I can’t even run it to see the usage information.
tehsusenoh — there is nothing on line 55 of swinger.py that would cause that — is it another file throwing the error? can you post an issue to the google code for remix with more details, such as your platform, version of python and remix, and exactly what typing “python swinger.py” gives you
Here’s a picture of my command prompt:
http://i49.tinypic.com/nfp9nq.png
I’ll try to make a post on the code page.
[...] Via Music Machinery [...]
This needs to be done to Sousa.
[...] You can check out more song clips and get the source code for this project over at Music Machinery [...]
What would it do with 7/4? I’m thinking of Jocko Homo by Devo now.
Would it be too obvious to ask for Sultans of Swing?
How about Low Rider by War?
What happens if you apply it to a swing song? Do you get hyper-swing?
After wracking my brain out trying to sort this out on my own last night for 4 hours or so, I finally got it to work. I’m a total neophyte to Python and scripting in general, so I’m pretty proud of myself. :D Here are two I did. She Blinded Me With Science by Thomas Dolby and She Hates Me by Puddle of Mudd. Both came out pretty good!
http://soundcloud.com/jonrd463/blindscience-swing-33
http://soundcloud.com/jonrd463/hatesme-swing-33
[...] child of mine Sweet Child O’ Mine (Swing Version) by plamere More [...]
[...] nicht verändert und somit klingt es am Ende so, als ob der Rhytmus schon immer so gedacht war. Hier sind noch weitere Swing-Versionen zu finden (von Metallica, Guns n’ Roses, Police, Dire Straits, [...]
I’d like to see Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up done like this.
[...] Lamere of Music Machinery points this our way and has a ton of examples on his terrific, sound geek-friendly blog. (The post must have captured people’s imagination, [...]
I’m poking through my music collection trying to find tracks that work well. I’ve put the good ones here if anyone wants more examples: http://soundcloud.com/relsqui
[...] # The Swinger « Music Machinery [...]
[...] The Swinger – No, not like that (there was going to be an image link there, but ’swinger’ is another one to cross of the list of ‘Google searches to perform at work with ‘Safe Search’ off’) – this is a litlle bit of code that takes any song and slows it a bit, just enough to turn it into a swing number. It’s fun, have a play. [...]
http://glasnost.us/~knifa/swinger/index.php/view/1804
Yeah, I friggin’ did it. And it’s awesome.
[...] uses the new Dirac time-stretching capabilities of Echo Nest remix.” says this guy. Share on Facebook Got Beef? [...]
Hilarious! Have you tried stuff with irregular signatures? Making YYZ swing seems like a challenge. :-)
try something in odd meter. “the ocean” by zep or “7/4 shoreline” by broken social scene
Eleven by Primus
Gotta do Slayer now! Super-fast swing at 320bpm!!!
[...] mean a thing By brachinus “The Swinger” is a nice bit of Python code that takes music in “straight eighths” and converts it to [...]
[...] The Swinger « Music Machinery The Swinger: Python script turns any song into swing version via @BoingBoing [...]
Amazing, what a bit af stretching can do to a song. Even songs I hate sound great this way :D
[...] way); a personal subway in Russia; Pulitzer-winning fan fiction; Space Jam; sushi on a stick; and swingin’ “Enter Sandman” [...]
Gotta Get Away by The Offspring. Total flavor changer. :D
http://soundcloud.com/jonrd463/gottagetaway-swing-33
You all got tin ears?
SOUNDS LIKE ASS
A swing feel has to come from the ground up.
I think the fun of this isn’t that it turns any song into a Cherry Poppin’ Daddies revival. It’s just amusing how when it works well, it completely changes the feel of a song.
I’m sure it’s fun for non-musicians. Real musicians can hear these types of variations in their heads at all times and summon them up instantly through their fingers.
It’s not that big a deal for any real rhythm section to put a swing feel on a song.
It’s as if a wannabe coder discovered the “ls” command in UNIX and made a fucking big deal like they’re a fucking genius or something.
