A Spanish YouTuber who fell from grace—although it’s doubtful that a man who hospitalized a stranger with an electric shaver ever had grace—wants you to know that his 8-minute apology video was fake. Borja Escalona had enraged much of Spain after threatening a server for declining to give him a $2 empanada for free…
The robots are coming…to relieve you of doing the dishes. Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently revealed new details about Optimus, an artificial intelligence humanoid robot which he envisions will take over so-called “boring” tasks at your average household.
If you love ultra-low-budget, dare we say schlocky (but in-on-the-joke schlocky, not “we think we’re making a masterpiece” schlocky) horror movies—well, you are well familiar with animal-attack saga Birdemic. The original (2010’s Birdemic: Shock and Terror) caused a sensation… and kick-started a cult franchise…
A Russian cosmonaut just dealt with a rare spacesuit problem. As CNN‘s Jackie Wattles observed, mission control ordered Oleg Artemyev back to the International Space Station’s airlock after encountering a suit issue. While the exact nature of the trouble wasn’t clear as of this writing, NASA commentators noted a “slight fluctuation” in the suit’s battery power. Artemyev returned safely, plugged into the station’s power supply and resumed operations.
We’ve asked NASA for comment. In a statement to Space.com, spokesperson Bob Navias said Artemyev “never was in any danger” when the anomaly occurred around 12PM Eastern. Artemyev and fellow Russian Denis Matveev were in the midst of outfitting the ESA’s robotic arm with cameras and other equipment changes.
Happening now: Russian cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev has repeatedly been ordered by mission control to get back to the ISS airlock during a spacewalk because of an issue with his spacesuit.
“Drop everything and start going back right away”— Jackie Wattles (@jackiewattles) August 17, 2022
While this appears to have been a mild incident, it may have produced unpleasant flashbacks. Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano’s suit leaked during two spacewalks (the first initially went undetected) in July 2013. During the second sortie, Parmitano’s helmet filled with water and made it difficult to breathe — his calm return to base may have helped save his life, according to a NASA report. The incident led the agency to pause all non-emergency spacewalks until it isolated the cause (a clogged filter) and took steps to prevent future crises.
Artemyev’s issue might not lead to a similar review. However, it underscores the continuing fragility of space exploration. Even a seemingly minor issue can become serious in space, and mission teams don’t want to take any chances.
Do you think of Google as a “Web3” company? No? Well at least as far as their investing portfolio is concerned, they’re deeper into blockchain and crypto technology than any other top publicly traded company, by far.
But there’s one family member who’s suspiciously missing…
Inspired by the classic 1619 bronze Manneken Pis (Dutch: “little pissing man”) fountain found in Brussels, Belgium (and since recreated for gardens all over the world), this backflow incense burner features a little man peeing a solid stream of smoke. Available on Amazon (affiliate link), the incense burner makes a perfect conversation piece. And what an interesting conversation that’s going to be!
I wonder what that little guy drank to be peeing all that smoke. Because my guess is fire. You know, one time, I ate a ghost chili pepper and almost melted the toilet in the downstairs bathroom. That’s a true story. At least in my mind, it is. In reality, it is not.
I actually have a backflow incense burner that looks like a waterfall, and the smoke is supposed to cascade down like water. Except I ran out of backflow incense cones and never bought more – which is unfortunate because the incense really helped mask the smell of the kitchen garbage I never take out.
[via DudeIWantThat]
American Airlines has agreed to buy 20 Overture aircraft from Boom, with the option to purchase an additional 40 planes if all goes well. The deal is one of the strongest shows of support for Boom yet, surpassing the potential 50-jet commitment United Airlines made last year. One wrinkle: Boom hasn’t yet built a working passenger jet.
