VidRhythm Review

It's not surprising to see "Harmonix" attached to a music-heavy piece of leisure software. Likewise, it's not all that shocking to find said software to be rather entertaining. However, while VidRhythm is indeed well put-together and functional, it's also scary. Like, seriously scary.

VidRhythm is an app designed to let users put themselves into a music video of sorts. After sampling and deciding upon a specific song, they then choose a style (i.e. visual presentation theme) and start recording. The app itself makes things very simple by breaking the core elements of each tune down into a handful of sample sounds. Sounds like "BOM" and "PSSH." Once a sound and accompanying video clip is recorded it can be replayed and re-recorded until it's "perfect," then it's on to the next one. Once the sampling is complete, creating the video is a single button tap away. Then the real terror fun begins.

In addition to being super-easy to use, VidRhythm also has plenty of potential for hijinks. The video below gives a bit of an indication as to what to expect, but in all honesty it's a completely different thing to see oneself in something so surreal. It's the kind of thing that could easily draw plenty of attention and laughs at a get-together with friends, and possibly become the life of the party if alcohol were involved.

The downside to all of this, aside from seeing myself in such a bizarre light, is that the app really runs itself. There's virtually no creative input on the part of the user. They just record video and sounds in the manner that they're instructed and see how it all turns out. Pitch, placement, timing and so on are all handled automatically. Another problem that's a direct result of this is that the songs don't really sound that much different from their initial samples after the new sounds are recorded because everything is made to match it so well. The styles are also largely irrelevant because they only effect the backgrounds and screen layouts, not the sound. And there are only so many ways to arrange "lots o' screens" before they all start to blend together.

When all is said and done, there really isn't much to VidRhythm aside from the initial "Wow!" or "... wow..." factor. It's certainly a clever idea and is bound to be fun at gatherings, but it doesn't have a whole lot of staying power. Although I could see it being a pretty big hit with a younger audience. Feel free to thank me later, parents.