After deliberation, I decided the time machine’s sound should be a representation of a huge build up of energy quickly dispersing, therefore giving the illusion it disappeared into to time and space. This sound, as it is non existent in reality, has a lot of room for imaginative non realistic (sci-fi) sound. I achieved this with a mixture of techniques. Firstly I approached the panoramic effects of this sound. When watching this piece of film I could imagine an onslaught of sounds evolving around the screen space, rising to an imploding climax. I used low sub rumbling sine waves and emulated the doppler effect upon these sounds to create a chaotic panoramic image that resolves in an implosion.
The doppler effect is a physical phenomenon caused by a sound source approaching and passing the receiver at speed. When a sound source approaches the observer the relative wavelength shortens in frequency creating the illusion of increased pitch. This combined with the increase and decrease in amplitude provides the illusion of movement in the stereo field and speed.
The next thing to decide was the timbre of the warp sound. For this I decided to use an analog synthesiser to provide warmth and unpredictability. I used a pitch sweep to create an inharmonic sound and then applied a hi pass sweep to enhance the metallic qualities of the sound.
After the ethereal non-diegetic sounds I needed to take care of the mechanical sounds of the time machine. The mechanical sound was created with a tape delay emulation plugin set at 100 feedback, I used a digital plugin because it provides a lot less audio loss than my Copicat. I then used a fully wet Watkins Copicat with a varispeed modification to speed the sound up.
After this it was just a case of mixing these sounds together. I used automation a lot through this process to ensure the sound meshed together well to create an effective sound.
I used this technique across a range of recordings and found that it also worked well with the recording of an electric motor.
Jordan Vaughan: Creative Sound Design 