Hello fellow Pro-2ers!
I'm posting to share some techniques I've been playing around with for making deep evolving drones on this masterful instrument. Hopefully some of you will find this interesting!
Instead of using the hold function, I decided to try using the sequencer. I programmed in a single note, which I tied for 16 steps. I then set the bpm and clock divide at their lowest / slowest setting, and set an appropriate attack / release for a smooth loop. Pressing play gives you the basic drone, which is pretty long due to the bpm and clock divide settings.
From here, I started with a kind of vector synthesis approach by fading in and out the individual oscillators on different sequencer tracks. If you program each step with full slew, you get smooth transitions. Bear in mind though that the slow bpm and clock setting mean that all changes and modulations are slow (even single steps!) - I think for drones, this is fine. So, using this technique, even before modulation, you already have an evolving base to work from (assuming of course that you use different oscillator shapes and / or pitches).
Next comes modulation, and the possibilities here are just amazing when you think that you have 11 sequencer tracks left (use slew for smooth transitions between steps), three envelopes (I set filter envelope and envelopes 3 and 4 to loop), 4 LFO's and your full mod matrix!!! Modulation heaven!!!
Finally some stereo spread using the delay's and some trippy BBD action and you have a gorgeous long, constantly evolving drone.
Depending upon your modulation choices it might get noisy (distortion, feedback, character section), or stay tasteful with gentle wavetable and filter action... the world is your oyster!! Also, using different lengths for your sequencer tracks means that everything will evolve endlessly.
Obviously it's not going to be playable, but it's a drone! Just press play to start the drone, and stop to end it. I had a lot of fun experimenting with this technique and the results were pretty crazy!!
I hope this is useful!
Sarah
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