Drone pad tutorial

[Boodro]

I just picked up my first Nord, the Stage 4. Extremely excited, yet overwhelmed. I’ve been trying to find YouTube videos and other sources of info to learn how to set up a drone/ambient pad to play CCM music. I decided to join here in hopes of some help. Any help is appreciated!

[EnjoyRC]

I've seen where there is a zone defined up high (last octave). Assign a nice drone pad to that zone that has KB Hold activated. Set the octave up/down appropriately. Then you can hit a note or notes, and they hold while playing on the remaining area of the board.

[Walker31415]

Congrats on your new Nord Stage 4!!
There are some tutorials on how to do a drone on the stage 3, but one for the 4 hasn't been made yet.
The Nord is actually one of if not the only keyboards that can quickly and easily create a drone pad for CCM due to its built in "KB HOLD" functionality.

First, choose a pad sound that you like. There are a few good ones already preset in the board, by pressing the "Synth" button under the "Preset Library", seen on top of the main screen. The nice pads are the first on the list.
Some CCM songs, like Hillsong, have more "movement" or "ambience" in the drone pads and are more open and complex, and some are more simple. It depends on the song. You can make your drone more complex by utilizing the LFO, vibe/chorus MOD 2 effects, Delay, Reverb, or even manipulate the arpeggiator to add complex randomness and movement to the pad. Reply to this post if you want to know more about that, but to keep this post short(er) and simple(r), I'll leave those details out.

First, go to a new/blank patch or live mode patch. Select one of the three layers to put your drone pad. I like to use the C (rightmost) one because it leaves the other two for any other synth sounds I need. I like to keep consistent between different patches, so if I go to a different patch, I know my drone will still be on the C (3rd) layer.
Then, hold SHIFT and press press the "Synth" button under Preset Library, because we want a SINGLE LAYER pad in order to leave the other 2 layers blank. Scroll through while playing in order to find a good pad sound. The first one, Soft Pad 1, will definitely work. Just make sure to turn the Program knob forward one notch and back one notch to actually select it if this is the one you choose. Then, press the KB HOLD button, under the "A" Layer toggle button. Make sure that the "Exclude" option/LED is not lit so that it will not be excluded from being held. One more thing to do is to go to the A and B layers, and make sure the exclude light is on, because you don't want the sound on those layers to hold, only your drone layer.

This step is optional, but it really helps if you want easy access to changing the drone in between songs in a set.
Hold down on the "C" button under the fader to turn it off. Turn on any other sounds you have for the song ex. Organ, Piano, A and B synth. Then, press "Layer Scene II" in order to go to the second layer configuration. In this one, you want to have all the sounds OFF EXCEPT for the DRONE (C) layer ON.
When you pull up the patch, its going to have all the song's sounds on it. When you want to turn on the drone, press Layer Scene II to go to the drone layer, play one note/an octave/an octave with a 5th (these are the most common drone sounds), then press Layer Scene II in order to return back to your main piano/synth/organ sounds for the song. When you want to change the drone key, just press Layer Scene II again so it disables all layers except for drone, then play the new key, then return to the main sounds by pressing Layer Scene II once more.

[EnjoyRC]

@Walker31415, I really like the Layer Scene I & II approach. Thanks for sharing those details.

[K3v7nm]

Congrats on your new Nord Stage 4!!
Some CCM songs, like Hillsong, have more "movement" or "ambience" in the drone pads and are more open and complex, and some are more simple. It depends on the song. You can make your drone more complex by utilizing the LFO, vibe/chorus MOD 2 effects, Delay, Reverb, or even manipulate the arpeggiator to add complex randomness and movement to the pad. Reply to this post if you want to know more about that, but to keep this post short(er) and simple(r), I'll leave those details out.

Hi,
I would like to know more please.

[Walker31415]

I would like to know more please.

Of course!

