fDrone is a drone synthesiser, audio processor, and signal mangler. It generates continuous evolving tones, processes incoming audio through a chain of analogue-modelled damage and character effects, or ring-modulates your signal with an internal oscillator.
Every instance of fDrone is a unique piece of virtual hardware. When you add fDrone to a track, it generates a unique serial number that determines the character of that particular unit - the way its oscillators drift, how its motor wobbles, the colour of its noise floor, and its warm-up behaviour.
The interface is arranged across three rows. Row 1 covers Global controls, Oscillator A (main tone generator with analogue-modelled circuit behaviour), and Oscillator B (layered harmonics with detuning, FM, and cross-modulation). Row 2 is the Motion section (Drift, Wander, Motor, Speed, Freeze) and the Damage section (Saturate, Bit Depth, Dropouts, Glitch, SR Degrade, Feedback, Bias, Noise). Row 3 is Character (Age, Earth, Hz, Body, Wiring, Sensitivity, Sympathetic, Storage, Decay) and Actions.
Load on an instrument track for MIDI pitch control. The oscillators warm up on startup, drifting slightly then settling - just as real analogue oscillators do. The Memory control degrades patch recall, simulating faded handwritten settings on a damp patch sheet.
Dual Oscillators
Oscillator A generates the fundamental with analogue-modelled circuit character. Oscillator B adds layers, detuning, harmonics, FM rate, and cross-modulation.
Damage Chain
Saturate, Bit Depth, Dropouts, Glitch (chance + amount), Sample Rate Degrade, Feedback, Bias, and Noise. Intentional destruction as a creative tool.
Character Chain
Age, Earth hum (50/60Hz), Body resonance, Wiring capacitance, Sensitivity, Sympathetic resonance, Storage degradation, and Decay. The patina of old hardware.
Motion
Drift, Wander, Motor wobble, Speed, and Freeze. Control how the drone evolves over time - from perfectly stable to wildly unpredictable.