Drone Archeology

Each of Drone Archeology's constantly evolving drones are based on original sounds and acousticpalettes and have completely unique characteristics. These tones are the result of computer resynthesiswith a series of proprietary computer programs. Each drone is rich yet is completely absent of noise.

Contemporary and original in nature and scope, Drone Archeology is a powerful tool in the hands of thecontemporary and avant garde composer/musician, as well as being an invaluable resource for film com-posers creating soundtracks, soundbeds and sound design. Used as foundation material, they can beprocessed and transformed in any number of ways to assist you in developing your own particular sound.

Drone Archeology offers the musician and/or composer a selection of 99 completely unique tones that aresteady in pitch but have constant movement so that they are never the same from one moment to thenext. Every drone is between 32 and 64 seconds of original material with no built in loops.

Drone Archaeology is the first audio CD to include a listing of the original stereo loop points. This gives theuser CD ROM features in an audio CD platform. The detailed information on how to find the loop pointsmeans that Mac and PC users can extract and loop the drones from the same CD. Details in the manualenables a maximization of the amount of audio on Drone Archeology without the inevitable loss of spacethat a mixed mode CD ROM would have.

As well there is a 114 page manual which is included free with every CD contains a new harmonic classifi-cation system, insight into the structure of these complex tones, and other useful technical information.

Drones1 Inner Strength Eb12 Announcement G13 Deep Harmonic Wave E14 Nighttime in India G25 Solemn Procession D16 Funeral Pyre D17 Rolling Hills D38 Tampura Drone D39 Ancient Ruins D210 Hollow Ground E1Nature Drones11 Heat Waves D112 Turbulence G113 Tropical Moisture A014 Sand Dunes D215 Descending Particles D316 Rolling Thunder Bass E117 Mystical Arctic Wind G118 Unstable Ground G119 Brilliant Colours D320 Earthquake Rumblings D121 Tropical Rainforest A022 Earth Vents E123 Mountain Winds B224 Oceanside Cliffs G125 Underwater Movement E126 Earth Rumblings D1Science Drones27 Human Alienation C428 Intense Laser Light C229 Swirling Movement D130 NASA Solar Wind D131 NASA Solar Warnings E1

32 Gravitational Forces F2 33 Radiation C234 Biological Transformation B235 Massive Fusion Reaction E036 Extreme Cold A2 37 Cosmos G138 Spaceships Passing Eb339 Asteroid Movements D340 Fast Moving Particles C2 41 Starship Approaching C242 Aurora Borealis C243 Ultra High Temperatures C444 Cosmic Rays C2Drama Drones45 Danger from Below E146 Rebirth C247 Almost Resolved E148 Painful Memories G149 Depression E150 Dreams E151 Confusion E152 At Peace E153 Tension E154 Bittersweet Resolution E155 Glimmer of Hope E156 Wasteland E057 Close to Drastic Measure G258 Madness G259 Anguish G260 Day after the Conflict A1Industry Drones61 Power A062 Drilling through Rock A063 Drilling through Metal C264 Laser Drilling E165 Underwater Engine G2

66 Motor under a Platform C267 Cutting through Metal C268 Welding Eb369 Cutting through Wood C370 Outboard Motor A171 Primal Engine C172 Submarine Engine C273 Pouring Liquid Steel C2Voice Drones74 Strong Voice ah E175 Strong Voice ee E176 Strong Voice mm E177 Strong Voice no E178 Strong Voice oo E179 Spirit Voice ah C280 Spirit Voice ee C281 Spirit Voice mm C282 Spirit Voice no C283 Spirit Voice oo C284 Full Voice ah G185 Distant Voice ah G186 Solid Voice ah A187 Solid Voice ee A188 Solid Voice mm A189 Solid Voice no A190 Solid Voice oo A191 Close Voice ah D292 Close Voice ee D293 Close Voice mm D294 Close Voice no D295 Close Voice oo D296 Meditation ah C2Bell Drones97 Gong Whispers Gb298 Meandering Bells E299 Tibetan Tranquillity C1

C4=middle C which is 261.6 Hertz

Film Composers

In order to aid multimedia and film production people the drones have been classified into seven cate-gories. These are; Nature, Science, Drama, Industry, Voice, Bell and Drones.

The drones were designed to have "focused spectrums". In other words to occupy a measured amountof the sonic space in the stereo field. Even though they are extremely rich and evocative tones, they donot dominate or overpower the overall sound by leaving little room for any other group of sound to co-exist.Using any of these drones in dense sonic passages will not obscure the rest of sonic detail present.

Digital Audio Workstation User

The drones on Drone Archeology were designed for DAW users to quickly and efficiently createsoundtracks, soundbed and sound design. The manual describes how to find the loop points whichmeans that Mac and PC users can extract and loop the drones from the same CD. The details in themanual enable a maximization of the amount of audio on Drone Archeology without the inevitableloss of space that a mixed mode CD ROM would have.There are two looping techniques describedthat give users alternative strategies to find the loop points.

DAW users can efficiently use these drones without additional music hardware. Since drones oftendo not change pitch in a passage of music a DAW user simply uses the standard pitch shifting func-tion available on most Digital Audio Programs and Sound Editing Software to select the desired pitchand transform the drone to the desired pitch without ever needing a sampler. This enables musicianswho do not have a sampler but who do have digital audio to use the drones from Drone Archeology.

Create Loops without Looping

A user can simply sample the entire track and move it into a computer based digital sequencer or asampler. Insert loop points at the absolute beginning and end of the selected drone. Chorus thestereo track on another track (DAW) or use another voice (sampler) but add a delay of between 2-5seconds on the chorused track. The resulting drone will not have the cyclical fade in/out because thechorused track and original track fade in/out do not occur at the same time. This technique worksbecause the drones have special "low distortion fade in and fade out envelopes" , and also havespectrums which combine without the normal flanging sound heard on many chorused tracks.

Detailed Documentation is included with Drone Archeology

Numerical Sound has developed a new Harmonic Classification System which is explained in Drone Archeology’s User's Manual. This system offers musicians and composers some insight intothe structure of these complex tones.

The 9 band spectrum gives the user an intuitive andquantitative measurement of the properties of everydrone on this CD. The 9 Band spectrum can be used todetermine which bass band effectively reproduces on arange of commercially available speaker sizes (Page 2in the manual).

The 9 band spectrum can be used as an orchestrator'sassistant in determining where each drone’s acoustic

energy is located (bass, midrange or treble). These chartsallow the user to quickly select a drone with a particular quality or

find other drones with similar or different characteristics quickly and accurately. This is important if theuser is adding other instruments over the drone.

Energy per Band in Decibels

Low Mid Hi Low Mid Hi Low Mid HiBass Midrange Treble

for further information contact Numerical Sound

PO Box 1275,Station K,Toronto,Ontario, Canada M4P 3E5 email: ernest@total.net web site: www.numericalsound.com

phone 416.444.6644 fax 416.444.7045

Sound Graphs included for each droneThe manual includes unique analogue VU meter type graphs for the left and right channels. This VUmeter representation gives the user an accurate audio roadmap of how the drone actually evolvesover time. It also enables a user to quickly target a particular passage in a drone. This fast searchcapacity is an important asset in commercial applications.

Track 1 Drone Name: Inner Strength Pitch Eb1

Description: A bass drone with upper bass and lower midrange emphasis.

Right Channel Amplitude Envelope in Decibels

Left Channel Amplitude Envelope in Decibels

Time in Seconds