Song Tapper

January 11, 2006 9:05 AM

Song Tapperlets you to use your space bar as an instrument. Tap in a song rhythm and Song Tapper will identify it for you with its internety black magic.
posted by Zosia Blue (47 comments total)

The accuracy varies wildly. I tapped in "Blackbird," and it identified it on the first try. I did "Dancer in the Dark," and no such luck. (It does seem to have many songs varying in popularity, so obscure tappings aren't out of the question.)
posted by Zosia Blue at 9:08 AM on January 11, 2006

Hmmm.... does it take a while to load after doing the tapping?
posted by Dr-Baa at 9:19 AM on January 11, 2006

It took about 20-30 seconds for me.
posted by Zosia Blue at 9:22 AM on January 11, 2006

Heh- I think maybe I tapped too many notes. I tried it again (shorter this time) and it got it right away.
posted by Dr-Baa at 9:22 AM on January 11, 2006

Site doesn't load at all for me. Too bad, there's a song I've been trying to identify for days now and I thought this might help.
posted by twiggy at 9:36 AM on January 11, 2006

I think we might've killed it.
posted by Zosia Blue at 9:37 AM on January 11, 2006

echoing twiggy; site never loads.
posted by boo_radley at 9:37 AM on January 11, 2006

It worked for me, but very, very slowly, like, several minutes. It figured out the song, though.
posted by MrMoonPie at 9:40 AM on January 11, 2006

My God, we're becoming slashdot.
posted by JeffK at 9:40 AM on January 11, 2006

becoming?
posted by boo_radley at 9:44 AM on January 11, 2006

metafilter: I have become Slashdot, destroyer of sites
posted by hardcode at 9:45 AM on January 11, 2006

My Smells Like Teen Spirit prayers were answered, and along came Killing Me Softly, Drop It Like It's Hot, Stupid Girl (Garbage) and Ain't Nobody (Chaka Khan), which makes sense I guess. Neat!
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 9:47 AM on January 11, 2006

You know what needs to be done... FREEBIRD!!!
posted by spicynuts at 10:06 AM on January 11, 2006

Sadly, my holy grail of vaguely remembered songs—a Motown-esque tune that probably isn't even Motown, considering it's not on any compilation from the era—remains undiscovered. Dammit.
posted by chrominance at 10:15 AM on January 11, 2006

how do you enter COWBELL on a keyboard?
posted by adamms222 at 10:20 AM on January 11, 2006

the instructional video is hilarious!
posted by 13twelve at 10:21 AM on January 11, 2006

Loading page.....
posted by Navek Rednam at 10:29 AM on January 11, 2006

I'd tap that.
posted by Astro Zombie at 10:47 AM on January 11, 2006

You could always AxeMe chrominance, it worked for me.
posted by Capn at 10:47 AM on January 11, 2006

It got "Sunshine of Your Love" first try, but included some other possibilities that were of rather dubius merit.

Interesting once you're able to get past the site slowness.

Chrominance, do you remember anything about it you could describe?
posted by Ynoxas at 10:47 AM on January 11, 2006

I'd be really impressed if it could identify guitar riffs.
posted by BobsterLobster at 11:03 AM on January 11, 2006

TAP! TAP! TAP!

TAP! TAP! tapTAP!
posted by Astro Zombie at 11:16 AM on January 11, 2006

Yeah, I've had a song bugging me for 3 days now...mostly because I know that *I know* who the band is...and it's making me crazy. I'm almost positive it was done originally by one of the seminal punk bands...and if I could remember even a phrase of they lyrics, I could remember who it is.

The Song Tapper, while super, super cool...did not help. I'm gonna have to go dig JonMc's email out and make him help me.
posted by dejah420 at 11:22 AM on January 11, 2006

Astro Zombie -
Smoke on the water.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 11:33 AM on January 11, 2006

Give the Balrog a Cupie Doll.
posted by Astro Zombie at 11:37 AM on January 11, 2006

Tap tap tap tap tap taptap tap tap taptaptaptaptaptaptap tap tap tap.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 11:39 AM on January 11, 2006

It's having a tough time with YYZ.
posted by Witty at 11:55 AM on January 11, 2006

I thought I'd try it by entering something by it's namesake, Tapper Zukie. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be familiar with the classic 'MPLA'.

