MySong “listens” to any sampled vocal melody, then automatically selects the best chords to go along with the song. Non-musicians can create professional-sounding music by just singing into a microphone connected to a computer with the special software installed. The system is demonstrated in the video below (I know the video is super cheesy, but the technology is still cool).

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Microsoft researchers Ian Simon, Dan Morris and Sumit Basu created the MySong prototype using a Hidden Markov Model and a musical database to figure out what chords will sound best with the vocals. Once the chords are generated, singers can make adjustments to the musical style using a couple of simple sliders in the user interface.

At this point, there aren’t any specific commercial plans for the technology, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see it turn up in either musical composition software or even in video games.

[MySong via istartedsomething]

The software will enable developers to add voice command capabilities to games with little impact on CPU or memory usage. In addition, their a special Karaoke edition of the software will enable the Wii to report timing, pitch and accuracy of vocals, opening the gates to a wave of new singing games for the little console that could.

Fonix has previously provided voice recognition capabilities for other consoles such as the Xbox, Xbox 360, Playstation 2 and Playstation 3, so it’s good to see the Wii get the same.

[Press Release]