God Hand EP

Hey guys, I've been away for some time, but now I return with an announcement:
I'm working on a Drum and Bass EP based on the God Hand. Aside from personal sites (blog, facebook, soundcloud), I don't plan on disseminating this to other sites until I am done and satisfied with the results. However, I thought I'd post it here because out of all the other sites, I would really value feedback from you guys. I understand that a lot of people aren't really into DnB, but it's the genre that I like to work in the most, and it's the genre that I've chosen for this project. I also understand that I will not come close to the talent of Susumu Hirasawa, so let's get that out of the way right now:

01010111, you're not as good as Hirasawa.

OK. So what I'm specifically looking for is insight into the God Hand. What are your impressions of the separate members? I know there isn't a lot to go by, but I would appreciate any descriptions that come to mind.

Aside from feedback, I hope some of you really enjoy the music, my main goal here is to get these tunes added into at least one person's "Music I listen to while reading Berserk" playlists.

Here's the first track for the EP, entitled Ceremony. It's an intro to the EP focusing on the Eclipse Ceremony. I focused on making a track that was ethereal yet unrelentingly violent and inhuman.
B.Ultra&Basic - Ceremony

Like I said earlier, feedback is highly valued, and any tracks I post here are not set in stone, but are to be considered works in progress. I apologize also for not having a downloadable link, but I'd prefer to keep things the way they are until the EP is complete.

Thanks you guys, hope you enjoy!

Interesting! And I want to hear it, but for some reason it won't play for me on that site. (using Vista, Firefox)

Nice track, man. It's got a good amount of ominous, hectic, and powerful in there. I look forward to hearing more.

@Bekul - I'm using the Vista/FF combo as well, and no trouble here. I have noticed though that Soundcloud's player sometimes takes an awful long time to load and begin to play. I apologize for this, but I chose to use that site because of the comment capabilities and also the ability to share/embed in blogs etc. Try again, and if you're still having trouble PM me :)

@Gobolatula - Thanks, I'm glad some of the things I was trying to get across translated well!

Also, the next track I plan on working on is based on Conrad. Some keywords that I'll be focusing on will be Disease/Pestilence, Swarm, and Famine. I plan on making a eerie track somewhere in the realms of Darkstep, Techstep and Neurofunk. Any other suggestions on Conrad?

It works for me, and I have FF and Vista.

I do like aspects of it, but I think once the drum and bass kick in, the bpm takes off like a rocket and it loses the atmospheric qualities it starts off with. I realize that's probably the intent of the track, but for something like the Eclipse I think that atmospheric and slow build really add to the dread of the scene.

Any way you cut it though, I always enjoy listening to music inspired by Berserk!

@Walter - That's a good point, and it was something that I was considering when making the track. I was a little worried for more mainstream audiences the intro was already a bit long. Also, the album isn't meant to be entirely chronological, so I wanted this to portray the entire Ceremony while leaving out themes that will be explored in other tracks (so as to not have this just be a medley). I'll experiment some with lighter aspects and maybe bring down the BPM a tad.
Thanks for the input!

Nice Job! I really like the sound of it and I can see you you were inspired by berserk. However, I agree with Walter. I could see this working well with Guts and some of the fighting scenes with the hawks -but not so much griffith and his becoming the last member of the God Hand. I guess it doesn't feel evil enough? If I were to do anything to it I'd work on the atmosphere and try to tone down the fast beat, while retaining it in some manner. The fast paced beat-boxy sound kind of dissipates the ominous mood you created by the long intro. You were going in the right direction with the deep bass. The drips at the beginning added to the atmosphere quite well. Keep in mind I know just about nothing about creating music. : P just going from a gut feeling here.

Anyways, I hope my opinion helps you as you continue working! would love to hear more of your work.

@Aphasia - Thanks for the input! I'm planning on having a track solely dedicated to Griffith and his transformation, so I didn't want to repeat it so much in this track. But I will take it all into consideration. Also gut feelings are usually good to go on when making music :) Thanks again!

I too have to agree with Walter. I think you should slow things down and basically try to make the track as disturbing as possible. Easier said than done, of course. As for Conrad, to add to what you said, I would describe him as "insidious". Musically, I'd try something that insinuates itself, slowly but irrepressibly, all the while degenerating. Add in something resembling his laughter for fun.

@Aazealh - Hah, funny you should mention laughter, I've been going through a bunch of SFX lately and found a huge load of laughter fx, although they are super hard to use without sounding super cheesy, but it's been something I've been known to do in the past!

[EDIT] reuploaded the track, tried to slow it down, but it lost too much bite, so I toned the drums down a little bit, also tweaked the main bass and added a few bits.