The company plans to establish a manufacturing facility at North Carolina’s Piedmont Triad International Airport. It expects to begin construction later this year, with aircraft production to follow in 2024 — though the plant’s first completed jet won’t fly until 2026. If Boom can deliver on its Overture promises, there are some pretty big benefits: flights between Newark, NYC and London in under four hours and San Francisco to Tokyo in approximately six hours. The company also claims Overture will be a “net-zero carbon” aircraft, thanks to its ability to fly on 100 percent sustainable aviation fuels. You’re still burning fuels, but you’re burning sustainable ones.
Check out our 2020 deep-dive on Boom, right here.
— Mat Smith
Apple employees will need to work from its offices three times a week starting in September
Polestar will release a production version of its O2 concept convertible in 2026
What we bought: Anker’s MagSafe battery pack charges and pulls double duty as a phone stand
Amazon Air freight hub workers walked out to protest pay and conditions
President Joe Biden has signed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. The sweeping $750 billion legislation includes $369 billion in investments to climate and clean energy programs. Following months of infighting, House and Senate Democrats passed the bill along party lines. According to one estimate by Princeton University’s Zero Lab, the bill could reduce US greenhouse emissions by about 6.3 billion tons through 2032. The investment set aside by the bill represents the most significant investment to combat climate change in US history.
Dell is releasing two new Alienware-branded monitors this fall. Before you ask, they don’t feature QD-OLED panels like the incredible Alienware gaming monitor we fell in love with here. The more interesting of the two new monitors is the 27-inch model, with an LG Nano IPS panel 2560 x 1440 resolution and native 240Hz refresh rates. A factory overclock even pushes the refresh rate to 280Hz. There’s also a retractable headset hanger.
Winamp has opened invitations to a creator service that gives musicians tools to distribute, promote and (of course) profit from their work. While most details won’t emerge until features appear in September, this is slated to include fan subscription support debuting in November. It seems to be a Patreon-style platform for creators.
Walmart has struck a deal with Paramount Global to add its streaming service to Walmart+ starting in September. Walmart+ members, who are currently paying $12.95 a month or $98 a year for unlimited free delivery on orders over $35 across the US, will also get a Paramount+ Essential subscription for free. Walmart’s membership prices will remain the same; it’s just the service will now come with an answer to Amazon’s Prime Video.
Adidas has teamed up with Zound Industries to make the RPT-02 SOL on-ear headphones, which can be charged with either natural or artificial light. It’s made of a combination of recycled plastic and nylon, and the headband is a highly flexible light-cell material that can be screen-printed onto plastic. The RPT-02 SOL retails for $229 and will be available online on August 23rd.
Neural DSP is best known for its high-quality amp models, whether that’s its $1,850 Quad Cortex floor modeler or plugins for your DAW. Its latest offering is the €139 (roughly $142) Archetype: Rabea plugin. The Archetype series is a collection of artist collabs where Neural builds out a set of amp sims and effects to capture the essence of that particular musician’s sound. While a variety of artists across genres have worked with the company, the Archetype series has definitely trended toward the heavier end of the spectrum, with names like Gojira, Tosin Abasi, and John Petrucci getting involved. Rabea Massaad definitely falls into that category with his band Frog Leap, and backing up Stormzy. But Archetype: Rabea adds an interesting new wrinkle to Neural DSP’s formula – a synth.
Before we get to the synth part, let’s run through the core features. There are three amp sims in Archetype: Rabea – clean, rhythm and lead, which cover everything from bright Fender chimes, to death metal chug, to unadulterated shred. There are around 100 presets included that make dialing in tones simple. Neural takes a very skeuomorphic approach to interface design, and if you’ve ever used a guitar amp before (which I’ll assume you have if you’re reading this), you’ll feel right at home. All three amps sound pretty good right out of the box and it’s easy to tweak them to your liking.
Archetype isn’t just a handful of amp sims bundled together, though. You can combine those amps with various different speaker cabinets, simulated different mic placements, and there’s a four-band EQ for further fine tuning the tone.
