Smule launches AutoRap for iOS and Android, Engadget's editors drop some mad beats (video)
Sure, we're often mistaken for some of hip-hop's illest emcees in our day-to-day lives, but the sad truth is that Engadget's editorial team could use a little help with our flow. Thankfully, technology has come to the rescue, yet again -- this time in the form of AutoRap, the latest app from the people who brought you such mobile blockbusters as I am T-Pain and Songify. Those who've spent time with either of the aforementioned apps know what to expect from this latest addition to the Smule family: talk or rap into your iPhone or Android device, tap the button, and then wait for the magic. AutoRap will go to town, or as Smule puts it: "turn[ing] speech into rap and correct[ing] bad rapping."
Talking and rapping are the two primary modes here. With the former, you simply speak into your phone, and the app chops your voice and buries it in a whole mess of autotuney goodness. There's a pretty broad handful of songs at present, including 30 premium tracks from the likes of Snoop Dog, the Beastie Boys, Outkast and Kid Cudi -- naturally, if you want access to those, you're gonna have to pony up some cash, or earn some credits doing things like watching instructional videos or filling out auto insurance quote forms. The free tracks mostly get the job done, however.
The app does a pretty good job turning your words into something salvageable (in the case of the above demos, the geekiest words we could conjure), thanks, no doubt, to the "sophisticated artificial intelligence developed by Smule's chief scientist" the company says is at play here. Pick Rap, and the app will offer up lyrics and a beat, correcting your rapping within a predetermined framework. Naturally, Smule gives you the ability to share the fruits of your labor (your, ahem, "Rappertoire") all of the requisite ways -- e-mail, Twitter and Facebook. After all, the dopest beats ought not be kept to yourself.
In the end, AutoRap doesn't amount to too much more than a fun distraction -- apologies in advance to all of those hoping to jumpstart their burgeoning rap careers. Sucker MCs can download it today from Google Play and the Apple App Store.
