I have fond memories of watching Star Trek as a child. My father loved the show and we watched it together when he was home from work early enough. I went to see Star Trek Into Darkness on Saturday night. The movie is not one of the all time greats and it often parodies the original television show. That said it’s beautiful and extremely fun to watch. The entire film shines with pink and blue hues. The sound effects are also very good. In one scene two ships chase each other in Warp drive and the sound blew me away. It’s rare a movie does that. Take a look at the video above to see how sound designer Ben Burt created some of the effects in the movie. I was happy to hear he went the extra mile using things like styrofoam through a vacum cleaner. Everyone already knows Ben’s work as he created Dark Vader’s heavy breathing and the lightsaber hum.

“Much to the delight of Trekkies and science fiction fans everywhere, “Star Trek Into Darkness” zooms into theaters this weekend. Moviegoers will see big names such as Chris Pine and Zoe Saldana in the credits, but may miss another key role: that of sound designer. CNET’s Kara Tsuboi brings us this behind-the-scenes listen of how the sound effects were created in a studio far from Hollywood.” – cnet

For more info: startrekmovie.com and wikipedia.org/ben_burtt

Skinny Puppy’s new album is about to be released. Like a lot of old Industrial or EBM bands I lost faith that I would hear much new stuff that I would be interested in. However, when I heard the song 101 (2011) by the SP related Ohgr project I knew somewhere the old fire existed. Well here we have the new album Weapon and Skinny Puppy bought some of their old equipment back, dusted off other toys left in closets and return to their roots. You can hear a full preview of the new album at Revolver Mag (link). Listen to the songs Wornin’, saLvo and the new version of Solvent and you are transported.

“Wow! Sounds like Skinny Puppy again.” – Alexis Latorre

For more info: skinnypuppy.com

It’s Thursday so basically the weekend starts now right? To get us into the mood check out this Matt Minimal set. There are parts of this say at 6:34, 26:12, 33:14, 40:08, 43:50, 50:13 that will make you put your makeup on, grab a drink and get the party started. Purely deep bass and techno fun.

“Matt Minimal @ Tapedeck Special Electrosound.tv 10.02.2011 with Miro Pajic & Jens Schröder in Berlin!”

For more info: mattminimal.com

via Jerome Kuehnert

For those of you who still have not grabbed some modular stuff but want in on the sounds Izotope has released a Sound Library called Modular for Iris. Iris is on my list of interesting plug-ins to get when I have the chance. This library has 600 samples and 300 patches for $34 USD.

“From the vintage classic, the ARP 2600, to modern Cartesian sequencing, the Modular sound library stems from a wide range of both musical and chaotic sources. Start experimenting and you’ll find that any Modular patch could inspire your next track, from pulsing tones to lush effects to glitchy rhythmic syncopations to fat bass sounds.” – izotope.com

For more info: izotope.com/products/audio/iris

I really like this new Max 4 Live Device Spectrum Sampler. It’s great for breakdowns, into/outros or the basis for an entire track. I remember when it would take half a day to create glitch results like this. Mac or PC for 4 Euros.

“Spectrum Sampler is a Max for Live device which samples and holds spectral components of the incoming signal. It can create inharmonic resonances, artifacts, dusty noises, drones, gliding sounds: a wide palette of amazing noises.” – amazingnoises.com

For more info: amazingnoises.com

via Richard Devine

DevoBots is new synth a robot maker app from Devo. Crack that whip. Give the past a slip. Step on a crack. Break your momma’s back. .99 and available now.

“DEVOBOTS is an upcoming DEVO-authorized iOS app that is a combination robot maker and synthesizer. Users will be able to create their own DEVO-inspired robot characters from a library of 10,000 robot parts. The designs can be applied to apparel, posters, and other merchandise. The synthesizer app will allow users to create their own music from sounds taken from the DEVO archives.” – laughingsquid.com

For more info: itunes.apple.com/us/app/devobots

Madeleine at Sonic Bloom has posted 6 beautiful Ableton Live 9 Skins that are free to download. Red for while making a love song. Black for on stage!

“I’ve created 6 new skins for Ableton Live that you can download for free. They work well with Live 9 and also previous versions. This set of skins adds more dashes of colour than the last one, but without being too shrill. Enjoy!” – Madeleine

For more info: sonicbloom.net/en/6-free-skins-for-ableton-live-9

There is an interesting Mixcloud show you may want to start following called The Notorious New Wave Show (link). Instead of a DJ mix it’s more like a proper radio show with the host Gina Achord announcing the song titles and artists. I really like her track selection.

“Tonight we have the exclusive track from Isaac Junkie featuring Glenn Gregory of Heaven 17. You will be hearing it here first tonight! We have a new Visage track, and our double shot week- which is a play of two songs by each new artist so you can be exposed to new music with some great bands. And count them, two new songs from the new B.E.F CD Dark and we’ll continue to do a new track each week until the release of the cd on May 27th. Some of the new bands we’ll be playing tonight are No Longer Neon, Analog Angel, Vile Electrodes, Low Tide Theory, and tons more!” – Gina Achord

For more info:

An interesting look at having in-ears created. Living in NYC I want anything that shuts out the outside world.

“Jude from Head-Fi and Mike from Ultimate Ears have stepped in to outfit her with a pair of custom earbuds! Of course, there’s a whole process involved with having these made… starting with custom ear molds.” – Tekzilla

For more info: wikipedia.org/wiki/In-ear_monitor

Last night I went to Control in Williamsburg, Brooklyn to see Dan Snazelle demo his SnazzyFX Eurorack modules. Of all the demos I’ve seen so far this was the best. He’s really into it and spent a solid two hours showing how to use is stuff in musical contexts. After seeing it in action I know I really want a Chaos Brother. It creates random gates and more but in a really useful way. He had it hooked up to a DPO’s strike with some Tiptop drum modules as a back beat and it was instant Berghain (infamous Berlin nightclub). The Dreamboat was similar but faster and more chaotic. The Dronebank is a simple module designed solely to make drones. It’s six triangle oscillators and in person it’s quite wantable. Wow & Flutter mutates your incoming signal sort of like tape. Lastly there’s the Ardcore module. This module is a chameleon which loads programs via USB. There are about 60 to choose from right now. You can have things such as a bit-crusher, arpeggiator and even a drum machine. Dan mentioned he will be doing a run of modules with “normal” faceplates later this summer. As usual Daren & Jonas (the owners of Control) were great hosts. If you’re in the NY area you really owe it to yourself to visit.

“The Chaos Brother is a new modulation module full of enough options and knobs to keep it interesting no matter where you decide to use it. It all starts with the CHAOS knob, when turned all the way to the left, you get repetitive, tame oscillations like you would find in a basic LFO. Start turning the knob to the right and the Chaos ensues.” – snazzyfx.com

For more info: snazzyfx.com and ctrl-mod.com