160-210 BPM • made november 2023
it's actually taken me until july 2024 to do this writeup, so i might be missing a few things. anyways, this was a REAL interesting track to make. 160 bpm is a bit slower than i usually do, but i felt like doing some schranz after downloading a hardtechno sample pack from the internet. "devillic sphere" by 3r2 was also stuck in my head after remembering it exists thanks to the cytus ii x arcaea collab, and you can probably hear the influence. that alarm-y sound prominent in the first half was from the aforementioned sample pack, and had some quick pitch bending and reverb applied to it. the stab synth was actually from there too, but i ended up removing some distortion (specifically serum's built-in distortion effect) for mixing purposes. the first section was actually rather quick to make, but i was stumped afterwards. i made a quick n dirty version of it that was long enough to be a full song, but the mixing was ass and i could *not* figure it out. back to the drawing board. i threw in some vocal samples from the vengeance packs, added some automated panning, and from there, kinda figured it would be a dnb section? ironic, since one of the things i wanted to do with this song was make smth thats not dnb after making two dnb tracks. i threw in a drum break sitting around, layered it with a basic dnb pattern, yadda yadda yadda you get the idea. the bass i used is actually a stock serum preset i had also used previously in "robotic thigh highs". the orch hit sample that comprises the melody here is actually where the name came from. i shared a wip on discord and a friend suggested calling it "cranked" because the orch hits reminded him of crank that by soulja boy (honestly it was probably the exact same sample since its a stock fl studio sample), so CRANKED!!!! it is. i think? after that i had originally wanted to have the last section go back to schranz, but i was feeling ambitious. time for a bpm change! 210 bpm happy hardcore babey!!!! it was originally gonna be 190 bpm cause i was inspired by the 170-200 bpm speed up in "lucid traveller" by akira complex vs 3r2 (can you tell i mostly listen to arcaea music), but i eventually sped it up to 200 then 210. i didnt have a lot of experience with hardcore, so the goal was something basic but competent. i think ive written enough badabing badaboom its CRANKED!!!! i got my friend (@kolsartdump on twt) to do the cover art like he had done with weird wolf beats vol. 1, and decided on atlas doing the sonic adventure pose. both of those things would kinda become recurring elements. overall, i like what i did with the track, but i think there's a lot of room for improvement, particularly in the mixing.