KVR Audio

BONES · Post by **BONES** » Wed Dec 17, 2025 7:34 am

We're reverse-engineering all of the parts, except a few sound effect kinds of things. Most of the backing in any of our songs comes from Studio One and these will be the same. I usually play a lead or pad part - something that feels appropriate, using a VSTi in Studio One - and my bandmate plays percussion on stage. There are a couple of songs where I play two different parts but mostly I play something simple so I can concentrate on my vocals and the audience.

There's a song on our 2024 album with AI vocals. It's from when we were first playing around with AI to see what it had to offer us. The plan had been to get the AI to do a guide vocal, because it was a piece of prose generated by ChatGPT (I only changed one word), but it did such a great job that we used it on the finished song. We've played it a couple of times and I just let the AI do the vox, even though it sounds like me, while I play a couple of synth parts. (We always play it as the first song in the set.)

We're not precious about any of that stuff, we just want to put on a good show for the people who turn up to see us. We're not trying to impress anyone with our mad skills, all we want to do is entertain our audience and you can't really do that if all you do is stand behind a keyboard, playing.

Cavey Arrgh · Post by **Cavey Arrgh** » Wed Dec 17, 2025 4:36 pm

Thanks for the reply. I think the fact that you're manually recreating (in a plugin) almost all aspects that came from AI even further justifies your argument for those who are giving you a hard time about it. In that case AI is like a preset that happens to (mostly) have the sound you want, and you adjust to taste. I know you've already said this, so I'm just agreeing.

BONES · Post by **BONES** » Wed Dec 17, 2025 10:29 pm

It's still an experiment and maybe when we put our vocals on it, it will all fall apart. If that happens, we'll release it all with the AI vocals as a side-project. If we do that, then we'll probably use the original AI output, with a bit of mix balancing and mastering from us. Even if our vox don't wreck it, we may end up releasing the AI versions anyway, just as a curiosity for those who might be interested. The AI vocals are so over the top in places that it makes us laugh, so there might be some value in letting others hear them.

BONES · Post by **BONES** » Sat Dec 27, 2025 11:55 pm

we dropped to no. 8 on the DAC album chart this week, which is a bit disappointing. Hopefully we can bounce back next week, I'd hate to be out in just four weeks.

BONES · Post by **BONES** » Mon Jan 05, 2026 11:25 pm

Still hanging in there at no. 8. There was no new chart last week and a couple of albums that I thought might push us out have dropped out themselves, so I'm pretty happy with where we are.

vurt · Post by **vurt** » Mon Jan 05, 2026 11:36 pm

congratulations.

audiojunkie · Post by **audiojunkie** » Tue Jan 06, 2026 12:03 am

BONES wrote: Mon Jan 05, 2026 11:25 pm Still hanging in there at no. 8. There was no new chart last week and a couple of albums that I thought might push us out have dropped out themselves, so I'm pretty happy with where we are.

Cool!

BONES · Post by **BONES** » Mon Jan 12, 2026 12:44 pm

Woo-hoo! We're back up to no. 5 this week. If we can hang in for a few more weeks, we might do OK as some of the others, who've been in longer than us, drop out. Fingers crossed, people.

Screenshot 2026-01-12 234042.png

BONES · Post by **BONES** » Tue Jan 20, 2026 12:28 am

We're number 2 this week! That matches the performance of our 2020 album, Iconoclast. One more spot and we can match 2016's (D)Anger!. To do it at this time of year makes it a bit more special.

Screenshot 2026-01-20 112318.png

It's interesting because if you look at the scores, we've actually lost 4 points but climbed three places. Whatevs, we're taking it.

audiojunkie · Post by **audiojunkie** » Tue Jan 20, 2026 6:22 pm

Congrats, @Bones! I'm truly happy for you!

Touch The Universe · Post by **Touch The Universe** » Tue Jan 20, 2026 6:28 pm

How are they ranked? Are you making lots of money, so by album sales?

BONES · Post by **BONES** » Wed Jan 21, 2026 5:12 am

No. If you look at the right-hand column, you see the points each release has gathered. They are awarded by a pool of around 500 "industry experts", presumably record company people, producers and DJs. So it's more like the Oscars, you're being judged by people who (hopefully) know what they are talking about.

Our 2016 album, (D)Anger! reached no. 1 but in its first half-year on sale, we only sold 69 CDs, so it's definitely got nothing to do with sales.

Seafire Mk2 · Post by **Seafire Mk2** » Wed Jan 21, 2026 5:59 am

Good work

Can't say I'm familiar with any of the other bands. Is it a genre specific chart?

BONES · Post by **BONES** » Thu Jan 22, 2026 1:23 am

Not really. When we first charted in 2016, both Red Hot Chilli Peppers and The Psychedelic Furs were in the chart with us. We didn't recognise any of these other bands, either. I've listened to some of them now and they are mostly a lot softer than us.

BONES · Post by **BONES** » Mon Jan 26, 2026 10:49 pm

Down one spot this week to no. 3. I think this might be our last week in the chart, so it looks like no. 2 will be the high point for this album. I'll take that every day of the week.

Screenshot 2026-01-27 094622.png

The album that rocketed past us into the no. 1 spot this week was, strangely, released in September. I'm not quite sure how that works.

NOVAkILL - New Album - BeLIEve