[Serenity]

Maer is a collaboration between Anna Murphy (Cellar Darling and, before that, Eluveitie) and Marjana Semkina (iamthemorning).

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'[...] received a package from a young country artist looking for a record deal. Along with the song demos, “there was an Abercrombie and Fitch catalog,” [...] “And I’m like, well you don’t see that everyday.”

[...] In the catalog, she’d bookmarked a picture of herself holding a guitar and wiping her eye with a tissue [...] “She was a very attractive girl,” [...] noting that she looked older than her 14 years, and therefore had a shot at making it in the country music market.

[...] we’re faced with the least fun version of Swift yet: Capitalist Taylor. So far, the bulk of the outrage has fallen on Ticketmaster, the monopolistic concert-and-ticketing conglomerate, while Swift has received comparably less opprobrium[...] But as that A&F catalog showed all those years ago, Swift has always been one for cultivating brand synergy. Fans, finally noticing this, seem heartbroken.'

Taylor Swift is a capitalist. That’s where her ticketing debacle starts.

Bought these preset packs for the Seaboard today:







(in second video Seaboard starts around 1:26 in)

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Planning on buying this while it's still on sale:




Going to wait for Plugin Boutique to change up their 'free with purchase' options next week though. If there's more than one I like I might buy this too (Seaboard performance starts at 9:16):

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Early BF purchases:

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Probably going to get one of these sound-sets (for my new granular/spectral synth Novum) while they're still on sale:

[Serenity]

Hitsujibungaku performing "Carol", from their brilliant show that was live streamed in June, out on blu-ray/DVD/limited vinyl today

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Trying to decide between using my holiday voucher from Orchestral Tools towards getting the male choir in this (already got the female in a flash sale):




Or the basso profondo choir in this:




... which is a bit less expensive, and might be better for backup vocals to my (frequently basso but rarely profondo) voice.

So many Black Friday sales---and yet so many aren't any better than the quarterly sales these days, and worse than many of the flash sales....

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Might buy these while they're on sale:




(that's from brilliant Chinese developer Three Body Technology)

'hulusi [...] also known as the cucurbit flute and the gourd flute is a free reed wind instrument [...] originally used primarily in the Shan State of Myanmar, Yunnan province and Assam by a number of ethnic-minority groups, in particular the Dai people who call the instrument "pi lamtao" (筚朗叨 – the word "pi" means woodwind instruments, and the word "lamtao"(namtao) means gourd), and has gained nationwide popularity throughout China and is also used by various indigenous ethnic groups of Assam; similar to the popularity of the harmonica in the West, and "improved" versions have been produced outside the indigenous realms. [...] the hulusi has a very pure, very mellow clarinet-like sound.

[...] húlu [...] meaning "Calabash gourd," and si, meaning "silk" (referring to the instrument's smooth tone)'

Hulusi - Wikipedia

Gourd-silk....

'two auxiliary wind tubes play two fixed notes for harmonics. Due to the mellifluous and lovely sound of Hulusi, it is massively used to express romantic relationships and accompaniment for lyrical dance.'


World in Gourd - Virtual Instruments - Three-Body Technology (threebodytech.com)

Maybe this too:




... but probably neither, since it would probably be better to buy some productivity enhancing stuff instead while it's on sale (for quickly removing background noise, aligning phase, and auditioning AI-analyzed samples at specific places in a track), and I'm already straining the budget limits I set out. Still making up my mind... need to demo those productivity enhancers (if I can find the time (on the other side of procrastination's winding bodies of ouroboroses) lol).

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Finally preordered the Seaboard Rise 2 (with $300 personal Black Friday discount):




My budget's pretty tight now, but I might squeeze in this for $15:




... not that I really need yet another reverb, but this one is high density and (apparently) low cpu. And it has an interesting character....

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

The Last Temptations of Black Friday...



Lovely, with great realism in the transitions between notes, but not compatible with the Seaboard's polyphonic pitch bends and extra dimensions of kinesthesis, and I think the timbre and dynamics are too close to the synth sounds for the Seaboard that I plan to focus on for a while... so any non-Seaboard instruments I get should probably be either strums or stabs (the Seaboard can do expressive plucks using pressure and release velocity).

OTOH I already have at least four really nice realistic harps (seven if you count ancient lyres, more if you count zithers) and at least about 10 realistic guitars (more if you count lutes, ouds, etc.) of different varieties (but they don't call it GAS for nothing...). Got version 1 of this one for free recently, so of course they're trying to upsell me on the upgrade to version 2, now with extra BF discount apparently:




... that video is pretty amusing but I'm not going to buy it (still too pricey at $50, though they do allow resale and without any fee iirc).

