Ghost and Sleep Token are like the pop music of the metal world. Wide appeal, but cheesy and only nominally on what many would consider to be the metal side of things (heck Ghost are essentially an ABBA tribute band with a bit of down tuning).
They have a couple of decent songs but I'm not sure they deserve the adoration they currently enjoy.
But they may act like "gateway drugs"... I'd thought that metal was deep into its "jazz slash opera phase".
Don't get me wrong, part of metal has always been about the theatrically overblown pomposity. Look at the glam scene of the 80s for example, or power metal's love of the fantastical.
But these two in particular are heralded by some outlets as being the greatest thing to happen to metal ever and that's just not true. Yes they attract huge audiences and might be somewhat a gateway drug but they remind me more of the emo/scene thing about 20 years ago where a lot of people jumped on the bandwagon cos it tapped into something.
A Haunting Poem
I Scream
You Scream
We all Scream
For I Scream.
PolyMAX is our vintage-inspired synth that gives producers, sound designers, and musicians fat analog tones from the golden age of polysynthesis. PolyMAX's warm, analog-modeled oscillators and filters, professional UA effects, and curated presets easily fit into any genre — with album‑ready sounds instantly.
Free for a limited time---virtual instruments for the free Msoundfactory Player:
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Analog Empire: Plucks and Keys [...] offering over 30 deeply sampled real synth multi-samples. It allows you to layer two distinct sounds and dynamically blend them based on the key played or velocity. Shape your sound with unique "pluck" and "drift" controls, a multi-mode filter, amp envelope, and an effects section including chorus, ducking reverb, and lo-fi tape. This versatile instrument excels at creating expressive plucks and keys with rich analog character.
From sweeping filters and crushing distortions to rhythmic delays and booming reverbs, the signature effects found on legendary DJ gear have helped shape the sound of modern dance music. Inspired by the tools behind countless iconic club moments, DJFX brings those same vibes into your DAW—supercharged for production.
This powerful plugin reimagines classic DJ-style multi-effects with creative twists, offering two distinct modes per effect: one that captures the feel of the hardware you know and love, and one that pushes into new territory.
Your choice of Komplete Select Electronic, Beats, or Band.
Electronic and Beats include their flagship wavetable synth Massive X. Beats includes Battery 4, one of the leading drum sampler and sequencer programs:
Band includes a nice upright piano (The Gentleman) and Rickenbacker electric bass (guitar).
Ghost and Sleep Token are like the pop music of the metal world. Wide appeal, but cheesy and only nominally on what many would consider to be the metal side of things (heck Ghost are essentially an ABBA tribute band with a bit of down tuning).
They have a couple of decent songs but I'm not sure they deserve the adoration they currently enjoy.
Sleep Token's drummer has released a virtual instrument sampled from his drum kit and his playing (including editable midi grooves)---could be condemned as "horrible monstrous sell-out" or whatever perhaps, but it's pretty impressive in the context of a mix:
Bit less so in the isolated drum tracks, where it's more obvious that they're isolated hits. (Perhaps AI enhancement could fix that... and generate endless new grooves in any combination of drummers' styles---like maybe 20% this, 50% that, etc.)
There are a bunch of others too... including one based on the drummer from Gojira (sampled him hitting his drums at various velocities):
Pop music has ALWAYS been a commodity. The production and distribution of Pop Music has ALWAYS been exploitive, destructive, and imbricated within the industrial thanatology that is capitalism. Using AI to make Pop Music makes complete sense.
3. Whether it is robots on an assembly line stamping out gadgets, or someone stuck on the fifth floor of the Brill Building cranking out the hits, it's the SAME. Labour under capital. As humans we valourise the human in the Brill Building because, as humans, we valourise human labour over natural or mechanical production. Capitalism doesn't have such sentiments. It exploits them. Now, in terms of Pop Music, a form of music that ONLY exists because of the reification inherent to commodity production and distribution, capitalism will cheerfully generate Pop Music by whatever means provide the largest profit margin. It's not rocket surgery.
[...] I think Timbaland's just trying [he's launching some sort of AI pop music thing] to grift some profit out of a dying industry - Pop Music - an industry being smothered in its hospital bed by the inherent contradictions of capital. At the same time, the hype around "AI" and the "San Francisco Consensus" is based in a grift around what is essentially a mechanical hyperBayesianism enabled by contemporary computing commodities. Under Capital.
'I burn, I fade, I become smoke': The story of Parnia, a young poet silenced in Israeli airstrike
Today, her final poem reads like a haunting prophecy[the video above includes a translation, set to music ... the video below displays fragments set to music]
[...] Parnia was educated, hopeful, and deeply committed to both her career and her country. She had studied translation at Qazvin University and had dreams of moving forward, of doing more, becoming more. All of that ended in a flash of fire and debris when the missile struck their apartment building in the Orchid Complex on Sattarkhan Street.
According to Maryam, the missile hit the center of the building. "That's why the whole structure collapsed," she explains. "Others died too. That photo—of the pink mattress stained with blood, with strands of a woman's hair on it -- that was Parnia's bed."
