Muse Ember vs GLM 5.3
Muse Ember took 3 min 48 s and $0.065 at list price, GLM 5.3 took 22 min 22 s and $0.34 at list price. GLM 5.3 took 5.9× as long and cost 5.2× as much.
Muse Ember
Meta · $0.50/M out · 346 HN pts
GLM 5.3
Z.ai · $1.40/M out · 3,306 HN pts
Pelican
Generate an SVG of a pelican riding a bicycle
Watch
Draw a mechanical wristwatch that shows the current local time, with a sweeping seconds hand and a date window. Make it look expensive.
Landing
Build the landing page for Lumen Cycles, a Copenhagen workshop that builds custom cargo bikes to order. Make it look like a real brand you would trust with 4,000 euros.
Breakout
Make a Breakout game I can play right now with the keyboard or the mouse. Give it several levels, a score and some juice.
Logo
Design a logo for Night Heron, an independent bookshop that only opens after dark.
About
Write the opening of the About us page for Patchbay, a three-person studio in Rotterdam that repairs vintage synthesizers. About 150 words.
Patchbay is a three-person studio in Rotterdam repairing vintage synthesizers. We work carefully, one instrument at a time, because old machines deserve patience. Our bench is crowded with test leads, spare knobs, tired capacitors, and service manuals held together by tape. Every repair begins with listening. We power up the synth, play a few notes, and trace the fault by ear before opening the case. Perhaps the filter drifts as it warms. Maybe a voice cuts out, or the envelope behaves strangely. We clean contacts, replace components only when necessary, and keep original parts wherever possible. We believe repair is a form of preservation. These instruments were built to be played for decades, not replaced when something small fails. Rotterdam has a long history of making and fixing things, and we are proud to continue that tradition. Bring us your beloved keyboard, and we will see what can be saved.
Patchbay is a three-person workshop in Rotterdam where vintage synthesizers come back to life. Whatever lands on our bench — a battered Minimoog, a Juno with dead keys, an ARP silent since the eighties — gets the same treatment: careful diagnosis, honest advice, and repairs done right.
We started Patchbay because we believe a good synthesizer shouldn't die of old age. These machines are more than circuits and sliders — they're the sound of records you grew up with, and the reason some of us got into music in the first place. Every one we fix goes back out into the world ready to make more.
Between us we handle everything from recapping and calibration to keybed work and the hunt for parts nobody has made in decades. It's slow, meticulous work, and we like it that way. If something in your collection hums, crackles, or refuses to turn on, bring it in — we'll see what we can do.
Specs and numbers
| Muse Ember | GLM 5.3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Meta | Z.ai |
| Made in | US | China |
| Released | 9 Nov 2026 | 18 Aug 2026 |
| Price in, per M tokens | $0.10 | $0.07 |
| Price out, per M tokens | $0.50 | $1.40 |
| Context | 1,048,576 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens |
| Weights | closed | open |
| Hacker News points | 346 | 3,306 |
| Time for the six prompts | 3 min 48 s | 22 min 22 s |
| List price of the six prompts | $0.065 | $0.34 |
Muse Ember was cheaper: $0.27 less at list price, and less on 5 of the 6 prompts. Muse Ember was faster: 18 min 34 s less in total, and faster on 5 of the 6 prompts.
In the recording, Muse Ember's Breakout game plays; GLM 5.3's stopped painting. GLM 5.3's Breakout game showed a blank first frame when the still was taken.
Tea Garden experiment: GLM 5.3's game passed 1 of 5 checks; Muse Ember was not in it.





