Rainger FX Mini Drone pedal

The Minidrone is a stripped-down all analog 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 – Drone1 – 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
The Minidrone 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

Flip 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.

Theres tons of bass – the tone is deep and electro. Its 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 (custom enclosure). Its an electric tamboura! In a two-piece band its your low-end!

The Minidrone is true bypass, and loud. You mix the drones in with your clean guitar signal, which passes through the pedal – buffered, but unaffected. Its designed to be used in series with other pedals, all plugged into a single input.

Accommodation:

Through a window in the front panel you can see a motel scene inside – with car parks leading onto a busy road. The car headlamps light up. Theres an eerie streetlamp glow – and the motel sign flashes whenever you press the Igor pad.