Programmable drone

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MaryAnn
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Programmable drone

Post by MaryAnn »

So when I look on the net for anything having anything to do with a drone, I get those flying things that some people would like to take a shotgun to.

What I'm actually looking for is a drone to practice with, whose pitch I can change via a foot pedal, or one that is programmable to play for a certain number of beats and then change the pitch to the next drone I want it to play. I've thought I could just use Finale with playback through headphones and that may be my only option. But its pitches will be tempered and I don't particularly want to have to practice with tempered pitches. (This is for my violin, which is tuned in perfect fifths, not tempered fifths.)

Possible but not probable as for being out there.
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Re: Programmable drone

Post by Will Jones »

My solution is to put a mouthpiece on an electric piano key on the organ setting.
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Re: Programmable drone

Post by Donn »

Interesting question. In this application, as I understand it Finale would serve as a sequencer (as it would any time it's playing back a composition or whatever.) So I searched for sequencer "perfect fifth" (and changed Tools>Verbatim from "All Results" to "Verbatim" so it would at least return some results that literally matched "sequencer" instead of "sequence".) I think I'd look for something else than "perfect fifth" if I really knew what I was looking for. It did remind me that there's a public domain music software out there, Rosegarden, that's highly user-programmable. I think it has a Lisp interpreter, or maybe it's Scheme. Might be fun to play around with if you have any liking for such things.

(One thing that came up in that web search, that I wasn't looking for, was some online documentation for "AutoTune", which rather than help you learn to play in tune, will simply correct your intonation. I assume this means via your audio signal to an amplified sound system. Didn't check to see if they offer different intonation models, or how they decide what frequency a pitch should be, in order to be in tune.)
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Re: Programmable drone

Post by timothy42b »

I have David Schwartz's The Tuning CD. It's very useful and it does change notes, but on its own schedule. So that may not be what you want.

The best sounding drones I've found, by far, are The Musician's Friend Cello Drones. Check them out on youtube. They run about 6 minutes long though.

I've also made my own, even did a project where I made them at 1/4 tone intervals instead of half steps. I think I may have used Audacity as a tone generator.

RE: your comment about listening through headphones. That doesn't work for me, I can't hear the beats. I run the laptop through a regular stereo (an older 2 channel thrift shop version, not one of these modern 7.1 beasts) and through full size though not audiophile quality speakers.
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Rick F
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Re: Programmable drone

Post by Rick F »

Here's one I found some time ago:

Online Tone Generator
http://www.szynalski.com/tone-generator/
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Re: Programmable drone

Post by Eflatdoubler »

audacity is free and you can create drones at whatever frequency you want for whatever length of time using the tone generator effect.
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Re: Programmable drone

Post by imperialbari »

A set of drones tuned to perfect fifths would be useable in one major key only. Tuned to one of the baroque temperaments the selection of keys would be a little bit wider.

Is playing to drones a matter of learning to hit one exact pitch for any given note?

Or is it about learning the ability to adapt to the given drone, even if it may represent some tonal drift?

I have considered buying a pedal set for my electronic Roland church organ (sized like a stage piano, not their newest model), but haven’t come to it yet. It may be set to various temperaments around any of the 12 chromatic pitches acting as the core note.

With that instrument, with an adequate amplifier, and with the said pedal set you would likely be able to create the most in tune drone creator that could change the drone on the fly (or at the tip of your toe). Changing the temperament and changing the core note of the wanted tonality still would take some manipulation of buttons on top of the keyboard casing.

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Re: Programmable drone

Post by timothy42b »

imperialbari wrote: I have considered buying a pedal set for my electronic Roland church organ (sized like a stage piano, not their newest model), but haven’t come to it yet. It may be set to various temperaments around any of the 12 chromatic pitches acting as the core note.

Klaus
The problem I've had with electronic organ sounds is that they seem to have vibrato. It's hard to hear beats then.
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Re: Programmable drone

Post by Michael Bush »

MaryAnn wrote: a drone to practice with, whose pitch I can change via a foot pedal, or one that is programmable to play for a certain number of beats and then change the pitch to the next drone I want it to play.
This did exist for iPad a couple of years ago, and I had it. The drone would go for a pre-programmed number of seconds (rather than beats), then switch to the next pitch. It was in an app with a few other functions as well (metronome, etc.). But it seems to have disappeared from the app store as well as from my iTunes. I guess it went belly-up. But that at least means it is possible.
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Re: Programmable drone

Post by imperialbari »

timothy42b wrote:
imperialbari wrote: I have considered buying a pedal set for my electronic Roland church organ (sized like a stage piano, not their newest model), but haven’t come to it yet. It may be set to various temperaments around any of the 12 chromatic pitches acting as the core note.

