‘Weird Al’ Yankovic regrets not letting Daniel Radcliffe sing in Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
Plus: The scheme to sneak Pablo Escobar past the studio, how they pulled off the pool scene cameos, and more
Computers Tech Games Crypto Music and More
AI-powered image generators have been getting most of the press recently. But musical machine learning models have quietly been making great strides in recent years. Holly Herndon has been at the forefront of that revolution. She co-developed (along with partner Mat Dryhurst) Spawn, a singing neural network, for her last album Proto and released Holly+ (in partnership with Never Before Heard Sounds) to the public last year, which allows anyone to use a model of Holly’s voice. Now she’s released a new single, where the only vocals come her digital twin.
This cover of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” plays it pretty straight at first listen. Yes it’s slower and quieter, but Ryan Norris, who handles the instrumentation, doesn’t take any extreme liberties with the arrangement or sound palette. It simply swaps frantic desperation with plaintive resignation.
What makes it so arresting is that every vocal sound, right down to the sharp inhales before the harmonies kick in, was generated by Holly+. (That’s right, it “breathes”.) There isn’t a human in sight of a vocal booth here. Some of the phrasing is a little stilted and there are occasional digital artifacts, if you listen closely for them. But on the whole this digital model of the real Holly Herndon’s voice is impressive in its ability to imitate its creator.
Until now, most major artistsexperimentations with AI have focused on creating generative soundscapes or synth melodies. This is (as far as I know) the first time a machine learning model has taken the mic solo in a pop song.
Herndon previewed the track way back in March at Sonar Festival, but it largely flew under the radar until it received a proper release this week. (BTW: Go watch the presentation from Sonar for some truly wild real-time demonstrations of Holly+ and Never Before Heard Sounds’ technology.) You can attempt to recreate the performance above by recording your own performance of Jolene and uploading it to Holly+, but don’t expect the same fidelity of results through the web app. While it’s definitely a fun diversion, artists who are serious about using AI to further their craft should explore Spawning, an organization launched by Herdon and Dryhurst earlier this year.
It sounds like The Super Mario Bros. Movie might be a bit of a musical, as Toad actor Keegan-Michael Key confirms the mushroom man will do a bit of singing.
While it isn’t clear if the Mario Bros. film will be a full on musical, Giant Bomb’s Jeff Grubb did say earlier this year that it might have a few musical numbers in it, which is sounding a bit more accurate now. Speaking to Variety, Key was asked if the perfect creature known as Toad will do any singing, to which the actor said “he does.”
“I got to improvise a song in ‘Super Mario Bros.,’ which was an absolute blast,” Key continued to explain. “That was just a stick of fun, that whole thing.” The actor also spoke about how he developed the voice, saying he “was working on the voice with my partner and trying to find the voice through the internal journey of the character. And then with the directors [Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic], we sprinkled some things in, we moved it around.”
Lil Nas X has been the “president of League of Legends” for barely more than 24 hours, and he is already cutting up. No longer content as the Lord of Hell, Lil Nas X has relinquished his fiery crown, exchanging it for a desk in the CEO suite of Riot Games. His first executive order? Making a nude skin of Udyr. His second executive order, well… it’s going to make half the population of League players very unhappy.
as the new president of league of legends, bottoms are no longer allowed to play.
— PRESIDENT NASARATI (@LilNasX) September 15, 2022
There’s also another LoL-flavored tweet from President X that I cannot link here because it will likely trip every not-safe-for-work filter built into this browser and laptop by my employers….
Queen of Pop Madonna sent her fans into a royal frenzy Wednesday (August 10) when she revisited ‘The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon’ to perform on its popular ‘Classroom Instruments’ segment.
First taking to the platform in 2015 to deliver a reworked version of her 1983 classic ‘Holiday‘ (as we reported here),
The post Did You Miss It? Madonna, Jimmy Fallon, & The Roots Sing ‘Music’ With Classroom Instruments [Watch] appeared first on ..::That Grape Juice.net::.. – Thirsty?.