Tonight has been pretty productive, I've started work on Conrad. Decided to go the dubstep route.
B.Ultra&Basic - Conrad [WIP]
Any criticism on this is extremely valuable because it's still "in the womb" so things are highly malleable. I'm a strong proponent of Open Source Music, and while I'm not going to let you guys near my equipment, I do value commentary from Peanut gallery :)

01010111 said:

Tonight has been pretty productive, I've started work on Conrad. Decided to go the dubstep route.
B.Ultra&Basic - Conrad [WIP]

Click to expand...

Hey, I like that one a LOT! I think you did a great job with the sound effects in the background, and on top of that, the core rhythm is catchy. It has a good plodding pace, just like the demigod himself.

My main critique is that it's too short Though I'd also try experimenting with bringing some of those background vocal-type SFX between 00:22-00:40 closer to the foreground to see how it gels with the rest. I have some pretty awesome Sennheiser headphones, so Im unsure if others can catch them as distinctly. Even with that technicality aside, they sound creepy enough to play a larger role.

@Walter - haha thanks! I'm just touching up a few things, it took all morning to get the bass to a point where I like it, it was seriously lacking some teeth last night
I also brought up the level on the spooky voices and the intro synth, as well as added a little bit. I'm sorta at a point where I don't know where else I want to go with it, and I feel like repeating the 'verse' again might make it a tad repetitive. Might have to take a break on it and come back with fresh ears.
Ok, it's reuploaded!
[EDIT] OK, so it's NOT reuploaded! I'm experiencing issues with Soundcloud, will try to reupload later tonight!
[EDIT] OK, so it IS uploaded! I left it alone for a long time and now it works. Go figure.

[EDIT]OK, did another version of Conrad, brought the bass up a bit, but most importantly I added a bit to the end, it goes into 3/4 time, not sure if I want to keep it or toss it. From a purely producer standpoint, I like it, I like how it comes in and contrasts with the rest of the track, and I like how it segways out into the main chorus line dubstyle, but from a Conrad standpoint, I'm not sure it works. What do you guys think?

Good good, I like it. You should maybe have a intro more so of sorts of rat squicks or something, starting with the sound of a few rats and then have have the sound of a peek with the overwhelming sound of rats, then maybe the music kicks in. But really, what you got works just fine. Good job, can't wait to hear the next.

@Death May Die - Thanks! I played a little bit around with laughter fx and after scouring gigs of animal sounds I've got, I can't find any rats
I'm may take a few day's break before I start working on the next track, which I think might be Slan. I've got some ideas floating around, but nothing solid yet!

Its very impressive, normally I'm not a fan of Drum&Bass music but this is as good as it gets. Also I can pretty much picture this song being used for the Eclipse just looking over the landscape of the whole area.

Aw man I'm such a huge fan of drum and bass! I think the intro on Godhand is a bit long. I like the lead into it. In terms of speed it's fine for me. I don't think you should slow it down since it just wouldn't be drum and bass anymore.


What do you have in mind for a Slan track? I'm thinking of female sighs(almost orgasmic ones but not too much to be obvious). Small laughs here and there. I think the track would have more drums than bass and a steady continuous beat. Not as fast as your Godhand track.

01010111 said:

Tonight has been pretty productive, I've started work on Conrad. Decided to go the dubstep route.
B.Ultra&Basic - Conrad [WIP]
Any criticism on this is extremely valuable because it's still "in the womb" so things are highly malleable. I'm a strong proponent of Open Source Music, and while I'm not going to let you guys near my equipment, I do value commentary from Peanut gallery :)

Click to expand...

I LOVE this as well. The slow beautifully dreadful music in the beginning is genius. I didn't like the beats you had for 2:16-2:38. Just don't like that wa-wa-wa-wah-wah sound the beat itself sounds good just not with that sound. It's the best way I could describe the sound I didn't like.

Overall, you have some great beats man. I love it. I don't know if you've heard of them but there's this group called Dawn of Ashes that has creepy like techno beats that reminds me a bit of your sound.

@Skullgrin - I'm always glad I could convey something through music!
@ori - A bunch of people have commented that the intro is way too long, I'm thinking about shortening it, but I liked having it that long to build tension. I'll experiment and see if I can get a shorter intro that I can stay happy with. Now that you mention it, I kinda agree on the wobble bass at 2:16. I'm going to try for something else later this week. Thanks! I'll check out that band, I've never been too into industrial (which is what wikipedia tells me) but you never know when you'll find something you like!

I have to say conrad was pretty badass. I really enjoyed it. : ) I think it fits his personality well. I agree though that some rat sound FX would've been crazy.

@ Aphasia - Thanks! I'll take a look around the net and see if I can find any suitable rat sounds.

I've been lazy recently (moving), but look what I found!
http://soundcloud.com/b-ultra-basic/forces-gameboy-mix-preview
Sorry it's just a preview!

haha, fucking NICE, Mr. Binary. I also look forward to more of the EP.