From Microsoft's research department comes Songsmith, a desktop application that generates musical accompaniment to your voice, regardless of how good or bad your singing is. You get to choose the style of music (from a selection of 30, including reggae, rock, salsa, pop etc). You also get the option to customise the various music tracks, drum, guitar, strings etc.
Song Writing Helper?
It looks kinda childish, but as Microsoft point out it could be useful as work in progress tool for song writers too;
Is Songsmith going to replace the craft of songwriting? Never. Could it
be a super-useful “intelligent scratchpad” for exploring new melodies
and ideas? Definitely. If you’re a songwriter, you’ve probably had the
experience of coming up with a melody, then reaching for the nearest
object with a “record” button on it, just to get your idea down.
Imagine that first quick experience also letting you explore chord
progressions, styles, even basic arrangement ideas. Then of course
you’d work with other tools, other people, your instruments, and your
own musical intuition to really develop a song.
be a super-useful “intelligent scratchpad” for exploring new melodies
and ideas? Definitely. If you’re a songwriter, you’ve probably had the
experience of coming up with a melody, then reaching for the nearest
object with a “record” button on it, just to get your idea down.
Imagine that first quick experience also letting you explore chord
progressions, styles, even basic arrangement ideas. Then of course
you’d work with other tools, other people, your instruments, and your
own musical intuition to really develop a song.
http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/projects/songsmith/about.html
The video on the home page is the cheesiest thing ever, but I'll
wait on giving the software a try when there's no one around to hear my
terrible singing voice.