Low Frequency Drone Effect - is there such a thing?

[peterg]

Does anyone know of an effect which will provide infinite sustain of low frequencies but not on the highs? The idea is to create a drone effect with lower strings but leave the uppers with little sustain.

[artifus]

interesting idea. where do the low frequencies stop and the high frequencies begin? which note on which string at which fret? how would we detect such a change?

[amptramp]

We have a rather extensive thread on sustainers that has many experimenters saying they can get the lower four strings to sustain but not the upper B and E strings.  A sustainer with a frequency rolloff may do what you want.  The thread:

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=93752.0

[peterg]

Good point, Artifus. I'm thinking the first 1 1/2 octaves starting a low E. My thought is to be able to use a note of the low E as the drone while using, say, the g, b and high e for lead, etc. Guessing that identifying frequencies would not be the issue but isolating them and adding the sustain to them would be.

[artifus]

one might look toward cmos and the electrax synthax-100 method of note hold after significant (yet vague and inaccurate) filtering. maybe just make it foot switch controlled? press to select the note to hold? if relying on a sustainer driver be aware that subsequent notes played will disrupt the signal going to the sustainer. therefore upsetting the sustain. if not switched out. a sustain note would be required to sustain sustain, so to speak. the drone note would need to be sampled and/or synthesized if to be played over.

Guessing that identifying frequencies would not be the issue but isolating them and adding the sustain to them would be.

good guess. fundamental frequencies are one thing, what an electric guitar outputs another entirely.

[deadastronaut]

build an ebow for just the low E string...?

very simple circuit, a bit fiddly to build, but i built one...works well..

just have the coils under your  E string...

[samhay]

Does it really have to be infinite sustain? A multi-pole LPF into a short delay with may/infinite repeats would work, but it would get pretty grungy after a while unless you used a proper digital chip.

[deadastronaut]

buy a keyboard..

[Mike Burgundy]

Rob does have a point. I've helped a customer set up a GR55 guitar synth together with a backing keyboard to achieve exactly this and way, way more. Modern day one-man band.
As to how to do it in the analogue realm...no clue.

[digi2t]

Couldn`t an EH Freeze pedal do that for you? Create your drone, freeze it, and play over it.

Just wondering...

[wavley]

Boomerang Phrase Sampler
Boss Loop Station
Digitech RDS anything and several of the PDS
Akai Headrush
EHx 16 Second Delay
Digitech Digidelay
Any Boss Digital Delay after/including the DD-2
Line 6 Delay Modeler
Ibanez DMD-2000

And those are just the ones I've owned

There are plenty more loopers and phrase samplers out there.

Or you could go the Boss Feedbacker route that will sustain a drone as long as you hold the pedal.

[R.G.]

Got me thinking - and that's always dangerous. 

One of the things I have designed on for some years is top octave generators. Fixed function TOGs are no loner made, but you can program a uC to make a continuous musical frequency (among many other things  ) and I've seen one design for a middle-to-lower-octave generator in a PIC. It's inadequate for making a top octave for an organ, but might be ideal for making a low-ish octave for drones.

That would get you the notes, you'd then have to make it drone when you wanted it and shut up when you didn't. I speculate that one could put a dozen footswitches in a row and turn on one or more of the outputs of the Low-Octave-Generator (or LOG...  ) when you wanted it, and off when you didn't. PICs are fully static and can be clocked from an external clock source, so you could even make it tunable instead of fixed-frequency.

This would be somewhat like a Moog Taurus, but drone-y.

Another possibility is to have some filters which look for notes in an octave, and turn on the corresponding note in the LOG when it's detected. Some logic would let only the lowest detected note sound, so it might even work with chords, given some good filter work and careful construction.

This would be a kind of automatic bass accompaniment if the notes sounded only while the filter had output. It would be a bass drone if you set it to drone on  ( ) until some new note was detected.

'Course, mid-octaves could be selected as well, just have to design the stuff around the octaves you want.

[Gurner]

Since you only need mono, I'd be inclined to attack this with pitch to midi ...play your note, send it to a midi module that has a sustain pedal input (you can drone any sound you wish then..."Let's hear it for the bagpipes").

There;s a project on the digital section of this forum, else you can buy a mono pitch to midi pretty cheap nowadays....

http://www.zzounds.com/item--SOSG2M

[deadastronaut]

^ +1.

the sonuus V2 does bends, velocity too...its my birthday very soon, so the missus is getting NOT subtle hints

i built the midi guitar project, its really cool with an a+b box, trigger your drone on A...switch to B for guitar...jam.  (trigger loops etc too )

cue bagpipes..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FBPQJJd-x8

[PRR]

.

[Bieling3]

Heh, when I bias my silicon fuzz face real low and then roll my volume all the way off I get a continuous low frequency note... if i roll it back up half a notch it changes tone a half step. Higher than that it disappears.