"Fortune favors the bold, though statistics favor the cautious." - Indomitable Courteous (Icy) Fist, The Palace Job - Patrick Weekes
"Well well well ... if it ain't The Invisible C**t." - Billy Butcher, The Boys
"I have strong views about not tempting providence and, as a wise man once said, the difference between luck and a wheelbarrow is, luck doesn’t work if you push it." - Colonel Orhan, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City - KJ Parker
Dinosaurs didn't roar the way Hollywood likes to pretend. Their voices were stranger[...] Now, an art project is trying to bring those sounds back to life with instruments modeled after actual fossils.
The work, titled Dinosaur Choir, is a collaboration between artist and musician Courtney Brown and designer Cezary Gajewski. Their lineup begins with Corythosaurus, the duck-billed dinosaur whose strange headgear doubled as an acoustic system. Air moving through its hollow crest probably produced sounds closer to brass notes than roars.
Using CT scans, the team 3D-printed the crest and outfitted it with electronics to mimic how air might have moved through the dinosaur's head. The sound that came out was deep and unsettling[...] and it won them recognition at the Guthman Musical Instrument Competition.
Lyricist who uses Suno AI to generate gospel songs (apparently in "combination" with elements performed live---possibly live recordings transformed by Suno's AI) signs $3 million record deal after having several hit songs.
The new Taylor Swift album is....fine. It's nothing remotely special, and is probably my least favourite album since Folklore...there are no real standout singles...too much of it is maudlin and dreary...
The lyrics are atrocious on most tracks. The showgirl vibe never really feels lived in...it feels surface, and then all of the songs sound the same...the same tone and levels...just ultimately forgettable.
FFS the newest Ariana Grande, Lady Gaga, and Miley Cyrus albums did more for pop this year.
This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 03 October 2025 - 12:37 PM
"When the last tree has fallen, and the rivers are poisoned, you cannot eat money, oh no." ~Aurora
"Someone will always try to sell you despair, just so they don't feel alone." ~Ursula Vernon
The new Taylor Swift album is....fine. It's nothing remotely special, and is probably my least favourite album since Folklore...there are no real standout singles...too much of it is maudlin and dreary...
The lyrics are atrocious on most tracks. The showgirl vibe never really feels lived in...it feels surface, and then all of the songs sound the same...the same tone and levels...just ultimately forgettable.
FFS the newest Ariana Grande, Lady Gaga, and Miley Cyrus albums did more for pop this year.
This one had me cracking up a bit:
Spoiler
Knock on wood... lol, guess that means she's on top? Hopefully not actually knocking with her knuckles... he may be a football player but he's not that tough. For that she may need robot wood...
Moth's technology was developed in collaboration with Brazilian composer Eduardo Reck Miranda.[... r]enowned for his research on computational creativity, Miranda has written an entire book on quantum music. Last year he released an album called Qubism made up of quantum computer-made songs.
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Unlike generative AI tools like Suno or Udio, [Moth's] Archaeo doesn't create songs from scratch. Nor is it trained on vast quantities of music scraped from the web (often without consent). Instead, it learns from small samples from a specific artist, whom it then helps to make a new song.
"It feels very refreshing to use a technology that has been built to work with you — not simply replace you," said ILĀ. "This approach produces something much more human led which feels more authentic in creative terms."
While Moth's technology is still in early development, the company hopes it will redefine creative industries including music, art, and gaming.
Gamers could use tools like Archaeo to generate custom content — music, art, or dialogue — based on their own creative inputs, allowing for deeper personalisation and modding.
"We're not just building tech for tech's sake, we're building tools that empower, inspire, and drive a new era of media and creativity,"
Thinking of buying this (Airwave, to go with the Seaboard). Demonstration gets really good around 39 seconds in:
They've added six dimensions of global modulation to the Airwave so far, but it tracks each individual joint in the hands, as well as finger position relative to each key, and they've said they plan to add support for per-voice modulation (as in, each finger can be made to only modulate the last note that that finger played, not the notes being played by other fingers... so each finger can be modulating a different note in a different way, as on the Seaboard).
Wow imagine what kind of bangers the Forkrul Assail would be putting out.
Their videos would be very snappy. Especially the dance numbers.
"Fortune favors the bold, though statistics favor the cautious." - Indomitable Courteous (Icy) Fist, The Palace Job - Patrick Weekes
"Well well well ... if it ain't The Invisible C**t." - Billy Butcher, The Boys
"I have strong views about not tempting providence and, as a wise man once said, the difference between luck and a wheelbarrow is, luck doesn’t work if you push it." - Colonel Orhan, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City - KJ Parker
Nice... I also like her high-pitched folksy goating (caprino) and the section with multiple vocals---everything interlocking / overlaying beautifully. Plus some intermittent ear candy.
Here's the latest Grimes (video possibly NSFW because it features a crude drawing of a penis):
Spoiler
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This is what it feels like to be hunted by something smarter than you
[...]
The only thing I covet is my own annihilation
lol... with all those guns, I wonder if that could be her application for US citizenship?... or maybe she's just getting ready for...
[Edit: fixed the Youtube embedding, it should play now]
This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 29 October 2025 - 06:48 PM
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Azath Vitr (D, on 19 May 2025 - 01:41 PM, said:
