Drone Lab V2
LINKS
-Order form
-Drone Lab builders Forum
-Housing info and artwork
-Schematic
-Board artwork
-Materials list
-Assembly instructions
-How to use your Drone Lab
-Mods and upgrades
-Sound and video samples
ORDER YOUR DRONE LAB HERE.
What is the Drone Lab?
The Drone Lab is a 4 voice analog drone synth, rhythm generator and FX processor. It is capable of generating rich, textured soundscapes, hypnotic drones and complex rhythmic sequences. It features a series of filter and distortions circuits as well as an audio input jack. This allows it to be used as an effects processor for external audio signals.
Drone Add-Ons
The Drone Lab was designed to invite modification and expansion. A series of add-on modules are in the works. Ideas and suggestions are welcome!
Building a Drone Lab
The Drone Lab is being sold as a kit as well as in finished form.
Detailed build instructions will be posted here soon.
You’re welcome to buy the PCB and parts from us or build it all from scratch.
The Drone Lab plans are completely open source and available below. We encourage others to use and adapt the plans as they like.
What is a DRONE?
A drone is created by slightly de-tuning 2 oscillators. This creates a rhythmic phase canceling effect as the output waves line up and diverge. The density of the drone can be increased by adding more oscillators tuned by harmonic steps above or below the other oscillators.
The Drone Lab is engineered to allow for the creation of dense, pulsing drones. A series of filters and a distortion circuit have been built in to add more depth and variation to the drone.
TREMOLO (volume modulation):
In order to create movement in the drone we developed a complex, interlinked tremolo system with independent controls for each of the four oscillators. Each oscillator has a tremolo on/off switch, an inversion switch and a pulse divider adjustment. Each of the four tremolos are controlled by one master clock. The divider adjustment creates sub divisions of that clock. The sub division output is then used as a volume control signal for the oscillator.
In the drawing below you can see the master clock rate and how that rate has been divided. The length of the division is set using the “division” knob. The illustration also shows how the pulse can be inverted using the “invert” switch.
INTERFACING:
TREMOLO CLOCK. The master clock is totally modular, meaning it can control the clocks in other Drone Labs or be controlled BY other Drone Labs. This means any number of Drone Labs can be linked together to make extremely complex rhythmic sequences.
It can also be synced with other gear like modular synthesizers, drum triggers or old drum machines with a trigger output.
AUDIO INPUT. Any audio signal can be added to a drone and run through the distortion and filters. The input goes through a preamp, so un-amplified signals like a guitar or microphone can be used.
FEATURES:
The Drone Lab V2 is based on the architecture of the V1 with a number of substantial improvements.
-Interfacing added. Audio input jack and tremolo clock syncing
-Fine tune pitch control added for each oscillator
-Improved fuzz stage
-Improved and expanded divider/tremolo feature
Oscillator bank.
De-tune and fade the volume of four oscillators to create rich drones.
Audio input
Add external signals into your drone or use the Lab’s filters and distortion as an FX processor.
Low pass filter
Modify the tone of the oscillator bank and input signal before it goes into the distortion.
Distortion
Adding distortion brings out the phasing rhythm between two or more tones.
Band pass filters
Two slightly resonant band pass filters can be adjusted to drastically alter the tonal character of your sound. Achieve wah-wah and phaser sounds as well as creating classic analog synth filter effects.
Tremolo bank
Add movement to drones and create interlinked pulses and complex sequences. Sync the master tremolo clock to a limitless number of other drone labs to create a rhythmically linked drone orchestra. Alternate clock sources may be used such as modular synth clocks, drum machines, piezo triggers and simple DIY clocks such as the 555 timer.
Battery or wall power
The Drone Lab draws very little power and will work for days straight on a single battery. In the event the you don’t have a battery it can also be powered using a standard 9 VDC wall wort power supply.
Add your own circuits!
It may be small, but a proto area has been added to the board to allow for simple circuit addition. We’ve got oodles of ideas that we’ll post as the project goes on. Hopefully others will contribute their ideas and designs as well.
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LISTEN TO THE DRONE LAB!
Here’s a sample of the Drone Lab doing it’s droney thing.
Droning
0:00 fade in single tone.
0:05 second tone added.
0:11 light distortion added.
0:14 Low pass filter turned up.
0:19 Band pass filter turned up.
0:27 Third tone added.
1:05 Fourth tone added.
Here’s a sample made using the tremolo feature.
Tremolo drone
Distorted drone
I don’t usually post samples of my gear going through other effects, but I have to show off how great the Drone Lab sounds with distortion. This sample was made by sending the Lab through a distortion/feedback circuit I’m working on specially for future versions of the Drone Lab. It’s a little unruly for a lot of sounds but works wonders on steady drones.
Here is a video of 3 of the first Drone Lab prototypes going at once. This video really shows how well they work together.
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PROTOTYPING:
To test our board design we burned our own two sided board. Totally crazy. Somehow it actually worked!
It was an absurd amount of work and I hope to never have to do this again!
Clarke said:
October 6th, 2009 at 11:06am #
This is awesome! Questions coming soon to an email box near you.
Circo Bazooko said:
October 6th, 2009 at 5:47pm #
WOW!!!
efabric said:
October 7th, 2009 at 3:53am #
what a nice addition to the split output of the old Palm Tungsten with Bhagis loops ! It can output sound on one channel and a sync 24 signal on the other one !
Now I have to mod my WSG !
aidan said:
October 7th, 2009 at 5:02am #
looks great. looking forward to the pcb…
crstlrvr said:
October 7th, 2009 at 11:50am #
this is the best minisynth i have seen so far
fuck all this sleepdrone shit
i ll have to order a pcb
pete you are the greatest
yarseo said:
October 7th, 2009 at 1:56pm #
this is so incredibly exciting. i really can’t wait.
wayn3w said:
October 8th, 2009 at 6:59am #
Awesome! I like the new features.
Could you please explain the design choice to mount all the parts on the board? Was it to make it easier for people to build and experiment?
I think I may have to design a plexiglass case at ponoko.com…
Daniel said:
October 9th, 2009 at 7:48am #
Really awsome! love it!
Chris said:
October 9th, 2009 at 10:33am #
Wayn3w, we designed the board to be straight forward, and easy to assemble, so we went with board mount components. The board is capable of being a standalone musical instrument. Components can still be mounted to the board via flying wires, and the device can be housed in any form of enclosure the builder wants, or left without an enclosure.
Rob said:
October 15th, 2009 at 4:49am #
Hey, this looks great
When are the kits out?
Thanks
Tommy said:
October 19th, 2009 at 10:11pm #
As usual, I’ll order it and it will sit there haunting me. My WSG is still staring at me like…ummm…are you EVER gonna order my parts??
casper said:
October 19th, 2009 at 10:34pm #
Tommy:
That is exactly why I’m selling a parts kit and why I put all of the hardware on the PCB. In one afternoon you can build the whole thing.
I’m a habitual PCB buyer and I have so many unfinished modules. I wanted the drone lab to be easy to build without skimping on features or on upgrading/DIY potential.
Willis said:
October 20th, 2009 at 10:04am #
Is this really a project that a beginner could succeed at? I mean, will the instructions truly be step by step to make this? I have soldered copper pipe many times, but have never put anything like this together.
dead beat said:
October 20th, 2009 at 10:46am #
Hi !!
Why mounting the pots and switches off board will generate significant amounts of noise and oscillator cross talk ? Could you explain it to us ?
thanks a lot…
a[mp]lex said:
October 20th, 2009 at 2:55pm #
YEAHHHHHHHHH FINALLY THEY ARE HERE!@#!@$! new and improved as well, ext audio processing!@#$%! this synth is guna be my new centerpiece =D amazing work pete, genius. loving the pcb mount components, guna be cheaper to source this way too. thanks so much for this amazing synth. early christmas for me =]]
casper said:
October 20th, 2009 at 9:27pm #
Willis:
I wouldn’t call this a beginners kit simply because there are so many components. BUT relative to analog synth circuits and audio kits, this is a very simple kit mainly due to the fact that everything is mounted on the board. No flying wires, complex wiring diagrams are necessary, which is where I’ve had the most difficulty with kits in the past. If you are really good at going slow and following directions you’ll probably be alright.
Chris said:
October 21st, 2009 at 11:19am #
Dead Beat:
Crosstalk and noise are caused by EMF, or Electro-Magnetic Fields. In a circuit, rapidly changing currents in wires cause these fields. The strength of these fields are proportional to the flux, or rate of change, of the current in a wire. Because the Drone Lab uses square wave tone generators, every time the square wave changes phase (twice every cycle or 880 times a second for a middle “A” pitch), there is a corresponding quickly changing magnetic field created around the wire. This changing magnetic field induces a changing current in nearby wires, which causes signal crosstalk and noise generation. This phenomenon has not proved to be particularly problematic with this design, but introducing lots of unshielded flying wires to off board components runs the risk of creating more of this noise.
