Where do these WONDERFUL drones come from?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Chrisulrich
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Chrisulrich

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Dear Anyone

I want to put backings to my stuff. I've got Miroslav Orchestra, but there's something I'd virtually give bodyparts to know.

Where DO people get these WONDERFUL drones from??

Now here's two examples - not the lead instruments, just the wonderful backing drones -

http://www.origenmusic.com/background-music.html

and

http://www.4shared.com/audio/kfLoEZGX/11_-_Morning_Sun.html

In both of those, it's the backing sounds I'd love to know how to make. Especially the Morning Sun drones. Is there a package with a bunch of similar as presets? Are they easy to create with sinewaves and stuff - and if that's the case, is there anywhere online I could learn how to do it - a bunch for variety would be great! I'd happily download' or buy any package creating them (price allowing!)

I've got Sampletank, Kontakt and Reason 4 - if Reason 4 was a wrestler it would be about 200-zip up in pinfalls by now, I've never worked that thing out (they're all legally bought, I think Reason was a waste of dough, though.) Id prefer drones as presets at present rather than having to go through yet one more learning curve right now - I want to write music, not learn more packages than I can help! But I'll learn if you tell me to - you're the teachers.

Please, can you help?

Yours hopefully

ulrichburke
 
Synth pads. And not particularly impressive ones imo. You can find them in Kontakt, I know that for sure.
 
Chrisulrich said:
I want to put backings to my stuff. I've got Miroslav Orchestra, Sampletank, Kontakt and Reason 4 - Id prefer drones as presets at present rather than having to go through yet one more learning curve right now - I want to write music, not learn more packages than I can help! But I'll learn if you tell me to - you're the teachers.
Click to expand...
Learn !

I've got Sampletank and Miroslav Philharmonik and there are some damn good sounds in there. I agree that the learning curve is steeeeeeep but you don't need to climb the entire curve, just learn a little about tweaking the sounds and importing other VSTis into Sampletank's sampler. Learn the little you need until you need more.
By the way, you can always get drones on a synth or even certain instruments that aren't meant to be drones.
 
These are the real deal:

http://www.soundofmusic.se/synthsandmore/matrix1000.htm

Those dumb slasher movies where the chick goes down in the basement alone and suddenly there's a low drone tone... or stuff like "Escape From New York"... I love fat, warm analog synths.

Maybe there's digital samples out there that sound as good... and maybe there's porno out there that tastes like a real woman... :(
 

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Grimtraveller, could you help me get started?

Dear Grimtraveller.

I'm addressing this mainly to you because you've got Sampletank and Miroslav too. I've read the manual, all 96 pages of it. I basically understand the basics, by which I mean I understand pitch-shifting, time-stretching, importing your own samples, envelopes, ADSR and most of the rest of it.

Where I'm obviously being dense is that I don't see how to use a combination of any of those things to come up with a drone like those in the examples I gave in my original post. Not even close.

Could you give me a clue or 10 on how to get started making a drone like the above with all those controls? Where you get the initial sound/sounds from, what you do to them and so on? Right now I feel I know what every button in a car does, but I still wouldn't know how to use them together to drive the car safely.

Can someone help me get started, or tell me where there's a PDF or something that's at rank beginner level, to help me get started?

I know I'm being boringly dense - but the greatest expert on any subject was a noob in shorts at some point in his life!

Yours hopefully

Chris.
 
Historically the synths that really nailed the pads were Oberheims and the Sequential Circuits stuff. I found this which may be worth a try: http://www.gersic.com/plugins/index.php?daPlug=737

On any pad the main parameters you want to mess with are CC# 071 (resonance) and more importantly CC# 074 (cutoff frequency).

Getting the tone of a good analog synth is probably one of the least likely things a VST could ever pull off... as a longtime user/owner of Oberheims and Sequential stuff I'm not exactly optimistic, I've never heard anything that led me to think technology is anywhere near being able to do it but I'd love to be proven wrong.

Side Note: I couldn't try that freebie I posted above because I use a Mac. People should realize that in 2010 there is still tons of stuff that won't work on Macs because Windows is way more widely used. :mad:
 
Chrisulrich said:
Dear Grimtraveller.

I'm addressing this mainly to you because you've got Sampletank and Miroslav too. I've read the manual, all 96 pages of it. I basically understand the basics, by which I mean I understand pitch-shifting, time-stretching, importing your own samples, envelopes, ADSR and most of the rest of it.

Where I'm obviously being dense is that I don't see how to use a combination of any of those things to come up with a drone like those in the examples I gave in my original post. Not even close.

Could you give me a clue or 10 on how to get started making a drone like the above with all those controls? Where you get the initial sound/sounds from, what you do to them and so on? Right now I feel I know what every button in a car does, but I still wouldn't know how to use them together to drive the car safely.
Click to expand...
First off the bat, Foxy and Dinty have given some stellar stuff to you there. I'm no techie and I'm a bit of a hit and miss merchant but I'll share what I can. There are other users on the forum that use Sampletank [like Whitestrat] and geezers like KCearl that wade daily among the synth drones and hopefully they may pitch in to help some more.
The first thing to remember about drones is that they are subtle and exist to enhance what is going on around them. They're like good bassists and drummers ~ their raison d'etre is to make everyone else look good, yet if you listen closely, they're brilliant and indispensible.....
The drones in some of the pieces you linked sound like synthesizers to me. The thing I find with synths is that there are just so many pad sounds, weird ones, cute ones, Arabic ones, boringly efficient ones.....If you start by selecting a sound that you like, all of the Sampletank envelope tools [including the effects] are at your disposal to see what you can come up with. It's actually quite a labourious process but it's worth the effort. Eventually. With Miroslav in mind too, bear in mind that drones can be made by a variety of instruments ~ flutes, cellos, organs, double basses, guitar feedback, tampuras, mellotrons, saxes, trombones, euphoniums, oboes, bassoons, harmoniums, piano strings......You may actually find that by combining some of these sounds {either on their own or in combination} with the synths, you can come up with some unique drones of your own.
Whatever you do come up with though, remember that it won't mean much if it sounds great on it's own but doesn't fit with the piece of music it's droning to and also, it shouldn't dominate the piece. In fact, for the listener, the drone should be almost an afterthought....
If none of that helps, blame the government !
 
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