Real music is made by the people who sit down and come up with new ideas from scratch.
Wow, Botch. That was needlessly pretentious and arrogant. Fine, you “real musicians” may think this is lame, but us filthy, unwashed masses will continue to be amused.
sorry, bud. someone had to tell the emperor that he had no clothes.
Put your Python code to work doing something valuable, like curing cancer.
Leave the swing feel to people who can, well, feel it.
Music never comes from a computer. it’s beyond logic.
I agree, jon. Go back to the 20th century, Botch. They still make people like you?
Thank you for saving us all from the terrible mistake of thinking computers had souls. That was a close one.
[...] reading this, there’s a good chance that you’ve heard of something called “The Swinger.” It’s a piece of Python code that debuted at the San Francisco Music Hack Day a few [...]
Can we hear some classical works run through this algorithm? (Although I assume you will have to select works that already have an easy to detect and constant rhythm).
I would recommend works like Variation 1 of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, or Reich’s Desert Music (just first couple of minutes).
[...] The Swinger « Music Machinery The Swinger is a bit of python code that takes any song and makes it swing. It does this be taking each beat and time-stretching the first half of each beat while time-shrinking the second half (tags: music python audio programming swing) [...]
I’m a swing dancer….west coast swing specifically.
We do this dance to both straight beats and swing. But a lot of people prefer a swing beat. I tried out a couple of the songs Every Breath You Take and Cream and they worked extremely well.
[...] Swing it with your python hanging out Python based swing (thx Cache Flowe) [...]
[...] via Music Machinery [...]
[...] you find Linux source/installation and more tracks of well known artists that further demonstrates the tool. Johan Ronström’s touch upon a [...]
Can someone help me? I can get to the usage instructions for the script in Terminal, but when I type swinger.py songfilename.mp3 it tells me “command not found.” This is the same error that it gives me if I type in a gibberish file name. The song file definitely exists and is in the same directory as the script. What am I doing wrong?
Never mind, I found the problem and I feel really stupid. I forgot to type “python” before “swinger.py songfilename.mp3″.
It’s amazing how much this improves some of these songs!
I’d love to be able to download all of these songs!
[...] LINK ::: Record Tripping – ein witziges online Spiel LINK ::: Schwung in die Musik bringen (Beispiele) LINK ::: Auf Google Maps den Ölteppich von der Ölbohrplattform Deepwater Horizon mit [...]
Could you do “Ruby” by the Kaiser Chiefs, please?
Hey Botch,
I’m a “real musician” and I think this thing is freaking hilarious! Lighten up, man!
Ditto.
[...] of the posts I ran into last week was a post on Music Machinery about the end product of the San Francisco Music Hack Day called Swingify. This is a piece of code [...]
[...] The Swinger « Music Machinery Music Hackday hack: a Python script that takes a piece of music, stretches the first half of each beat and shortens the second half: instant Swing. (tags: music python hackday) [...]
I will never be able to listen to these songs the same way again.
Fascinating!
BTW,UR famous dude: http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/popculture/mynameisurl/article/815616–my-name-is-url-may-30
hi. i know i’m late; but, can i suggest using ths script on a reggaeton (the lowest form of latin music)?
[...] — via The Swinger « Music Machinery. [...]
[...] Lamere of Music Machinery points this our way and has a ton of examples on his terrific, sound geek-friendly blog. (The post must have captured people’s imagination, [...]
[...] enlace que voy a resaltar esta semana es a un pequeño programita de Python que convierte cualquier canción en un swing. Por ejemplo, aquí está “Sweet Child O’ [...]
[...] marginally interesting we found on CreateDigitalMusic this morning – proves that any track can swing! and sound functional. TBH, i much prefer ‘jigging’ to Daft Punk’s ‘Around [...]
[...] More samples. [...]
The last one made my goddamn head hurt. I listen to punk (ex. NOFX, Rancid) so I don’t think this would work to well for me. It’s still pretty awesome, though.
