Open Challenge #7 - Droning On

A new challenge open to all Elektronauts.

A simple task: create a one-minute drone.
The challenge however is to make it interesting to listen to for one minute.

The rules:

-No key changes.

-No drums / percussion.

-Other than stated above, use whatever instruments, amps, mics, effects you like.

-Chords / harmonic notes are allowed (no chord changes or arpeggio’s though).

-Pitch bends are allowed (as long as they are not used as compositional key changes).

-Automation is allowed.
(for instance, you could make the sound move rhythmically by sequencing or LFO-ing the filter, amp envelope, delay feedback or whatever, just stay true to it sounding and feeling droney).

-One minute, no more, no less.

-MP3 uploads, Bandcamp, Soundcloud or Youtube links are all accepted.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Deadline for submissions is March 31, 2022.

Have fun!

Here’s a little vid to get in the right frame of mind.

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Cool! I’m in!

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Excellent! I actually wanted to try some drone stuff with the model:cycles for some time.

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Something I recorded a while back with a Lyra-8. Tarted up with a little FabFilter Pro-L and Pro-Q.

Listen with monitors or headphones to hear that beefy low end.

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Oh yeah, I’m in too. This is a task for my UDO Super 6. Nice to hear from you @MarcD!

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@williohm / @claid I think the aim of such challenge is more about creating new tracks, would be cool to get back to your synths and drone for (exactly, @MarcD said) a minute :tongue:

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@MarcD Would white noise/ unsequenced pops and clicks be allowed, or would those fall under percussion?

Yay! I love to drone. Count me in, please.

I’m down. Strega/Draume combo could be great for this!

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Definitely will put some Strega in this ^^

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I haven’t made any drone/ambient stuff in far too long, so this was a nice change of pace, so thank you @MarcD! I used VCV Rack to create the drone, and recorded that to tape, before re-recording it through VCV for some more effects.

Nerdy breakdown

1 oscillator FM-d by another, with the output tuned to D#. Output sent through a filter and then filter sent through a quad saturation, distortion, bitcrusher, and wavefolder. After that, it went through aux sends to reverb, delay, and a secondary reverb. I recorded a minute or so of the drone, and then took that recording and rerecorded it to my handheld cassette player. Then I recorded the cassette’s output back into the computer. From there I edited the length a bit, added some extra reverb, and then sent that recording back through VCV to widen the stereo field back up. (The cassette player is mono.)

Here’s the patch for those who are interested:

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Okay, you got me. :joy: Was being a bit lazy phoning it in with one from the archives. Will record something new. Thanks for the push. :slight_smile:

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quick and drity, lost control/mix a bit with the resonance, but meh. 1 minute

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Only one entry/person?

I’ll bite!! Done on the Hydrasynth, 2 oscillators, lfo shenanigans on pitch and wave position.

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Digitakt only, using 6 of the 8 tracks, each using the default ‘Clap’ sample

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Three sweeps of some sounds found on my Norns run through the Makebreakbeat script (there are no beats resulting…), mangled by several MS-70CDR FX, then spatialised and panned.

Maximum volume

yields maximum results. And maybe also clipping.

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Some modular with lots of LFOs, various reverbs and delays, some synth, and other processing. Probably could use some better mixing.

Edit: deleted and added a new mix downthread.

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That’s fine, I’ll let you be the judge about it being too percussive or not.

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Yes, but if you submitted one and want to change it for something else, that’s fine with me. Just delete the earlier one and submit the new one. As long as you do it before April 15, you’re good.
So one entry per person for the open judging thingy in the end.

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