Modular · Sources

Drone

A sustained low tone from a few detuned oscillators

Open in the synth with a demo patch Open Modular

What it does

Drone is the humming floor of ambient music: one to three oscillators, slightly out of tune with each other, playing without pause. Detune spreads them a few cents apart so they slowly beat against each other, and Drift adds a gentle wander in pitch. Glide sets how smoothly the tone slides to a new note when you turn Note or send a note to the input.

Ports

pitch: CV on pitch (about an octave either way)
note: Note: events change the pitch with a glide
out: Audio out

Parameters

Note · Wave · Voices · Detune · Drift · Glide · Level

Try this

Put two Drones a fifth apart (say D2 and A2), sum them in a Mixer and send them to a Reverb: that is a finished bed already.
Detune of 12–20 cents with three voices gives a wide, slow beating; on a sine it nearly vanishes, on a saw it gets thick.
Patch Clock → Random Note → Quantize → Note and raise Glide to 3 s: the drone will lazily crawl between notes of the scale.

Other modules

Voice Oscillator Noise Clock Divider Chance Random Note Quantize Sequencer Chord LFO ADSR Filter Delay Reverb Chorus VCA Mixer Attenuverter Scope Output Keyboard MIDI In Audio In Sampler Looper Note → CV CV → Trigger Follower S&H Euclid Macro Compressor EQ Pan Timeline Progression Note

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