(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQ_yjfh4APk)
I used my Modular synth and an iPad to put a new soundtrack on this old educational film on atomic energy.
THE PATCH: There are three main parts of the patch: a low drone, the high pings, and the trashed/crushed audio of the original voiceover.
The drone: The oscillator you hear is a Malekko Oscillator II’s SAW2 output, which can be phase modulated. Its phase is modulated by a sine wave coming from an Intellijel µVCF in self-oscillation, running into one channel of a Makenoise Moddemix. The depth of the modulation is controlled by a long slow looping function on a MakeNoise Function module.
The Oscillator II’s TRI1 output runs into the second channel of the Moddemix to provide further phase modulation. Depth is controlled by the inverted function, so you end up with cross-faded audio rate phase modulation sources.
The SAW2 output runs into a Barton Waveform Animator, which copies the resulting trashy waveform 3 times, shifting the phase of each copy slowly. That output is multed to a Harvestman Polivoks VCF (in bandpass mode) and a Doepfer A-105 SSM low pass filter.
The filters’ cutoff frequencies are then modulated by a variety of functions coming from Maths. Channel 4 of Maths is a long, slow looping function. Its end of cycle gate triggers cycling on Channel 1 of maths, which is another, differently shaped looping function. The SUM output of Maths controls the A-105’s cutoff frequency (as does the OR output–probably could have done without this connection). The INVERTED output of Maths controls the cutoff frequency of the Polivoks VCF. the RISE CV on channel 4 is controlled by the stepped random voltage from the Wogglebug; the RISE CV on channel 1 is controlled by the Wogglebug’s Woggle CV. Channel 1’s end of rise gate output clocks the wogglebug.
The high pings are the pulse output of a Pittsburgh Modular Oscillator, gated through an ElectroLobotomy PassiVac vectorial gate controlled by the random gate output of the Wogglebug.
All of these pitched parts are controlled by a Korg SQ1 sequencer in 16-step “random” mode, clocked by the End-of-Cycle gate output of Channel 4 of Maths.
An iPad plays the original video and its sound into a Pittsburgh Modular In/Out module to boost it to modular levels. This then goes into the Harvestman Tyme Sefari Mk. 1, whose internals are mangled by the Sound of Thunder expander. All of its parameters are voltage-controlled, too, but I ended up “playing” this module more so that I could be sure certain phrases ended up in the audio-buffer to be mangled.
The film is, of course, “A is for Atom,” and is in the public domain. It is available from the Prelinger Archives here https://archive.org/details/isforAto1953
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