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Simple Drone Machine
According to Wikipedia "Drone music" is a minimalist musical style that emphasizes the use of sustained or repeated sounds, notes, or tone-clusters - called drones. It is typically characterized by lengthy audio programs with relatively slight harmonic variations throughout each piece compared to other musics. La Monte Young, one of its 1960s originators, defined it as "the sustained tone branch of minimalism".
I Also added psuedo Ring modulator based on the 4011 and I added a bit of circuit so I could synch the oscillators together.
I built it all on a bit of perfboard and mounted it in a good sized project box..
It sounds like this;
http://electro-music.com/forum/download.php?id=22028
1 Volt/Octave CV Keyboard Controller
Shortly after I had enough modules to be dangerous I had the notion I needed a keyboard to play it. Ray Wilson's MFOS Keyboard circuit looked like it would do nicely, so I ordered it and some parts and built it.
I made a phone call to a local music teacher and asked if he had any trashed keyboards with full size keys. He supplied me with a Casio CT-310 I could have for free. This is not the perfect keyboard to use for this - it uses bubble switches and, as it's polyphonic it had a diode matrix. It does however have a complete keyboard assembly that can be removed fairly easily as one unit.
I removed the keyboard assembly and removed all the matrix diodes, circuitry and wires from it. I jumpered a common ground from each of four (if I recall correctly) octave subcircuits on the bubble assembly. With a little VOM tracing I found the connection for each individual key. I attached a wire to each keyswitch point long enough to reach the resistor string I built for the MFOS controller.
Building the wooden case was a pain, but it turned out close to what I invisioned.
I power it from the mains - with a small bi-polar power supply fit inside.
I have since discovered how very limiting a keyboard can be with a modular synth, and hardly ever use one - but that's fodder for a yet to be constructed part of this website.
This Drone machine is simply four oscillators that can be tuned together, or in a harmony. I used the simplest oscillators on earth - the 40106 schmidt trigger.
http://www.musicfromouterspace.com/analogsynth/oddsandends.html
I added two filters copied amost directly from Ray Wilson's WSG
http://www.musicfromouterspace.com/analogsynth/YOUR_FIRST_SYNTH/WSG_Reborn/WEIRDSOUNDGENERATORREBORN.php.
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A@yahoo.com or PM me at Electro-music.com, nick = RF