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12. Patching together an ambient pad

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In this tutorial, we'll take you deep into analogue ambience by creating a motion-filled atmospheric pad. We're going to assume you've followed our other Voltage Modular Nucleus tutorials, and have a basic understanding of how the instrument works. If not, go back and give them a look, then come back and fire up a new patch. 2

To begin, add a pair of Oscillator modules. These will provide the main body of a layered sound. Patch the CV Outs' Pitch into each Oscillator's Keyb CV Inputs for keyboard control. Next, add a pair of Envelope Generators and patch the CV Outs' Gate jack to each Envelope Generator's Gate In. 3

You will, of course, need an Amplifier, so put one in and route one of the Envelope Generators' Env Outs to its CV In. Next, add a Mixer and a Filter. Patch one of the Oscillators' Sawtooth outputs into one Mixer channel, and the other Oscillator's Square wave into another channel. Send the Mixer's Master output into the Filter. 4

Send the Filter's Low Pass output to the Amplifier's Input. Add another Mixer. Send the Amp's Output to a Mixer channel. Now, add a Delay and route the Mixer into it, then send the Delay's Output to the Mains Out 1L(M) jack. Set the

Range of the Oscillator producing the sawtooth wave to 32' and adjust the Mixer input levels to a comfortable level. 5

Attach the Env Out of the unused Envelope Generator to the Filter's Freq Mod 1 jack. Set the Filter's Cutoff to around 280Hz and Resonance to about 70%. Increase the Filter's Mod 1 Amount to 85%. Set the Filter Envelope's Attack to about 800ms, Decay and Release all the way up, and Sustain all the way down. Increase the Amp Envelope Release. 6

Now, add an Oscillator, Filter, Amplifier, and Envelope Generator. Send the Oscillator's Square out to the Filter's Input. Send the Filter's High-Pass to the Amp's Input. CV Outs' Gate goes to the Envelope's Gate, and the Envelope's Env Out goes to the Amplifier's CV In. The Amplifier's Output goes to channel 2 on your second Mixer.

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Attach the newest Oscillator's Keyb CV to the CV Outs' Pitch. Set the Oscillator's Range to 8'. The Filter Cutoff should be about 15,000Hz, and Resonance about 70%. Now, set the Envelope's Attack to 4000ms, Decay and Release all the way up, and Sustain fully down. Add a Noise Generator and a Sample And Hold module.

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Run patch cables from the Noise Generator's White Noise output to the Sample And Hold's Input, and the Sample And Hold's Ouput to the Filter's Freq Mod

1 input. Set the Filter's Mod 1 Amount to about 100%. The Sample And Hold now modulates the filcutoff. You'll probably want to decrease this layer's level in your second Mixer.

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Add another Oscillator with its Range set to 32'. Route its Pulse wave output to the Sample And Hold's Ext Trigger input, and set the Trigger Source to Ext.

This will allow the new Oscillator to control its rate. To modulate that rate, route the Envelope Generator's Env Out

Inv to the Oscillator's Frequency Mod input and crank up the amount.