The bottom end is quite tight and the distortion satisfying. I don’t think anyone is likely to mistake Neural’s plugins for a real-deal tube amp. But that’s kinda beside the point, as long as it sounds good. The sound straight out of the box is very full and sounds great on its own, but needs heavy EQing to sit right in a mix. Also, the amp sims can get quite noisy, almost like you’re standing right in front of a real cranked amp. Thankfully, there’s a noise gate builtin – make friends with it.
The whole point of Archetype is to be a complete guitar rig, so you also get a bunch of effects with each installment, too. Rabea comes with a compressor, octaver, overdrive, fuzz, delay and reverb “pedals,” as well as pitch shifting and doubling effects. Again, while these cover a wide variety of tones, they really excel at the heavier end of the spectrum, which is where many other digital amp and effects sims can fall flat in my opinion.
All of the effects are pretty solid, but the octaver and reverb are easily my favorite. The octaver lets you blend in both an octave below and above what you’re playing, and has both a vintage and modern mode. The former is great if you’re looking for that dirtier, glitchier old-school vibe. The reverb has a freeze function, with independent pitch control which – when combined with the octaver and doubler – delivers truly lush pads that will drone on forever. You can even change the pitch while you’re playing over it to create progressions. It’s a fascinating way to start sketching out ideas for songs, but it’s not really practical for performing.
But what really sets Archetype: Rabea apart is the Overlord Synth. It’s a dual oscillator, monophonic, subtractive synth that follows the pitch of your guitar. This is a first for Neural DSP, and the company claims it’s a “world-first,” though I couldn’t independently confirm that claim. What I can say is that there are pitch-tracking guitar synth pedals and MIDI guitars that can control synths, there are also pitch-tracking tools that you can pair with a softsynth to control it with a guitar, but I wasn’t able to find an all-in-one pitch-tracking guitar synth VST.
The sound engine itself is nothing too fancy: two oscillators with four waveshape options, a low pass filter with four different modes, a fairly basic arpeggiator, and a pair of envelopes to control the amplitude and filter. You can coax dreamy and delicate plucks out of it, but it really shines as a synth bass machine. Because the options are limited, even someone new to synths should have a fairly easy time coming to grips with Overlord.
Of course, the big question is how well it tracks input from your guitar. And I’m happy to report that it’s nearly perfect. Now, it’s monophonic, so you can’t play big synth chords the way you might with a MIDI controller, but it had no trouble keeping up with groove metal riffs and mid-tempo pentatonic solos. The demos on Neural’s site even make it sounds like it can handle finger tapping, but my finger tapping skills are basically non-existent. There was rarely a stray note, or odd abrupt cut off. It’s easily some of the best pitch-tracking I’ve seen in a plugin. There is the occasional artifact when sliding around the neck, but once you adjust your playing style it’s pretty to minimize them.
All sounds in this demo, other than the drums, are created using only a guitar running through Archetype: Rabea.
The real magic starts happening, though, when you combine all these various elements together. You can blend in the synth with your guitar, pitch the oscillators one fifth and one octave below, turn on the doubling effect and create just a massive wall of sound. You can then freeze that using the reverb pedal, retune the synth to play the same note and an octave up, and solo over that drone in equally bombastic style. Archetype: Rabea is basically guitar tone maximalism at its finest.
If you’re already a fan of Neural DSP’s products, Archetype: Rabea is an easy sell. It’s a high-quality virtual guitar rig with a truly excellent synth built in. Even if you’re primarily interested in the synth side of things, the €139 isn’t too bad. Yes, the synth is fairly basic, but you get a handful of effects to process it, and the pitch tracking is top notch. You’re probably gonna pay at least $99 for any decent commercial synth plugin, so an extra $40 to be able to natively control it with your guitar is a small price to pay.
Fresh off the heels of “Hot in Herre,” Nelly blessed the public with yet another hit: “Dilemma.” The R&B song was released in June 2002 and features Kelly Rowland as a woman smitten with Nelly despite being in a relationship with someone else. The song is a staple in Y2K music culture, and today is actually a special…
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
