The Drill Sergeant / More Than Human

First Part: You've almost made it to the CEO's office. Only one more obstacle lies between you and them: The Drill Sergeant, a former Soldier who is now Head of Security at Evil MegaCorp. After losing it in war, his left hand was replaced with an electric drill augmentation that soon turned him into a firm believer in human-machine symbiosis. During the next few years, he augmented his body with more and more bionic tools, to the point that without his augmentations, he would no longer be able to survive. Don't be fooled by this, however: He knows how to use his tools as deadly weapons and won't hesitate to do so against anyone threatening MegaCorp. You will need to give it your all if you want to stand any chance against this foe.

...

Second Part: The Drill Sergeant lies on the floor, barely any lifeforce remaining in him. As the last augmentations are powering off, his brain finally stops being clouded by external signals and he realizes that he's been living a lie. He cannot be saved, but in his final moments, he finds redemption by telling you the access code to the CEO's office. He wishes you the best of luck. You will need it for the battle ahead.

This is our (girlfriend + me) entry for the OST Crunchtime Composing Jam #2. After we had such a blast the last time, we knew we had to participate again. So this weekend, instead of building some furniture as we originally intended, we did a recording session instead.

When we first read the theme, we were a little unsure if we could consolidate it with out style; after all, recording analog instruments doesn't really feel very cyberpunk to me. In the end, however, I think we found a neat balance between manual recording and digital effects / post-processing. And I very much recommend everyone to use a vocoder on a set of electric drills, it's a lot of fun!

Soundcloud Link:

https://soundcloud.com/lukas-who-892512337/the-drill-sergeant-more-than-human

Making-of video:

Tools used:

Software: Ableton Live 11 Lite, TAL Vocoder 2 plugin

Hardware: A lot, including stuff we actually bought at a hardware store. Go watch our making-of video!