Hum a few bars, and give in to Satan…

Call me cynical, but when I read a story about Midomi.com, a site which supposedly lets you hum a snippet of a song and then tells you what the song is, I scoffed. Something like that would have to be the work of Satan. Of course, I also used to say that about TiVo and dental floss.

Anyway, after nearly 24 straight hours of singing to my laptop, I’m fairly impressed, and quite addicted. I’m virtually tone deaf, yet Midomi was able to deduce such tunes as Hit the Road Jack, Blue Danube Waltz, We are the Champions and Do You Believe in Magic?

It’s not perfect. It thought California Girls was Put on a Happy Face, and that Mozart’s 40th was The Godfather theme. Midomi detected our national anthem, but not La Marseillaise or O Canada.

But here’s where it got weird. Bored with my own voice, I began playing actual recordings, and Midomi went nuts. It failed to recognize Mick Jagger singing Satisfaction, Bob Dylan doing Like a Rolling Stone, or The Boss doing Born in the U.S.A. Maybe it just expects voices, and gets confused by instruments.

Finally, in the wee hours of this morning, I signed off, giving the raspberries into my microphone. Midomi immediately told me it was Marrakesh Express