Klaus
The problem I've had with electronic organ sounds is that they seem to have vibrato. It's hard to hear beats then.
No vibrato in this old Roland.
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Re: Programmable drone

Post by timothy42b »

Another thought. This approach would take a good bit of setup but it could be done.

You'd make a MIDI file. You'd use a conductor program like Tapper - these programs send the next MIDI event on key press. You'd send the MIDI file to a sequencer or DAW. Do you have Reaper, Synthfont, ProTools, anything like that? Maybe Anvil? Or even something like Hauptwerk.

And of course, output through a decent speaker. Earbuds or headphones do not work with drones.
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MaryAnn
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Re: Programmable drone

Post by MaryAnn »

Will Jones wrote:My solution is to put a mouthpiece on an electric piano key on the organ setting.
My electronic piano is just that.....no organ setting, just piano. That's what you get for $399.
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MaryAnn
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Re: Programmable drone

Post by MaryAnn »

tuben wrote:
MaryAnn wrote: (This is for my violin, which is tuned in perfect fifths, not tempered fifths.)
Do you find that the stacked 'pure' fifths make the upper strings (and note positions) sharp to being notable when playing?
G-D +0.44#
D-A +0.88#
A-E +1.22#
I find that all high level violinists tune the same way. Other than that, can't answer your question.
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MaryAnn
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Re: Programmable drone

Post by MaryAnn »

imperialbari wrote:A set of drones tuned to perfect fifths would be useable in one major key only. Tuned to one of the baroque temperaments the selection of keys would be a little bit wider.

Is playing to drones a matter of learning to hit one exact pitch for any given note?
<snip>
Klaus
No, it's for practicing three octave scales. I've found that with advancing age I'm not hearing the pitches as well as I used to, and on ones that I can't check with an adjacent open string, I'm getting off by a quarter tone or so along the way, coming back down the E string. The presence of the fundamental pitch drone would keep me on track. If I practice with my left hand in the wrong place because I'm not hearing the pitches well any more, practice isn't helping me any.
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MaryAnn
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Re: Programmable drone

Post by MaryAnn »

timothy42b wrote:Another thought. This approach would take a good bit of setup but it could be done.

You'd make a MIDI file. You'd use a conductor program like Tapper - these programs send the next MIDI event on key press. You'd send the MIDI file to a sequencer or DAW. Do you have Reaper, Synthfont, ProTools, anything like that? Maybe Anvil? Or even something like Hauptwerk.

And of course, output through a decent speaker. Earbuds or headphones do not work with drones.
Don't have a lot of money to throw at it. Retired on fixed income, some of you know I lost my house and most everything in it to water damage in 2011. I think I'll have to do it with Finale, output somehow to something I can massage in iTunes to a wav or aiff file, and put some kind of beat to it. Then put it on CD and use the stereo. The beginning of my warmup is a sequence of three octave scales without a break, starting on G string and each scale a half step higher until I reach the F# above the original G. I wanted the drones to use for the ones I am having trouble with. Could be I'll find that the drones don't match all the open strings, and then....not sure what I would do.

Thanks all.
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Re: Programmable drone

Post by imperialbari »

If you check your intonation with the relations between scales and open strings, then record your own drones.

An USB microphone may give a better representation of overtones than the built in one in a laptop computer. I haven’t done any recording since I used my long gone 4-track cassette recorder, but I think free apps like Audacity will do the job. Experts here will tell you.

More than one track gives you the option to include a click track to coordinate sound and rhythm. The clicks could be musical in the form of bass notes related to the given drone pitch. Guitar or viola might be relevant in that context.

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Re: Programmable drone

Post by timothy42b »

imperialbari wrote:I haven’t done any recording since I used my long gone 4-track cassette recorder, but I think free apps like Audacity will do the job. Experts here will tell you.
Not an expert, but I use Audacity on a laptop and my H2 as the microphone and get good results. I use Audacity's click track to do multitracks. It works well and the program is very intuitive and user friendly (and free.) You do have to use an earbud; if the speakers are on the click track bleeds into the next track.
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