Recently, I became very interested in creating drones. Some guys in this forum had been posting impressive drones. What are your approaches?
I used iPad apps so far with some good results: Animoog sampled into Borderlands, Samplr and iDensity plus a whoosh of reverb. Sounds with someone crazy overtones, player at very low Patch, mixed with some stuff blending in and out on higher frequencies. I’m going to try sampling electric power sounds from cables next. What else?
Modular synths would probably be the most obvious tool. What do you wire with what to make drones?
the trick for the noobs out there, clearly you are one MK7 ( heheeeehe) … is to stay calm and chill-… when I do drone stuff on the A4 I deffo need 15 min to let the sound evolve… there are hardly instant drones…
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seen from space made an excellent tutorial …
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osc2 feedback page 2 fetish thread here in this forum will also help you out…
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bear in mind when saving sounds, the fx channel settings are going to the KIT and not sound …
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wait a minute, u dont have an A4 anymore ???
Yes, I don’t have an A4 anymore, the Elektron machine that I miss the most. I don’t own a modular either, but descriptions of approaches on specific maschines help me understanding general approaches.
Thanks for your suggestions.
Having watched quite a lot of drone videos in the meantime, I noticed that I need to be more specific: I’m interested in dark, deep, rough, heavy drones, not so much in some gentle, nice ambient pads. How do you get those brutal base tones with crackling, crazy stuff going on? Probably I need a good analog base note/sample and just have to layer crackles on top? Borderlands and iDensity are great for some crackles.
Just layering and blending elements in/out?
What are key elements needed for dark, heavy drones? I had some great success with just 3 samples: bass note with some modulations going on, vocal sample plus a coin drop sample for hihat-like elements. What else?
You would also help me by pointing me to dark, heavy, modular etc. drones. I don’t find the post where someone in this forum was showcasing a nice heavy drone of this kind, but I don’t find it anymore.
I’ve found a interesting why to make drones. I go outside at night and turn on my IPhone and go to the camera and set it to slo mo. I’ve made some very interesting drones that way. I then put them in my MicroGranny then into the Op-1 for FX then back to MicroGranny and then in the A4. Just how I’ve been doing it lately.
Personally, certain types of music or sound write naturally. It’s who you are, known or not, you are made to create a style(s) of music. The origins of this serves no purpose here but I personally observe this to be true. The question is, do you write the music or does the music write for you (itself)? And if it writes for you (itself), where does that come from? It’s what you are and it’s that that is innate.
In general, that’s why I like Elektron machines, even thou bound by time, the sound generated becomes organic, textured, the sound evolves, it becomes alive, it converses with you, you become a passenger. That’s a drone. It’s either in you or it’s not. Drones are dark, are you dark? Naturally?
Examples pls? I’m not a drone music connosseur and haven’t the slightest idea what you mean by “dark heavy drones”… You mean like dark ambient or something?
@SineWolf: interesting approach, gonna try that as well!
@energyovertime: tuned feedback, gated delay, yeah right before it starts screaming, had a lot of fun with this one in the meantime. also good point about the choice between different delay types.
@filosofem: very philosophical thoughts. I agree that music transports something about yourself, because you make a lot of choices along the way. Probably the best way then is to just let it evolve. That’s also basically the most interesting part about drones.
@Lying Dalai: yes, maybe, but I mean dark as “bass-heavy, raw” plus reverb. Many of the drones I find in the internet are very bright, pad-like, shimmery, which also contains a lot of reverb.
@franz maslow: thanks, gonna try that, so also increasing detune over time.
@tsutek: I don’t find an example of the vision of a drone that I have in mind, but I also don’t think that I’m inventing something new here. It’s just difficult to find the music that you’re searching for by searching for “modular dark drone” in youtube. You get videos of black little helicopters then, you know It’s a new field for me that I’m just starting to discover, but I know that I heard great drones here in this forum before I got interested in this topic!
I appreciate the comments, thanks! One of my two music iPad’s is about to become a dedicated drone machine.
Ahh ok now I think I know what you mean a bit better. You might want to check out some dark ambient music as well while you’re at it!
My suggestion is to experiment with modular FM synthesis, at least that is how I always manage to have fun with “dark, bassy growling droney noodles”. I loved AAS Tassman for this kind of stuff, gotta try anew with the new Reaktor blocks and my Nord micromodular.
For iPad, I strongly recommend the Tera synth, it’s excellent for this sorta stuff too!
It’s a new field for me that I’m just starting to discover, but I know that I heard great drones here in this forum before I got interested in this topic!