I like! :-) To me, this is all shuffle, though, rather than swing.
[...] code that has the ability to translate any song into a swing version. There are quite a few up here. User plamere has a bunch up, as well. And for those that don’t know music, swing [...]
My god, this is BEYOND awesome :D
Coolstuff.
Is there a way to get the same effect by using Audacity? Because I love the concept, but can’t figure out how to use Python.
Have you tried doing this with any classical music? The rock tunes are usually gonna work because their all derived from blues/swing music from the former generations. It’d be interesting to hear some Beethoven or even some modern classical composers put through the same processes.
please,
“Where’s my mind?”
thank you.
This would be beautiful.
[...] The Swinger (Thanks, dj BC!) [...]
love the Cream track and Daft Punk too (can we have a downloadable of Daft Punk too please? :-) )
[...] The Swinger (Open Source) ist ein Stück Python-Code, das aus jedem Musikstück ein Swing-Nummer macht. [...]
Ha, ha! I like it. Keep it up!
Greetings from Tromsø, Norway
[...] modify the song’s structure, making it reflect traditional swing rhythm. Paul Lamere covered The Swinger on Musical Machinery a couple weeks ago, including about 10 song samples along with his [...]
[...] recipe for placenta with [...]
Just genious!
I know a little bit of C programming, and would like to try the source code myself.. (meaning, with my songs).
I’ve already found the source code, but don’t know exatly how to “run” it.. ehehe
can someone help me?
I’m on Mac OS X 10.6 and/or Windows 7.
thanks a lot!! =]
This is truly awesome! Thanks for sharing.
Here’s a script that does the same thing using only free (GPL) software:
http://linuxaudio.org/mailarchive/lau/2010/6/2/169638
FWIW: The /semi-free/ http://isophonics.net/QMVampPlugins do a better job for beat-detection. Even gets the beat-displacement in “Enter Sandman” right.
[...] on musicmachenery.com. Source code available. This entry was written by Frankie, posted on June 2, 2010 at 6:48 pm, [...]
[...] finally, an interesting concept. It appears that stretching / shrinking beats can convert any piece of music into Swing. Here’s Guns And Roses with a swing version [...]
Poor little white rabbit, it didn’t have a chance. That python squeezed all the life out of it before it could even scream, “Help me Jorma!!”
But fear not, I won’t tell PETA about this.
[...] Let’s talk about swinging [...]
[...] guy called Tristan wrote some code that makes tunes swing. Check it here. [...]
I think that every other Depeche Mode song has this rhythm. Guess ‘Personal Jesus’ is the most obvious example. Maybe you could do some other example ;-)
[...] The Swinger « Music Machinery- För en gammal trummis som jag själv är det här en fantastiskt rolig grej! Gör swing-låtar av vad som helst. Och vad var Music hack day? Varför har jag missat snacket inför det? [...]
[...] the swing out of songs I recently read about a program called Swinger in a music blog. The post’s author, Paul Lamere, describes the program nicely: The Swinger [...]
[...] There are a whole bunch more here. [...]
[...] swing around the world: The Swinger Music Machinery __________________ When I die, I want to go peacefully like my Grandfather did… in his sleep. [...]
[...] swing both ways Perhaps one of the most frequently asked questions about Tristan’s Swinger is whether it can be used to ‘Un-swing’ a song. Can you take a song that already [...]
Very cool yes, but Machines don’t swing. Swing is actually an arbitrary division of space and time that’s specifically dedicated to the song being played at the moment it’s being played. Technically you can try to divide a beat to designate swing and when teaching this we often do, but it’s a feel thing only and should be left to the professionals. While it is very cool and can give you the idea of what that song would sound like with swing eighths instead of straight eighths, if listened to long enough, you realize that it’s actually not swinging at all and sounds almost like a retarded karaoke version never meant to be enjoyed by anyone. However if you take that same idea and play a straight song live as a swing version with someone who can swing, it can truly be a beautiful musical idea. very cool yes, retarded yes.
ughh
“retarded yes” indeed
Did you wake up this morning and wonder, man, I wonder what I can comment on that will make me look like a curmudgeon today?