Willis said:
October 22nd, 2009 at 9:20am #
Pete-
You mention that you are working on a housing for the DL. Will this be available later by itself for purchase?
dead beat said:
October 22nd, 2009 at 5:45pm #
Hi !
Thanks for answering ! I’m glad to have order few of them for shipping to france !
When will you give us official part list ?
Thanks !
Chris said:
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:51pm #
Dead Beat:
You’re welcome! The parts list is now posted!
subkx said:
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:42am #
” This phenomenon has not proved to be particularly problematic with this design, but introducing lots of unshielded flying wires to off board components runs the risk of creating more of this noise.”
How would one alleviate this risk/problem, in general? Swap to shielded wire only (or is that a more complicated endeavor than it sounds?) I’m researching DIY kits and this is a general question I’d love to know the answer to, since I am all about making my own enclosure, and attempting to combine/collide/experiment in general with other circuits and kits =]
ATSystems said:
October 24th, 2009 at 10:25pm #
This is amazing!
I have built a very similar 4 osc dronebox with SynthEdit, and have been busting a nut trying to convert it to a hardware synth. looks like you guys did it for me ^_^
bracing to order
casper said:
October 25th, 2009 at 1:14am #
willis:
The housing will be available as a separate item. I’m going to try and finalize the design and start taking orders soon so I can ship them with the drone lab kits.
AngryChef said:
October 26th, 2009 at 1:29am #
Erm… Do you think you could add another image or chart breaking down what each of the caps is (electrolytic vs. ceramic vs. film, etc.)? I know you plan on adding the distributor numbers, but having it on a chart would be super handy! Thanks again for this! I’ll be putting in an order fairly soon (money willing!)!
Clarke said:
October 26th, 2009 at 12:36pm #
Congrats on selling out the first run!
Who will be the first builder to post a video of their DroneLab in action?
casper said:
October 27th, 2009 at 7:47pm #
AngryChef,
I will add more details on the components but here is what I can tell you now. This is a pretty flexible circuit so component specifications are somewhat loose in regards to values and especially when it comes to component materials.
Anything 1uF or higher is electrolytic. Anything below that is pretty flexible. I’m using a mix of ceramic and film but mostly ceramic. What is most important is that you get caps rated at 5-10% accuracy. Some caps are rated at 80% accurate! That means it could be WAYYY off the marked rating.
Chris said:
October 30th, 2009 at 11:54am #
subkx:
Shielded wires should help to eliminate noise from flying wires. Remember to ground the shielding material. We built a prototype with long flying unshielded wires and it was noisy, but still sounded gnarly! Goodluck and look forward to seeing your enclosure!
Bino said:
November 3rd, 2009 at 5:30am #
Do the switches have to be DPDT or can they also be SPDT? Because the two poles are soldered together in the PCB. And what is the spacing between their legs?
Thanks for the info
Chutney said:
November 3rd, 2009 at 4:58pm #
Heya Pete,
In the components listing will there be a color coded guide for the resistors?
Thanks
casper said:
November 3rd, 2009 at 6:03pm #
Bino:
Yes they can be SPDT. The spacing between the legs is .1625″.
Chutney:
Yes. We will post details on each component in the kit including color codes and markings.
We have put together a very detailed step-by-step power point document which will walk you through the placement of each component.
AngryChef said:
November 8th, 2009 at 5:10am #
Hello again -
I spoke to an audio engineer friend of mine and had him look at the schematic as regards suggestions of the type of capacitors for each section of the circuit. Here are his suggestions (these are by no means required) if you are self-sourcing your kit to ensure the best (read: most precise) out of the circuit. I’d love to hear what everyone else thinks (especially you, casper!) about this!
C5,C6,C25,c34,c42,c38 Panasonic audio electrolytic
C24,C26,c31,c30,c32,c33 Wima audio film capacitors
C8,c9,c10,c11 (Timing), Wima film capacitors
All others can be ceramic.
Any thoughts?
Jeremy said:
November 14th, 2009 at 4:10am #
In the part list we don’t now wich are the log/lin potentiometers. Does it possible to have some informations about this? Thank
casper said:
November 14th, 2009 at 7:11pm #
Jeremy. All pots are linear.