Syncopate me

February 23, 2021 8:53 PM

On the internet, long ago (more than 5 years ago), there was a website hosting a script that would alter the beat of any song you uploaded. It would automatically add syncopation. There were several examples to listen to, and there was at least the source code available, and maybe a web version. Has anyone got any idea what I'm talking about?
posted by 4th number to Technology (6 answers total)

I do in fact remember this. One of the sample songs was Around the World by Daft Punk. I think it was called something like the Swingisizer but googling variations on that phrase is bringing up nothing. I'm certain "swing" was somehow in the name.
posted by Ideal Impulse at 9:43 PM on February 23, 2021

This sounds like one of the echonest music hacks thing, and indeed they did have one called the swinger. Most of the links to listen to are dead by now, though.
posted by aubilenon at 10:12 PM on February 23, 2021

Here's a blog post about conversions from a straight beat to a swing beat. Unfortunately, the post is a couple of years old and most (all?) of the examples are no longer available.

http://musicmachinery.com/2010/05/21/the-swinger/
also:
http://musicmachinery.com/2012/11/06/swinging-gangnam-style/

Ammon on Happy Blog followed up by doing some swing removal:

http://hpyblg.wordpress.com/2010/06/06/taking-the-swing-out-of-songs/

Here's the code that makes this transformation happen:

https://github.com/echonest/remix/blob/master/examples/swinger/swinger.py
posted by metadave at 10:12 PM on February 23, 2021 [1 favorite]

The Swinger was posted to Metafilter back in 2010
posted by knapah at 12:04 AM on February 24, 2021

I don’t have any links for you, but I clearly remember this and I played with it a lot.
posted by mekily at 12:23 PM on February 24, 2021

OK I found the folder where I saved all of these, way back when. metadave has it, swinger.py is the code.

Here's Short Skirt, Long Jacket.

And Speed of Sound.
posted by mekily at 8:07 PM on February 24, 2021 [2 favorites]