Drone synths

Where does a drone synth stop and a noise box start? The Moody Sounds Baby Box sort of crosses into both territories depending on how you caress it. Its self oscillation, distortion and echo together can be melded into all manner of amazing drone sounds. One of my favourites. Certainly bring it out more than my Grendel Drone Commander as sculpting its chaos is much more fun.

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I’m ignorant when it comes to drone synths and I’ve found this thread quite interesting. I’d normally just use a normal synth for drones etc.

If you were diy minded you could make something like this really simply at home. It looks like its using a 40106 hex inverter for the oscillators and a handful of pots and resistors (6) for the pitch control. 6 switches and 12 caps for the range/off control. The filter… I’d be interested to see what they’re using… doesn’t look like there’s much else going on unless it’s all hiding under the battery. Cv control is just powering the full thing from the cv input rather than offering proper FM control.

I’m not knocking it but it is making me think of knocking a little drone synth together myself. What are the main features that folks think define drone synths and what they ‘really’ need? (Beyond oscillators). I’ve looked at a few on this thread but they seem to off different functionality per device (a bit like synths! :see_no_evil:)

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Here’s 20mins of one Rev2 patch for your “enjoyment”.

(not exactly “small format” tho’ :smiley: )

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oh help, browsing their shop now and everything looks amazing! thanks/how dare you!

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Paul Tas is the man for serious drone machines supplies : )

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It’s not a drone synth thread without a Drone Commander x Space video (not mine):

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I’m sure I saw a modded one (bitch box) at some point but I can’t find any reference to it anywhere…

It sounds fantastic. Feedback is easy to set up but hard to control and even harder to develop in a musical way! Perhaps I need a Strega to go with my new 0-coast…

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I have the minimal version. Maybe this too small of a format. All I know is, it’s fun to use with cv.

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my favorite drone machine is Korg NTS-1.
however, i’ve spent quite some money on 3rd party oscillators & effects for it.

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There seem to be multiple versions of the Baby Box around.

I’ve got a v3.1 (I think) with the foot switchable bypass and a fuzz/distortion circuit. Its a bunch of fun

But there are clearly a lot earlier versions around with slightly different designs (supposedly various versions of the Baby Box have been banging around in Sweden since 1976), this one seems to have mods to the side that perhaps add stuff that was later integrated into an updated design.

the v3.2 has some nice improvements on the 3.1 with an effects loop and expression pedal inputs added

And…there is now a super desirable v4… Baby Box Noise Generator v4 - moodysounds - with no exp pedal but (slightly ridiculously) an AM receiver and (rather more usefully) a bandpass filter. But at £550/$780 the price seems seems a bit steep, given you can (if you are patient) pick up a 3.1 or 3.2 for £100-150 on Ebay

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I’ve got one of the Maximal drones. Great little thing! Don’t use it much but had a play last night with Rooms reverb by DBA and the ZOIA doing some glitchy stuff. Almost in Lyra territory :slight_smile:

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Is this the Bitch Box you are looking for? It looks slightly Baby Box like, but not sure its the same thing - more of a massively complicated feedback looper

https://www.noisewiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=BitchBOX

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Yes I remember trying to work this out a while back and getting confused!
It’s one of those boxes I know I’ll have at some point. The one with the fx loop I think, that makes it a whole lot more flexible.
[EDIT] sounds great with that chorus eh!

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That looks like it actually - must have got confused, you’re right it’s not the same thing.
Better yet, I thought noisewiki had died (noise forums & pages don’t seem to last long at all) so glad to find out I was wrong there too!

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Any audio examples of said drones?

Thanks very much!

I do like it but in some ways it’s uncompromising. It’s basically a very big delay that just wants to delay. A lot. So it’s got some territory to explore but it can be fairly restrictive in range of possible sounds. But if you’re into that sound, it’s really cool.

I feel like the Sonic Lab review was the most honest: https://youtu.be/QodncN8jhDU

Good luck :slight_smile:

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So what purchases work well for drones? (I’m guessing Sinevibes…)

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It’s not small, but the fusion system is the one when it comes to drones.

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Elaborate pleas