Ahhhhh this is a topic that is dear to my heart.
So lets tackle your questions... (this is all written in my opinion and experience, this is in noway a rulebook to drone just some tips and tricks i've learned to creating drones I personally like to go back and listen to)
Rig - For this there's a couple things I think are fairly important. First and foremost in my opinion a really wide frequency range is vitally important. This applies to both the head / amp your using and to your cabs / speakers. While your guitars lowest note's frequency might only be in the lower 100's of Hz once you start applying certain effects (which I'll discuss later) there will be frequencies lower and higher then your guitar that will be created and having that extended frequency range allows them to cut through clearly while being able to layer your normal guitar stuff on top. Second, yes volume is important but not vital. Like Skully said pushing air is more important for that ominous wall of sound tone. This is why Sunn uses 3 heads each with max output of 150w each instead of 3 300w amps, you'll never be able to turn up those 300w heads to max without causing physical damage to yourself. So less is more in that department, but in speakers its basically the more the merrier but theres no need to be jucifer, that is completely unnecessary. a 4x12 actually pushes more air then a 2x15 (think surface area for comparison) but they can't produce the low end a 15" does so I find balancing your combinations of 12's and 15's important, I use a 2 to 1 philosophy (2 12's to 1 15).
Visual Aspect - this highly depends on the vision and desired end result of the band. One thing I've learned in the past two years playing alot of big shows in a "pop" style band, unfortunately your visual appeal plays a large role in keeping the attention of your audience during a live performance. Watching a drone show with a couple dudes standing up on stage in jeans and band shirts under the same exact lighting the entire time, no matter how good the music, is unfortunately not very entertaining. Drone doesn't have the energy and feel that allows you to go nuts on stage which alot of metal bands do to keep audience attention so unfortunately you have to look at adding on visual aspects. Sunn does this with the robes and fog and everything else but what they are really doing is not just creating music but creating an atmosphere live, the music envokes the feeling of a satanic ritual at night in a fog filled forest so they bring that visual to you. The music matches the atmosphere and you feel as if its more then just a band on stage, its as if your a part of a movie, of something bigger and thats what has made them so successful. So you have to figure out what kind of atmosphere you want to create with your drone music and bring that vibe to the stage through visual elements. My future drone project will involve a large amount of visual elements but will mainly focus on mood lighting and videos, while the musicians play in all black. I want the focus to be on the videos which the music will basically soundtrack too, I want to create the tension and joy and fear through the music and through your perception, and focus less on the individuals creating it.
Effects - Oh boy time to get into the fun zone. Here is what in my opinion os the essentials or bare minimums... Overdrive, Boost, Fuzz, Looper, Volume pedal, Delay, and Reverb. I'll break it down in to sections to explain.
Dirt - Having numerous textures of dirt is essential to creating different moods. Sometimes just a light overdrive on dissonant chords can strike a more emotional chord (pun intended
) then the same exact chord under stacked fuzzes. As it can give a dry and gritty feel which sadness can often feel like and it seems more lonely and distraught. While fuzz summons more emotions of anger and ominous oppression or sometimes pain and panic. While these emotions are very often the core of a doom drone having nothing but those emotions going for an hour can get exhausting in a bad way. Boosts, well this is the fun part say you have this huge ominous tone going with your fuzz and you need to push it up a notch in intensity and volume, a boost is your best friend, it can feel like a jolt, a shot in the back, a swift kick in the ass, while still retaining that anger inducing tone. Another thing to think about is having dirt pedals with footswitchable tones so you can flip back and forth between tones without tap dancing like an irish riverdancer, for instance I use my skyhammer to go from gritty overdrive to full on melt down with the kick of one switch and my big spider for a really scooped tone thats easy to loop and play over and then kick in the mid boost for the riff or line I want to really stick out.
Volume Pedal - This is necessary to control feedback, do swells, mute your instrument while switching dirt tones and a thousand other uses. GET ONE, LOVE ONE.
Delay - Here is the main staple of a a true drone, this allows you to make swirling feelings, nauseousness, flight, stuttering falls and so many other feelings. It can produce a cloud for your guitar to sit on, or the blood covering your eyes from a badger attack melting your consciousness away into oblivion. My view is there is no one type of delay that fits everything, an hour drone with the same delay constant would get boring and blend together too much. This is why i find digital multi-delays like the timeline of timefactor to be vital. I have one pedal that can have up to 200 different delays at my feet. Some riffs you come up with will sound amazing with a wobbly tape delay on the verge of oscillation while others will thrive with the pulse of an audible digital delay to make you feel as if your rocking back and forth. The more delays the more unique tones and vibes you can create.
Verb - Here is another vital and important aspect to the drone. This is the basis of your overall atmosphere, this is what cements the audible visualization of the story your telling. Like the delay the more the better here. I have found the Space to be the ultimate verb for drone as i can summon a multitude of different tones and switch them around in insane way that can invoke the feeling of teleportation, floating in space, or even as if surrounded by a chorus of disembodied demons harmonizing with your wicked howling. I mainly use the gravity verb, space verb, and shimmer verb for creating my tones. And this is where that wider frequency response amp then your guitar can create comes into play. With a shimmer I can go from +2 to -2 octaves on anything I'm playing, so now your have frequencies your guitar normally does not create. If your amp can't handle the lowest of the the lows or the highest of the highs then the verb just blends into your signal as mud and struggles for sonic ground to stand on.
Looper - Probably the single most important part of any drone setup. Without this creating the feeling of more then one person is on stage playing the same things is near impossible. We all ready have a thread explaining a loopers use and necessity so I'll keep this one short.
Dat feedback - I control all of mine via delay and verb and the combination there of. This allows me to create different flavors of feedback, not just cover your ears because its piercingly abrasive. With a delay on the verge of oscillation you can create near endless feedback and different delays can alter the overall tone of the feedback. For instance a tape delay has a more subdued and gentle feel to feedback, while a digital delay can have more high end and abrasiveness to it which could be what your going for. Then liberal use of stacked gain and your volume pedal to summon or banish the feedback your creating, allows for finer control.
Riffs - this one is hard to really nail down as everyones writing style is different, and every riff should be written in a different key or scale depending on the mood and soundscape your attempting to create. This would require a long write up on musical theory when in reality it should totally go off of your feel and style, plus your guitar setup (as riffs in drop tunings tend to play very differently then standard or alt tunings).
What to write - Hmmmm how to explain this.... I think the best place to start with drone is a concept. Your not doing drone to just create noise, otherwise your in it for the wrong reasons. Your in it to summon emotions that words cannot express, allowing your to communicate in a way that the human voice is near incapable of, but you still want to portray something perceivable to the listener. So my advice is to sit down and actually write out a story from your head, write out the story you want your song or your album to create audibly. It doesnt have to earn an A+ in Eng401 at Harvard, it really just needs to be an outline with differing settings, feelings, and most importantly dynamic. Then you add in small things like the perfect places for tension so you know to kick up the gain and dissonant chords there, and the places of calm so you know where to throw in your clean loops and maybe some sad melodies over them. Drone isn't exactly about writing songs IMO, its about visualizing them.
Tidal? I can dig it.