Through a combination of the LFO, Arpeggiator, and Effects, one can take the drone sounds to the next level.
Many CCM songs use drones generated by a computer or tracks through Ableton, which allow them to have very ambient, open, prerecorded drones. We can try do achieve that same ambience with the tools we have.

Before beginning, set the master clock of the patch to the song’s tempo. I’ve noticed a lot of CCM songs are 68 BPM. Do this by holding down the “MST CLK” button then using the knob to set the right tempo. This tempo will dictate the speed of our LFO, Arpeggiator, and Effects.

First of all, most of the default sounds use some form of the Saw or Pure Saw wave. However, the new addition of the Super Saw on the NS4 means that a lot of the saw waves are stacked, creating a more full and ambient sound. I like to use the Super Saw waves on my pads now. After selecting the wave that fits the song, set the amp envelope, filter, and filter envelopes to a good setting. The envelopes should have a slow attack so that the sound “fades in” as you play the drone. Also, make sure Unison is on 3 (both LEDs lit) so that the pad will sound more full.
I notice that sometimes, Super waves don't play too well with effects, so if you're planning on adding a lot, try a Pure Saw first and change wave types later on.

The first step to ambiance is the LFO, which will induce movement.
Select the “Filter” option so that the 2 LEDs light up. Then, select an amount that is prominent enough but doesn’t “rock the boat” the wrong way, but manipulating the “Mod Amt” knob. Sync the LFO to the master clock by holding on Shift and turning the Rate/Time knob. I like to set this at 4/1, which means it will cycle every 4 beats.

For effects:
Make sure to hold shift and press the “Synth” button under the Effects Section until only your drone layer (we used C) is initiated, that way these effects don’t affect layers A and B, the non-drone layers.

MOD 1 should be Tremolo. The way we will configure this will make it sound very similar to the LFO. As with the LFO, make the amount so that its not too jarring, but still present. This time, sync it to the master clock (shift + rate) to 4/1T (Triplet) so that the LFO and Tremolo will move at different rates, causing one more variable of randomness.

MOD 2 can be Chorus or Vibe. These cannot be synced to the Master Clock. I like to use chorus because it is like the “Unison” feature but with the sound quality of a stompbox-style pedal.

For Delay, turn it to a VERY high speed (sync to master clock optional), turn the amount up to ~1-2 and the Feedback to about ~1-2. Not too much, but this will help smooth out the arpeggiator settings we will add later.

Finally, add a very big reverb such as Spring or Cathedral, and set it to the maximum amount. That way, it becomes very open and creates a nice fade out when drone is disengaged. This will also help when we have the arpeggiator.

Finally, we can manipulate the arpeggiator in an unconventional way to make our drone cooler. First, press the red “Arp Run” button to start the arpeggiator. Press the horizontal button under arpeggiator to change it to “Poly” mode, and then the vertical “Menu” button under arpeggiator and rotate the 2nd encoder under the screen so that the pattern is “random.” Optionally sync the arpeggiator with the master clock by holding down shift and changing rate, but make it a really fast rate so that a lot of chords are being triggered really fast. Change the “Range” knob, which acts kind of like a filter now that it makes chords trigger in higher octaves. I like to map this, along with the filter knob, to the Mod wheel, to manipulate the intensity of the drone pad.
Utilizing the arpeggiator this way makes for some challenges, including sharp and distinct chord triggers which can be mitigated by making the delay higher, reverb higher, and making the filter and amp envelopes’ attacks slower.
Also, the volume may be greatly decreased, so use the compressor to restore more volume to the pad.

One more thing - in order to quickly TURN OFF the drone at the end of the song, tap the KB HOLD button once to disengage, then tap it again to prepare to play in the next song.

Here is a youtube video I filmed when I first tried this combination of effects. It is poorly recorded (phone audio) and poorly filmed (held with one hand, played with the other) but it shows how much movement can be introduced to a pad that is usually kind of bland.


I hope this was helpful!