A Model Within is an experimental album that uses machine learning to create a unique listening experience. Trained with the DDSP algorithm and a mix of synthesized and recorded audio samples, the tracks on this album blur the lines between live instrumentation and digital manipulation. Each song was performed with the assistance of machine learning models, resulting in a sound that emulates a live performance within a digital environment.

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“Straddling the line between the synthetic and the natural, these five new pieces from Scott Young’s most far-out alias Satin Doll utilise machine learning plugins to test the limits of DDSP audio morphing. Or, in simpler terms, Satin Doll transports the listener to a head-scrambling psychedelic safari set in space with the ghost of Joe Meek in tow. All the spectral traces of early British radiophonic-era experimentalism are present with voice manipulation and decaying drones, though the alien beauty of the sound of the West African kora fed through the machine learning give a balance of palette. Perhaps the most emblematic of the vision at play here is ‘Crytrumpet’, where we quite literally hear the result of Young’s new-born wailing and bawling processed through the timbre of a trumpet.

The sound of the Japanese Shakuhachi flute, familiar to many as the one of the most sampled digital instruments of all time, also almost unrecognisably finds its way through the matrix along with Gregorian style chants flipped inside out, upside down and much, much more through the stereo field. As far as futuristic sound art goes, this is about as up to speed as it gets.” - Fergus Clark

Produced and mixed by Scott Young
Mastered by Roc Jiménez de Cisneros