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 26 November 2022 - 12:25 PM

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

New AI voicebank coming out soon based on the voice of Eric Holloway (AKA thatbassvoice). Here's one of his performances:



Still no demos of the AI in his oktavist range and style, but here's a pretty good demo in his higher register (this is still a beta version):




Should have at least until December 1st to preorder... my main concern is that if I morph my voice with (or into) his (and back) it might sound like I'm putting on a Blaccent and thereby committing cultural misappropriation or 'Blackface' or posing as a Black person etc. 'He's morphing himself into a Black man, cancel the racist monster who wants to play at being "transracial"!' (I can imagine some people comparing a Black AI vocalist to a 'slave'---or finding certain lyrics offensive (some obvious---racist stuff of course---some less so---can I have him sing the word 'breathe' without it evoking 'I can't breathe', since some people find it offensive for a non-Black person to make art about Black suffering under racism?...) (If I wasn't pretty certain some people (on the left) would find it offensive it would be an interesting idea to morph back and forth---and an acknowledgement of the leading role Black people have played and continue to play in the development of modern music....) Just have to be careful---for a lot of that demo his Black American accent isn't really noticeable at all. I'm pretty sure one of the vocal modes will be similar to his Doom performance, so it shouldn't be an issue.


Even if morphing the AI's voice with mine ends up not being a viable option (not sure it will even sound good) it should be good for basso profondo backing vocals (I like to sing in my bass register but I'm not quite a basso profondo). Could mix it in with samples of Mongolian throat singing (from the Chronicles Bukhu virtual instrument, 'created in collaboration with' acclaimed Mongolian composer, vocalist, and instrumentalist Bukhu Ganburged---among other sample collections), Tuvan throat singing, Sardinian throat singing (from the Omen virtual instrument), and death metal 'cookie monster' vocals (from the Voices of Rage virtual instrument... or my own recordings of myself).

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Turns out the AI voicebank won't feature his oktavist range after all. Only goes down to E2... I can sing that myself. Boo.

Well, I could still try the morphing. Or have him sing in unison or thirds, etc. (Why not some Ganga style Schwebungsdiaphonie?)

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 29 November 2022 - 09:12 PM

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Or I could get this instead of the AI voices bundle:

https://www.symphony...d=comp-l79jxkfu

'Over 80 different animals that have been made musical - play a whale, or a frog, a songbird, an elephant or 80+ other animals.'

Playable water too.

Definitely going to get that eventually....

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Bought these two on sale:



(not sure how much they paid those famous mixing engineers (and more) for those crazy endorsements but it does sound really good)




(physically modeled vinyl emulation that can be pushed to extreme settings)

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 01 December 2022 - 04:36 PM

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Nice new free virtual instrument (for free Kontakt player... royalty-free orchestral phrases that sync to project tempo (with music notation view to fit more easily into compositions) + chords):




Their servers have been getting slammed though....

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

New royalty-free virtual instrument for free Kontakt player, free until January 16th:




Nothing groundbreakingly earth-shattering in there (that I've heard so far) but some nice sounds (more like variations on ancient and recent classics...).


New duet exclusively featuring two of the AI vocal instruments I purchased recently:




Male voice can still use some tweaking (recently released, will probably improve) but overall that's pretty good....

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 08 December 2022 - 02:29 PM

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'[...] the Medicine Singers [...] the East Algonquin powwow group [...] their debut studio album, which extends their communal spirit to a varied group of collaborators.'

Medicine Singers gives ample space to bursts of rock music, swirling electronics, and touches of jazz: branch’s trumpet in particular is a highlight on two of the album’s lengthier, magisterial tracks, “Sanctuary” and “Sunset.” But the balance is always tilted toward the powwow drum and the voices of the Eastern Medicine Singers. [...]

Equally important are the vocals, which are delivered in the Massachusett dialect of the Algonquin language, along with Lakota, Ojibwe, and Wapishana [...]

[...] shuffling, heartbeat-like rhythm [...] highlighting the debt that rock music owes to Native American music.'

Medicine Singers: Medicine Singers Album Review


'Jaimie Branch, Trumpeter Who Crossed Genre Lines, Dies at 39

[...] one of the most dynamic trumpet players in contemporary music, coaxing a remarkable range of sounds from her horn. She used electronic effects and toy noisemakers (including a Fisher Price Happy Apple from the 1970s) to further extend her sonic spectrum. She would often play a complicated passage, step back and scream, and then plunge back into playing without missing a beat.

“I mean every note that I play,” she told [...] Aquarium Drunkard [...] “When I’m up there, I’m putting it all out on the table. It’s like high risk, high reward.”'

[...] her stage attire was unconventional for jazz circles [...] a kimono draped over a “Young Latin & Proud” T-shirt [...]

[...] “She was a true collaborator, and that’s why she was so damn good at playing this music,” [...] “She could listen, give and receive in equal measure with an unparalleled generosity. She had so many extremely close friends who also were collaborators, and because of that she wanted each individual to be really strong and strengthen the community as a whole.”'

Jaimie Branch, Trumpeter Who Crossed Genre Lines, Dies at 39

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Free Hurdy Gurdy for free Kontakt Player (this used to 50 euros---I bought it a few years ago---but they're making it free for Xmas):




Hurdy Gurdy - Sonokinetic - Sample libraries and Virtual Instruments

New strange attractor FM synth:

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

New AI vocalist based on a Chinese rock singer (it was trained on her Chinese language singing, but the AI's very good at singing in English---not completely terrible at French either, though not designed for that (the person who made this cover also doesn't know French, but tried to spell words out phonetically)):

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Free virtual instruments for the free Kontakt Player:





Accent Pianos, Twisted Psaltery, Tongue Drum, Toy Xylo, Kalimba

Freebies (cinesamples.com)





Sleighbells - Sonokinetic