Gothic Instruments ‘DRONAR Guitarscapes Released
The DRONAR series has a brand new instalment – Guitarscapes provides a quick, easy and expressive way of creating a huge range of guitar-based textures. Read on for more info… Official Info “It is when you start to play with the controls that you realise the power of Dronar, particularly when you consider what can […]
The DRONAR series has a brand new instalment – Guitarscapes provides a quick, easy and expressive way of creating a huge range of guitar-based textures. Read on for more info…
Official Info
“It is when you start to play with the controls that you realise the power of Dronar, particularly when you consider what can be done with automation, or even a simple tweak of the mod wheel.” said Future Music magazine about DRONAR Hybrid Module and now that power is utilised once again with the eagerly awaited second instalment in the DRONAR series.
DRONAR is a deep, expressive and innovative atmospheric sound creator with each module exploring a different area of sound and music. Guitarscapes is the second module in the series providing a quick, easy and expressive tool for creating a massive range of guitar-based textures.
From shimmering ethereal pads that exude heavenly enchantment to dark and chaotic tension-packed atmospheres, Guitarscapes is perfect for cinematic soundtrack projects, yet its ability to produce natural strummy accompaniments also make it a versatile tool for a variety of genres including Rock, Pop, Indie, Hip Hop and Ambient music. And, thanks to the power of DRONAR, all it takes is the press of a few notes…
DRONAR automatically spreads out the chord in the mid-range, adds a root bass note, a high note and then adds evolving sound effects. 8 simultaneous different sounds are then animated with LFOs, a rhythm sequencer and arpeggiators to bring them to life.
Such simple actions free up your spare hand to expressively control the dials and record the changes as a performance in your DAW. DRONAR instantly adds low, mid-range and high sounds plus sound effects, so you barely need any other sounds to quickly create a complete piece of atmospheric, expressive music.
Beginner and Expert Friendly
Needing to only play a few notes and move a few dials to get such rich expression is inviting for beginners, but an expert will get further by knowing which notes to play and how to express emotions using the dials. Beyond the shimmering immediacy of the ‘Main Page’ awaits a whole other world of expert control, turning DRONAR into a vast modular multi-timbral synth/sampler with multiple independent arpeggiators.
Interactions between crazy internal modulations (rhythm sequencer, arpeggiator, LFOs and delays) take DRONAR Guitarscapes it into another dimension….
Not just another cinematic guitars library…
Unlike many ‘guitar atmosphere’ products that lean towards either fairly straight recreations of standard guitar sounds, or have complex pre-made atmospheres without a deep level of control, DRONAR Guitarscapes focuses primarily on performance and expression.
Many of the raw underlying samples are straight guitar sounds and the engine provides a huge amount of control and creativity using arpeggiation, gates, pattern sequencing and modulation of 8 simultaneous sounds.
It’s designed to be played with one hand, freeing your other one to make new sounds by exploring the dials, and also recording your changes in your DAW as an expressive performance.
Furthermore, DRONAR Guitarscapes uses separate bass, mid range, high end and sound effects layers all interacting to create a complete evolving sound, rather than just guitar or pad sounds.
THE CONTROLS (for full details please download the PDF manual on the right side of this page)
Main Page
Hear the immediate impact on the sound and get a good understanding of the way DRONAR works simply by tweaking the six dials on the main page…
INTENSITY (also controlled by the Mod Wheel) takes you from silent to powerful by fading up through different velocity layers.
MOVEMENT has a global effect on the intensity of the arpeggiators – set it high for strong effects and zero for a flat pad sound.
HI, MID and LO control the automatically generated high notes, mid-range notes and bass notes. Moving these dials has a huge expressive effect on the music. It’s only like using a mixing desk and yet – having it so accessible in front of you encourages you to work with the balance as part of the original creative expression, instead of a mix decision later on.
FX controls the level of 20-second futuristic, unpitched sound effects loops in the mix and adds instant movement and complexity.
Dive deeper…
The Expert Page
The Expert Page shows you all the settings for the current, last played Drone from the 12 Drone Keys. Each drone has four layers – FX, HI, MID, LO, and the Expert page presents a separate set of controls for each layer. Each layer consists of two different sounds.
Need some inspiration? Hit the ‘Randomize samples’ button on the Expert Page and Dronar will keep all your settings but instantly swap the samples in the 8-named sound slots (2 per layer). New sound variations will abound and if it’s not quite the sound you’re after, keep hitting the button for more. Want to thicken up your sound? Each layer has a THICK button which adds in extra notes. Hearing the sound you want? Easily save the settings with the ‘Store Drone’ button.
Rhythm Editor Page
DRONAR’s brand new rhythm editor allows you to create intricate patterns re-generated from live played rhythms and intertwine them with the atmospherics and pad magic. Create your own rhythms at the speed you want – from slow chugs to high speed 32nd notes. Add accents and put in triplets, spread and humanise the chords – experimentation is the key and it’s very hard to make a bad sound! What’s more, DRONAR’s arpeggiator rhythmical tools can interact with the Editor to create unpredictable rhythms and undulations.
LFO & FX Page
Add movement to your sound, including panning, vibrato or siren effects with the LFO settings. Or tweak the Drone Effects to distort or dampen the sound, or add thickness, interest and colour. Reverb and Delay sends can also be controlled from this page.
Arpeggiator Page
Get sounds really moving or pulsing over time, synced to your DAW’s host Tempo with DRONAR’s multiple and truly unique independent arpeggiators including PITCH, INTENSITY and FILTER.
Master FX Page
DRONAR’s Master FX page features standard effects including EQ, Compressor, Delay and Gate. DRONAR also includes a couple of digital (algorithmic) reverbs and a set of convolution impulses including some creative and unusual impulses for sound design – again, experimentation is the key!
INSTRUMENT LIST
Acoustic guitars:
LAG Tramontane steel string guitar with StudioLAG preamp.
Takamine Nylon Acoustic guitar.
Electric guitars and bass:
Fender FMT HH Tele (Flame Maple Top, 2 humbuckers)
Schecter Jeff Loomis 7 string with single coil and Humbucker
Fender Jazz bass.
Mandolin and pedal steel:
Rains D-10 Pedal Steel
Hilton Volume Pedal
Little Walter 50 Watt Amplifier and 1×12 speaker cabinet
Wampler Pedals
Colin Kendall Mandolin into a Neumann TLM103 mic