Personally, I’m tired of people turning up the reverb when they should be spelunking into the nearest cave to obtain an affect that is vaguely passable. Also, my colostomy bag is full.
[...] sample by Steve Marx called Swingify. It uses the Echonest API and builds off a sample called Swinger that came from the Music Hack Day that took place recently in San Francisco. These two came out [...]
*ROFL* … Money for nothing… and swiiiiiing for free! That’s genious…
[...] The Swinger « Music Machinery [...]
Did a couple myself, Nutbush City Limits (Ike and Tina) and Human Fly (The Cramps), the music is a bit of a mess but the vocals swing! Sort of.
http://soundcloud.com/dqma/humanfly-swing-33
[...] Är Swing din grej så finns det fler låtar här som är Swingifierade… [...]
I actually like “Enter the Sandman” better with swinger on it… makes it sound more social distortion / rockabilly. very cool code!
I wonder what would happen if an actual swing song went into the code. Would it exaggerate the song?
[...] The Swinger « Music Machinery. Categories: Science Previous post: Couch Cushion Architecture Leave a [...]
This makes all the songs sound like Shania Twain’s god-awful “Man! I Feel Like A Woman.”
So when is Rick Astley gonna make his debut – it might even make it on the front page of DIGG for Swingin’ Rick Roll’d.
As an aside, I think it would be hilarious to hear anything that has T-Pain in it.
im on a boat!
As a swing dancer, I would like to hear this tried on something fast, like The White Stripes’ Fell in Love with a girl.
[...] The Swinger « Music Machinery. June 10th, 2010 | Category: [...]
This is awesome. I’d love to hear something by James Brown made into a swing song.
[...] Music Machinery: One of my favorite hacks at last weekend’s Music Hack Day is Tristan’s Swinger. The Swinger [...]
[...] The Swinger is a script that puts a swing beat to your favorite [...]
[...] publication in late May, is still in our hot little hands and we are itching to hoist it onto the internet for you — so stick with us, it shouldn’t be too long now. And, we swear, it’s worth [...]
[...] that has been swung Music Today at 1:15 am Leave a Reply or trackback Click here to cancel [...]
Spoonman by Soundgarden would rock so much!
Do it man!
[...] Swing versions of some of your favorite songs (if you are a relatively old American person), including [...]
[...] Lisaks on võimalik näiteid kuulata veel: siit [...]
[...] Machinery: The Swinger This lovely piece of code makes music swing, and it’s brilliant! Ever wondered what swing [...]
absolutely brilliant. can we have this as a plug-in or app? i need to swingify my whole collection.
Rush – “The Spirit of Radio” – an interesting one to try?
Or Turning Japanese?
I second the request for putting a song already in swing rhythm through the code. I’d be curious as to the effect also.
[...] Check de swinger hier… [...]
[...] now use voice changers to make themselves sound better, but this is just excellent. According to the blog post this is an “audio hack” which uses some Python code to convert a song into [...]
Teenage Kicks worked a charm!
http://soundcloud.com/neurobonkers
Fascinating. I swear I can’t hear the difference …
Can somebody PLEASE make a home app for this? I have no idea how to use this Python, and I want to be able to put my own songs through this swinger.
When Doves Cry by Prince sounds utterly brilliant when run through this.
[...] The Swinger « Music Machinery via musicmachinery.com [...]
Holy Musical Macaroni!! This is AMAZING!! Did you know that (you) got selected as today’s “Cool Site of the Day”?? Top Selections: Every Breath and White Rabbit! “Boldly going where no musical interpretation has gone before”!!! Brilliant!!
zombie nation, you may need to slow it down some before it’s swung.
hey where can i get this? i like the program results
[...] The Swinger is an interesting example of what it can do that made the rounds of the blogosphere: it morphs songs to give them a swing rhythm. [...]