00:10drones are kind of boring and depending
00:13on what kind of music you're trying to
00:14make with them that's kind of the point
00:17I guess and I must admit I love a good
00:20tasty drone myself wobbly tape
00:26drones Buzzy synth drones
00:37drones I like drones So today we're
00:40going to take a look at some of my
00:42personal favorite ways to use drones
00:44both focusing on the drones themselves
00:47and how to make them evolve and be more
00:50interesting and perhaps more importantly
00:53what we do around the Drone that can
00:55make even the most boring drone not that
00:59way maybe you could think of this as
01:01drones for the active listener who might
01:03actually buy your music on band camp
01:05rather than ways to get placed on that
01:08ambient drones to keep my dog from
01:10freaking out while I'm away at work all
01:16Spotify now just like our video about
01:18sequences I think one of the most
01:20important questions to ask ourselves
01:22that will influence all of the decisions
01:23we make with our drones is how does this
01:26drone function within the context of our
01:29track is it the foundation that
01:31everything else is built on top of does
01:34it serve as the root as the Basse note
01:36that's often the case or is there just a
01:39textural element of droning happening in
01:42the background and if the ladder is true
01:44we have a lot more possibilities of ways
01:46that we can do things like stack
01:48multiple drones and then we can get into
01:51maybe creating some interesting though
01:53stagnant harmonies and then how we move
01:56around those harmonies become really
01:58important with the other parts and we'll
02:01get into that now this is not a drone
02:04documentary as it were but it's safe to
02:07say that drones have been around for a
02:10long time hery Gertie bag pipes sitar
02:14Lyra 8 these are all older instruments
02:16some of them dating all the way back to
02:19the 201s but maybe the closest to my
02:21heart is an instrument that I've spent
02:23countless hours practicing over the last
02:27years wow that's depressing to think
02:29about the pipe organ now in western
02:31music you may have heard the term pedal
02:34point and that comes directly from the
02:36organ because it has pedals and it
02:39occurs in western music when we sustain
02:41a bass note over a long period And there
02:44are harmonic things happening above it
02:46cords changing like a lot of times
02:48you'll hear a sustained dominant in the
02:50base and all of this stuff happening
02:52above it to create tension until we
02:54finally resolve to the tonic later on
02:57don't worry it's not a theory video for
03:24example now if we apply a similar
03:27concept to this to electronic music we
03:31can use it to create tension we can use
03:32it to root us to a particular bass note
03:36a drawn and have that be the foundation
03:39of the track like this appropriately
03:51track the Basse note in this track never
03:54ever changes right interesting things
03:57have to happen above it and around it
03:59and textures have to change in order to
04:02keep things interesting even the Rhythm
04:04changes a bit because I activate an
04:06arpeggiator and then have that note just
04:08repeat in the base so we might not think
04:11of this as a traditional drone which we
04:13think of usually as a long sustained
04:16held note like the organ but it really
04:18functions as a drone it's a non-changing
04:21Basse note that sustains or continues
04:24repeats throughout the entire track it's
04:26essentially like a pedal tone or a pedal
04:37well what if we flip that concept on its
04:39head and instead of having the Drone be
04:41our foundation be our bass note we could
04:44move it to the mid-range or the high
04:46mids and have it be a more textural
04:48element that kind of acts like a
04:50connective tissue or a
04:52ligature something that's a through line
04:55through an entire piece while things
04:57move around it in my track monuments I
04:59did this with a Model D clone from from
05:03they Who Shall Not Be Named and on that
05:05synth you can switch off the pitch
05:08tracking for one of the oscillators and
05:10that's what I did and I considered
05:13having that be the root note like we
05:15talked about in that track Roots I
05:18really need to get more creative with my
05:20titles but instead I experimented a bit
05:22and I discovered that if I tuned it to
05:24the mid-range and had the base note and
05:27the note above it be the notes that
05:29moved around as I played then it could
05:31create some interesting rubs some
05:34interesting harmonies could be created
