Mike Copeland and I have ecstatic conversations about playing over drones. I’m a longtime addict; he waxes poetic. Here’s my plan… I am looking for other similarly afflicted folks who have the capability to be a virtual band via Pro Tools software. I’ll explain more if you’re interested, but the gist of my plan is to record an album that is built around drones in every key. My contribution would be whistles galore, cello, Celtic harp. Now, I am assuming that you’ve got to have Pro Tools to interface with my tracks, but come to think of it, as long as you can throw a track onto a CD, I can import that into my system. Do I have that right?? So, maybe you don’t need to have Pro Tools software. Hmmm… Well, what I really need are more terrific drone instruments: pipes, fiddle, Tambura (sp?), sitar, etc.
Wouldn’t it be nice if you got beginners and children to contribute? Maybe some adults who don’t want to play in public, could you not take some sort of contribution from everyone on this message board for example, and sample it, even if it was only a note or a tune? Don’t forget the whistle is a folk instrument , and you have plenty of ‘folk’ to draw upon. Only a suggestion, but this is how the folk tradition has proliferated and survived until now… What an original and truly felt album you could come up with.
P.S. Some of us are completely computer iliterate too. If you explained what we all had to do, we could do it and, I think you would come up with some suprising and original results.
not sure about the “pro-tunes” thing, but if it’s drones you want, we’ll contribute the mountain dulcimer for ya! Let me know more specifics.
Missy
Have you tried it yet? And what whistle would you use? I am sure that practically all highenders will sound crappy against the drowns because they are tuned equal. Now, with my new just intoned Humphrey’s on the other hand… 
Pro Tools is computer software for recording. For creating a virtual band, there’s no other way to go. Now, mountain dulcimer could be wonderful, so I’ll keep your offer in mind. However, correct me if I’m wrong, but it sounds like you aren’t into digital recording. Is that true?
true - not into digital recording. We’ve done MP3, we did our CD via computer (editing, mixing, etc). Check our website for what we have done.
Missy
Almost any decent recording software will import either mp3s or wav files so you don’t have to all be using the same software.
Further, you can keep the snail mail system completely out of it by either having someone (with a lot of webspace) be the upload/download spot or by using one of the online collaboration sites.
Google on: online recording collaboration
One that springs readily to mind is lulu. (http://music.lulu.com/browse/) but there are others.
Hope this is of some help.
Yeah, I’m just starting out experimenting with this idea, so thanks for the great info.