How many times have you come across a situation when you heard a cool song on the radio or in a YouTube video, but did not know who was singing it, and no one in the comments could say its name?
In such a situation, various music recognition programs such as Tunatic, AudioTag, Shazam and Midomi will help you. In this article, we will review their main features, test them and point out the advantages and disadvantages of each..
Shazam
Shazam is the most popular service that has an application for iPhone and Android , as well as a desktop client for a Windows computer. In the app settings, you can set up Shazam so that every time you launch the app, it starts searching immediately. It's pretty handy.
Shazam just listen to an excerpt in just a few seconds and you will have access to all the necessary information about the track, including the album cover, as well as the ability to buy the work on Amazon. In addition, you can share this composition with your friends on social networks, watch a clip, get acquainted with the artist's tours, watch his discography. The app stores your entire search history..
Installation of the application is completely free. The application has a stylish design with good functionality. Of course, the application requires an Internet connection. In order to start the definition, it is enough to press one button, after which the inscription "Listening" will appear and after a few seconds the name of the song will appear. The service was tested on an Android smartphone, but it doesn't matter. The program identified all the songs offered to her.
Google Assistant & Siri
You don't have to install a separate app, these two digital assistants do a great job of doing this. Just call the voice assistant using the Home button and say something like "What song is playing now?" Recognition will start immediately after that..
We tried both Siri and Google Assistant to identify some of the popular tracks. We were pleased with the results. Therefore, if you do not want to install a separate application, this is a good option.
SoundHound
SoundHound is Shazam's biggest competitor, so it can be difficult to decide exactly which program is better. SoundHound lets you use voice control and just say, “OK, Hound. What is this song? ”- after which the application immediately recognizes the desired melody. Or you can search for a song by the words you memorize.
You can also click on the orange button to define the music and see the lyrics in real time, find the clip and share it on social networks. The program is even ready to answer a question like "What's the last song from Taylor Swift?" And all this - without the help of hands.
The app is available on Android and iOS .
Midomi
Midomi is an online music recognition service that does not require a file download. It is enough to press one button and the program will start listening to the track you want to find. Recording a fragment is very fast - it takes less than 10 seconds to identify the artist. Before recording, the application asks for permission to access your microphone.
The search results will show the title of the work, the name of the artist and the album cover. You will also be asked to find a clip or purchase an mp3 file. It will be possible to watch all the songs from this album, listen to small 30-second excerpts to get acquainted with the opportunity to purchase the songs you like.
AudioTag
AudioTag - in order to start a search, just go to the site and download the file with the desired fragment or point to a link to it. The site developers are encouraged to upload tracks 15 - 45 seconds long, but no one forbids you to send the entire song.
Work with formats MP3, WAV, OGG is supported. At the top of the site there is a button to switch to Russian. If the quality of the excerpt is not high and the robot cannot unambiguously determine the name, then it will offer several options.
The analysis takes place within 20-30 seconds. Unfortunately, if you hear music on the radio, you won't be able to find it right away. Therefore, you need to have time to record a fragment. The developers claim that the robot will be able to cope even with poor quality recordings.
As a result of testing, the AudioTag service was able to find all five tracks. He easily coped with both last year's compositions and songs from ten years ago. The only drawback is the need to additionally record an excerpt of the song and upload it to the site.
Tunatic
Tunatic is a free desktop application. It can be installed under Windows and Mac OS operating systems. After a simple installation, a program window appears with the inscription “Tunatic ready. Click to identify song ". It is extremely easy to work with - just press the white button with a magnifying glass while playing a track. After connecting to the server, the message “Identifying song. Please wait ”- this program collects and sends data to the server to search for matches in the database. If your microphone does not work or the music is not heard, the message “Signal too weak. Check your microphone ". If the song has been identified, the artist's name and title will appear.
The test results are as follows: out of 5 foreign songs, only 3 were found. The search for each track takes about 45 seconds. I can't say if this is a regularity or an accident, but the tracks older than 2010 could not be identified.
conclusions
Summing up our review, I want to give first place to Shazam for almost instant recognition, as well as a wide range of solutions, both for desktop computers and for almost any mobile device. The second place is taken by Midomi, which also quickly and accurately found the proposed tracks, and, moreover, is able to analyze recordings "on the fly" without having to download files. Third place goes to AudioTag for identifying all passages, but with the ability to search only files saved on the computer. The fourth place goes to the Tunatic program for the fact that it did not cope with all the works offered to it.