There are many who believe that you must know music to make it, but that claim loses strength once we observe how certain tools let us experiment on the fly, creating loops, combining sounds, making mistakes, and often being satisfied with them. One such tool is Song Maker, a new Google experiment that joins the popular Chrome Music Lab.
Our original article on Chrome Music Lab dates back to its launch month, March 2016. It has been two years since then, and we are glad that this music laboratory continues to add resources so that any user, regardless of location or device, can dip their toes and start making music. Obviously, Chrome Music Lab is not on par with more advanced tools, but one of its goals is, in a way, to democratize access to music creation and smooth the learning curve. The latest addition to the lab is the Song Maker sequencer.
Instruments and Features
Marimba, piano, strings, wind, and synthesizer are the five main instruments in Song Maker, while the rhythm can be electronic, in blocks, conga-style, or sound like a traditional drum set. Song Maker also supports connecting a MIDI keyboard or receiving audio from a microphone. I admit that advanced options require a bit of prior knowledge, but the ease of use of its interface should compensate for any shortcomings. Once the song is finished, we press Save, and Song Maker will generate a URL code that we can share anywhere.
Song Maker does not require a user account, has no external dependencies, and you don't even need to use Google Chrome (it works wonderfully in Firefox). In the future, it would be interesting for Google to enable an option to download songs in WAV or MP3 format, so users can add them to a traditional audio editor and combine them with other personal projects, but this is a great first step.