05:36because of the way that those two nodes
05:39interact on either side of that through
05:42line the draum I don't know if that made
05:44any sense whatsoever but here's what I
06:19so then I just improvised and
06:21experimented with some cords that I
06:23found interesting in the way that they
06:26interacted with that particular droning
06:29oscill and then at some point it
06:30occurred to me that you know a440 worked
06:33really well in this as well to create
06:35another droning partial above that so I
06:38used it in sort of a weird rhythmic way
06:41that I don't think they really had in
06:43mind when they put a tuning switch on
07:00this also frees up my Baseline so that I
07:02can have it move around because tracks
07:04like Roots I love that track but I like
07:07an interesting Baseline I feel like the
07:09Baseline is the second most important
07:11thing after the melodic idea or the
07:14sequence that is the primary focus you
07:16can change everything that happens above
07:19something by just changing the Basse
07:21note and that's something I really like
07:22to employ probably from all of my years
07:26as an organist realizing that just
07:28changing the pedal note can change
07:30everything that happens above it now by
07:33definition drones don't move around
07:35harmonically they're stagnant as we've
07:37already talked about and if they're
07:39somewhat exposed like they're not shoved
07:42away in the background kind of like in
07:44monuments then I think it's important
07:46for them to do something texturally
07:49since we can't do anything with them
07:50harmonically lately I've really been
07:52enjoying using Wave table syn for this
07:55wave table synthesis because you can
07:58sweep through the position of a really
08:00tasty wave table and it does highly
08:02depend on what wave table you're using
08:04I've discovered and when you find those
08:05sweet spots you can get some really
08:07interesting harmonics and textures that
08:10you wouldn't discover with just a plain
08:14old subtractive wave form there are lots
08:16of sweet spots in there and if you can
08:18find those and sweep through gradually
08:21with an LFO or something that can really
08:23give a lot of character to an otherwise
08:25stagnant drone another thing I like to
08:28do is use tape Loops if you've heard any
08:31of my music you'll notice that a lot of
08:32it is really noisy and that's by Design
08:36I love tape the wobbler and the less
08:38stable the better it feels almost like a
08:41cheat code like you could run just a
08:42simple sine wave through it and recorded
08:46to a wonky wobbly tape Loop it would
08:49have so much movement in
08:54character as long as it's not the
08:57foundation of your track because I feel
08:58like that kind of locks you in a little
09:00bit and there's also less room to stack
09:04things in the lower end of the frequency
09:06spectrum as most of you probably know it
09:08can be a lot of fun to experiment with
09:10layering drones on top of each other if
09:13they're in the mid-range or the high
09:14mids the Lyra 8 is essentially built on
09:17this premise and it's probably why it's
09:19so heavily featured on this track
09:43this track was all about finding the
09:46right sort of angular harmonies I wanted
09:48it to to be a little off and not quite
09:51right and the purpose of that was to
09:53create a sense of tension and release
09:55but it never quite releases all the way
09:59there's always that sense of uneasiness
10:01to it and everything works together
10:03because I essentially tuned the Lyra 8
10:06to play a stagnant cord using the
10:09multiple drone oscillators that the Lyra
10:11has and then the chord progression that
10:14I had to sort of play around with and
10:16find the one that I really liked
10:17underneath that creates poly cords with
10:21that stagnant cord above and I happen to
10:24love poly chords so that was a lot of
10:26fun to play around with so everything
10:28works together and against each other if
10:31you'd like to learn more about how I
10:33think about putting Parts together in
10:35this way you can download my free ebook
10:37where I compiled some of my favorite
10:39techniques and Concepts that have helped
10:41me make more music over the years that's
10:43free and it's in the description down
10:45below and if you'd like to learn more
10:47about specific types of synthesis and
10:49sound design that I like to use to
10:51create evolving textures and sounds then
10:54you can check out this video that I made
10:56on scent pads I think there's a lot of
10:58overlap there in terms of making sounds
11:01that evolve over time
