Who uses drones (as in the sounds, not as in bits of bagpipes)? And how do you make them? What drone should I use for a song in Bm? Is it as simple as choosing the root note?
I have a G drone and a D drone that someone here kindly pointed me to - but no B drone. And the drones sound more complex than a single frequency so I need to know what frequencies to mix in. And does the mix differ between minor and major?
I could mix a drone in ABCExplorer I guess using midi output - but there has got to be a better way than that…
Uh. Well, I use Riyaz Studio which, with a drone, plus various types of tanpura in the most recent version, plus a whole range of recorded and looped tabla tracks, works very well, is cheap and is a great accompaniment for slow airs, and also for reels (I haven’t found a tabla beat I like with jigs, strangely). I really enjoy using the notes of a slow air like a sort of schematic and improvising around them.
As to the right way to build drones (whether to include the dominant, etc.) this was discussed in a recent thread, but imo, do what sounds good to you.
Thank you killthemessenger, and to hoopy mike above. Both suggestions seem to be rooted in eastern traditions, which seems to be a bit of a blind-side for me. I shall try Riyaz Studio forthwith…
Hi Phill.
If I don’t use the Pipes, I use an old Korg i5r Synth. It is small, cheap and has lots of nice Drone Sounds. Normally I use the Base Note (the Note the song is written in) and a bit 5th, sometimes 7th…. Experiment. You can hear the Korg-Drones on http://www.reverbnation.com/artist/song_details/5469553 (i don’t like that playing anymore, but the Drones are o.k. i think )
Works with Whistles as well, or even better.
Thomas
Are you saying that you construct your drones with whistles? Use multi-track recording to overlay several continuous tones to make a drone? But then I could use the same technology to make chords… oh dear, oh dear, oh dear… that is a big leap for me. Has anyone done this and have an example of the result?
Ah, no, in that given example i was playing the voice with a chanter…
Using Whistles to make Drones? This is quite easy.
Just use Audacity http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ and have fun…
If i find the time i can record an example after work…
DrPhill if you haven’t tried to multi-track a whistle chorus yet, you have to try it.
Couple things… If you have a synth or even a soft synth you can use that to play drones. Going back to the 80’s I used to play over synth drones by laying heavy pieces of metal (nuts,bolts, guitar slides) on the appropriate synth keys so they would “play on” and then play the melody over them. Modern software will allow you to simply “loop” the right tone as long as you like. This is the easy way to experiment.
If you are comfortable multi-tracking you can play and record several parts to form chords. It’s a hoot!
Or you can low tech it all together. Make a new tube for a low D head. No holes, just cut the tube to length for the drone note. Start with a low D, make an E, make a G, etc. Tape the drone whistle to the side of your low D. Place both mouthpieces in you gob. and then, lungs willing, play the drone as you play the melody.
Then it’s on to multiple drones - octaves, fifths, fourths, etc. You can always tape te holes on a low D to get the same effect.
Yes I am quite comfortable using multitrack (Audacity). I am not sure that the world is ready for the noises I may make…
I do not have a soft-synth (I am a cheap-skate and only like free software), but a whistle chorus on multitrack could be good, or very, very bad.
Nicest drones I’ve heard recently off of pipes was a recording of some friends of mine where the fiddle player droned on root and fifth and the whistle player played the melody. You might experiment with low register fiddle sounds (or cello sounds if you wish.
Drones can be fixed (like on the GHB) or moved to match some sort of chord structure (as in those Irish pipes whose name I will misspell so I won’t try). You might want to try both.
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