Rainger FX Minidrone Synth with Modulation

Rainger FX Minidrone Synth with ModulationThey say: The Minidrone is a stripped down version of the Drone Rainger. Its really fun to play over, and is a great foundation for improvisation, songwriting and dramatic live performance. Its a deep and huge analogue synth, with modulation, made of up to three low pitched triangle wave oscillators mixed together. Two of these oscillators are always in unison whatever the pitch this is Drone 1 though very slightly out of tune with each other. This

They say:

The Minidrone is a stripped-down version of the Drone Rainger. It’s really fun to play over, and is a great foundation for improvisation, songwriting and dramatic live performance. 

It’s a deep and huge analogue synth, with modulation, made of up to three low-pitched triangle-wave oscillators mixed together.

Two of these oscillators are always in unison whatever the pitch - this is Drone 1 - though very slightly out-of-tune with each other. This creates ‘beats’ between them, a slow, wide-band modulation that keeps the drone very listenable. The pitch is controlled by ‘Pitch1’.

Add in the other tone generator - Drone2 - and you can make any kind of musical interval between the drones; major and minor thirds, a fifth, octaves, or thick unison.

And all points in between - including tasty discordant chords, modulating fast and strangely…

Drone1 and Drone2 are fully independently tuneable - with sweepable knobs - by tuner, or by ear (low volume is recommended for accuracy), with a range of approximately two octaves.

Igor

It comes with an Igor controller - a small pressure sensitive pad - which, when pressed, drops the overall pitch down a tone (two frets), rising back up on release. This creates a darkly atmospheric starting point for writing songs, riffs, or improvising…

Press the ‘1/2Tone’ switch and this drop-down becomes only a semitone. 

These two drop-down options actually make the pedal work in every kind of musical mode - dark and sinister, or happy up-beat ones, weird minor ones, blissed-out ones… the Minidrone is very musical and inspiring to play over.

Low end

There’s tons of bass - 70Hz down to 30Hz (approximately) is the fundamental note from Drone1, which has chorusing harmonics, but with Drone2 added there’s all kinds of tones and ‘beats’; the sound is deep and electro…

It’s like hitting a low note on some big-ass old synth (Korg MS-20? Yamaha CS-80??) and bending it…! 

But in Rainger FX minipedal format (our custom enclosure).

The Minidrone is true bypass, and loud. 

It’s an electric tamboura!

In a two-piece band it’s your low-end!

Through a window in the front panel you can see a motel scene inside - with car parks leading onto a busy road. There’s an eerie streetlamp glow - and the motel sign flashes whenever you press the Igor pad.

Using it

You mix the drones in with your clean guitar signal, which passes through the pedal - buffered, but unaffected. The pedal can be a handy boost when you turn off the drones volume - great for a solo-type signal bump. 

It’s designed to be used in series with other pedals (try a delay pedal after it), all plugged into a single guitar amp input.