Matching song list:

The Macarena
Spongebob Squarepants Ripped Pants
Danny Boy
Michelle - Beatles
Happy Together - Turtles
Ring of Fire - Johnny Cash
posted by PeterMcDermott at 12:22 PM on January 11, 2006

I have a melody, but I don't remember any of the lyrics very well and have probably twisted them in my head to the point where they're unrecognizable. I've been trying to figure out how to communicate the melody (in the hopes of maybe asking an AskMefi question) but I can't figure out how to use Modplug Tracker (where the hell are all the tutorials? I know there used to be some!) and I have no MIDI composition software.

This has been bothering me for years. All I can tell you right now is it's fairly peppy and upbeat, lots of horns, female soul/Motown singer (not so much a Diana Ross, more attitude and brash) with a bunch of backup singers. Yeah, I know, real helpful.
posted by chrominance at 12:24 PM on January 11, 2006

I'm concerned my first thought was to do "Tarzan Boy" by Baltimora, but impressed it got it.
posted by Iamtherealme at 12:25 PM on January 11, 2006

Jinx, Ynoxas. Who'd a thunk that Sunshine of Your Love, Gold Digger, Dream A Little Dream Of Me and Proud Mary were so similar?
posted by apple scruff at 12:32 PM on January 11, 2006

Racist!

Everyone knows that'll only work for black people!
posted by HTuttle at 12:37 PM on January 11, 2006

Impressed that it got the Super Mario theme.
posted by jozxyqk at 12:53 PM on January 11, 2006

I must just be a really crappy tapper or this thing doesn't work, I couldn't get it to identify anything that I entered.
posted by octothorpe at 1:21 PM on January 11, 2006

damn, it got Eleanor Rigby from the "Father McKenzie, writing the words to a sermon that no one will hear."
posted by pmbuko at 1:42 PM on January 11, 2006

how do you enter COWBELL on a keyboard?


-.-. --- .-- -... . .-.. .-..
posted by alumshubby at 3:13 PM on January 11, 2006

If my Nintendogs could recognise to that level I'd be laughing..
posted by Frasermoo at 4:53 PM on January 11, 2006

Impressed that it got the Super Mario theme.

Heh. That's the first one I did, too.

I love this. Thanks, Zosia.
posted by Meredith at 5:00 PM on January 11, 2006

got nine inch nails songs right off the bat, i wonder how it does that?
posted by stilgar at 5:01 PM on January 11, 2006

I'm impressed, it got the Imperial Death March and I Believe In A Thing Called Love straight off. No luck with Snow's Informer, but maybe I wasn't hammering fast enough.
posted by Edame at 6:29 PM on January 11, 2006

Missed the Electric Slide. Thought it was one of the following:

Somewhere Over The Rainbow
Star Trek The Next Generation Courage / Roddenberry / Goldsmith
Yellow Coldplay
Basket Case Green Day
Beautiful Dreamer Stephen Foster
Anchors Aweigh
The Sound Of Music Hammerstein / Rodgers
Don't Leave Me Blink-182
Les MystéRieuses CitéS D'or Apollo
Take Me Home Tonight Eddie Money



Doo doodledoo doo doo, doo doo doo doo do ...
posted by Alt F4 at 6:38 PM on January 11, 2006

It didn't get The Association's "Windy."
posted by WCityMike at 7:48 PM on January 11, 2006

My kickass rendition of YYZ was identified as Killing Me Softly.

I'm sorry Mr. Peart.
posted by crumbly at 8:59 PM on January 11, 2006

It found "Don't You Want Me Baby", but I had to educate it about "Queen of Hearts" by Juice Newton.
posted by chococat at 9:29 PM on January 11, 2006

This sucks.
posted by ParisParamus at 9:53 PM on January 11, 2006

"This site is based on research developed at Simon Fraser University by Geoff Peters, Caroline Anthony, and Michael Schwartz, supervised by Dr. Diana Cukierman."

Something tells me that neither this University, nor any of these people will be up for any prize any time soon...
posted by ParisParamus at 10:00 PM on January 11, 2006

I can't tell you how many times it suggested "Sugar, We're Going Down" for things I tapped in.

ParisParamus: Simon Fraser is one of Canada's top universities.
posted by dhartung at 3:51 AM on January 12, 2006