Yar’s Revenge

Note: This post was written in 2025 and backdated to appear on the day I wrote and published the track.

This is actually my second time writing this post. The first ended up being a 2,000 word rant examination of the problems I had with the massive legal overreach¹and enshittification resulting thereof via forced online interaction to use the product and mandatory participation in allowing my content to by used by them for training an AI exhibited by XLN when they released “Life” – the plugin that I used for the main rhythmic pattern in this track. XLN also makes the near-indipensible-to-me XO, which is used on the majority of my work and whose praises I have sung for years now.

The high points are important and detailed in this footnote,²In short, and given that I wrote two thousand words on this without breaking a sweat, trust me that this is the short version: XLN required all samples being processed by Life to be uploaded to their cloud servers. The terms of service gave them the irrevocable and perpetual right to use that uploaded content to do anything they wanted, including using it in other musical works that they could sell to the public. Worse, they then forced the user to indemnify them in case something that they weren’t supposed to have on their servers got uploaded. According to their EULA, if I uploaded (which they required) a recording to which I didn’t own the copyright (e.g., anything I didn’t personally record, including drum loops, vocal samples, etc., I was responsible for any legal action taken against them for having the sample on their server. Which they required. They swore in their damage control PR when these terms hit the fans, that they had “no intention” of using uploaded recordings for anything other than improving the product. That’s worth exactly nothing in legal terms. The backlash must have been severe because they first amended the terms, and then (after more than a year), added the option to not upload things to their servers. Had they asked for permission and made the online thing an option, I would still be singing their praises. This was never a technical requirement, simply an IP landgrab. They ended up doing the right thing, but only because the outrage forced them to do so. (And amazingly, there were people online advocating for XLN’s position. A lot of “that’s just the way the world is now” getting thrown around, which doesn’t give me a lot of hope for future generations hanging onto their privacy.) Most importantly, XLN completely destroyed any trust or goodwill I had for the company and, judging from forum posts I’ve read, I’m far from the only one. I continue to use XO because it’s awesome, but I’ll never buy anything from the company again and my firewall now prevents any and all traffic from their products from reaching the outside world. I am trying to get back to the point where I want to use Life for new works, but every time I launch it, I get angry all over again. I’m working to be better about that. And if you’ve actually read this entire footnote, you might have an inkling about what was in that 2,000 word first draft., but not precisely relevant to discussing this track. 

Sailing the Seas of Cheese

The “inspiration” for this track (maybe “motivation” is a better word) was a desire to use Life on something. What does Life do? It takes a recording, looks for interesting bits, chops them up, and then plays them back in rhythmic and (hopefully) musical ways. In that regard, I think it was pretty successful. At the start of the track, you’ll hear a sample of Pirate Lester from yesterday’s track. I manually chopped the “double speak” bit to introduce the tempo, and then let Life do its thing. I generated several different patterns, exported them, and then brought them all into Digital Performer, arranging groups of four into the basic rhythm you hear. A great deal of what you’re hearing, including that Art of Noise-sounding bass, is actually just my voice being rearranged and pitch shifted.

None of what Life does is unique. Everything it does, you could do yourself with a little manual work. The fun part is playing with the randomization and extracting cool bits. I had planned on it being a key part of my electronic toolbox but, like my Elektron Analog RYTM,³Another rant for another time. the negative experience taints every interaction I have with the product. For the time being, it’s relegated to “bottom drawer inspiration generators” status. We’ll see if I ever move past that.

Utter Silliness

Despite my grousing, I did have fun making this piece. That’s pretty evident from the track names and the overall lightheartedness of it. One bit of trivia: the fast Xylophone part that comes in around 2:00 is an Omnisphere patch from the Sabresphere library by Tim Dale. The patch description is:

It ended up being perfect, so I probably need to drop Tim a note.

The track is fun, but the joke wears thin. I tend to skip this one when it comes on shuffle. Listening back to it today while I write, I do still like it, but it’s better as a spice than a main course.

Colophon

Instruments & Samples

XO, Omnisphere, Hive2, Pigments, XLN Life

Effects, Mixing, & Mastering

FabFilter, Gullfoss, MOTU Dynamics, MOTU Trim, PanMan

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Notes

• 1
  and enshittification resulting thereof via forced online interaction to use the product and mandatory participation in allowing my content to by used by them for training an AI
• 2
  In short, and given that I wrote two thousand words on this without breaking a sweat, trust me that this is the short version: XLN required all samples being processed by Life to be uploaded to their cloud servers. The terms of service gave them the irrevocable and perpetual right to use that uploaded content to do anything they wanted, including using it in other musical works that they could sell to the public. Worse, they then forced the user to indemnify them in case something that they weren’t supposed to have on their servers got uploaded. According to their EULA, if I uploaded (which they required) a recording to which I didn’t own the copyright (e.g., anything I didn’t personally record, including drum loops, vocal samples, etc., I was responsible for any legal action taken against them for having the sample on their server. Which they required. They swore in their damage control PR when these terms hit the fans, that they had “no intention” of using uploaded recordings for anything other than improving the product. That’s worth exactly nothing in legal terms. The backlash must have been severe because they first amended the terms, and then (after more than a year), added the option to not upload things to their servers. Had they asked for permission and made the online thing an option, I would still be singing their praises. This was never a technical requirement, simply an IP landgrab. They ended up doing the right thing, but only because the outrage forced them to do so. (And amazingly, there were people online advocating for XLN’s position. A lot of “that’s just the way the world is now” getting thrown around, which doesn’t give me a lot of hope for future generations hanging onto their privacy.) Most importantly, XLN completely destroyed any trust or goodwill I had for the company and, judging from forum posts I’ve read, I’m far from the only one. I continue to use XO because it’s awesome, but I’ll never buy anything from the company again and my firewall now prevents any and all traffic from their products from reaching the outside world. I am trying to get back to the point where I want to use Life for new works, but every time I launch it, I get angry all over again. I’m working to be better about that. And if you’ve actually read this entire footnote, you might have an inkling about what was in that 2,000 word first draft.
• 3
  Another rant for another time.