This is a Pixar promo - but it takes an interesting look at the sound design of Wall-E.

Andrew Stanton, Jim Morris, and Ben Burtt share their process for creating the sound of a sci-fi animated feature.

Bleep Labs has introduced the Thingamakit - a DIY project that lets you build your own anthropomorphic noise maker.

According to Bleep Labs, the Thingamakit features “all the sounds of Thingamagoop plus
triangle wave LEDacle with shape and speed control. Second photocell patchable to modulator and photocell rate. Square and Triangle wave output.

The satisfaction for making an noise monster with your own soldering iron!

Comes with:

• detailed instructions
• fully labeled components
• simply layed out circuit board with minimal hand wiring.
• 2 ready to blink LEDacles
• control panel and face stickers

Bleep Labs is also doing a fun marketing twist, creating a Thingamakit Flickr group.

Ueberschall has announced Trance ID 2, a new Elastik Soundbank sound library focusing on trance music.

Description:

Trance ID2 incorporates the latest trends in the genre such as Neo-, Electro-, and Tech-Trance, as well as elements from Progressive and Minimal.

The construction kits on Trance ID 2—powered by the Elastik Loop Player—offer cutting-edge drum loops, synth patterns, bass lines, chord progressions, atmospheres, air and rumble, percussion and fx-sounds which can be combined with each other.

BPM information and root key (key signatures) are embedded in all loop file names, simplifying selection and direct use.

Trance ID 2 was created by

• Mike Koglin - Grammy-nominated DJ and producer
• Marc Steinmeier - Time Unlimited label boss
• Mark Pledger - Anjunabeats superstar
• Darren Tate - famed for his many top40 hits under his DT8 Project, Jürgen Vries and Angelic guises.

Contents:

• 2 GB, 30 construction kits, 1000 loops and single sounds
• Elastik Soundbank for Mac/PC/AU/VST/RTAS
• Elastik Player included - no sampler require

Trance ID 2 retails for $119 USD / 99 Euro / 17.800 Yen / £69 GBP

Here’s something fun I saw highlighted at the Califaudio blog - the Theremug, a DIY project that turns your cup of coffee or tea into a theremin, of sorts.

Here’s Kyle McDonald’s explanation of the Theremug:
1 Prepare some tea
2 Expose the L/R leads on an 1/8″ cable
3 Immerse leads in tea
4 Plug cable into audio input
5 Start up max/pd/processing/etc. and average every 735 samples (882 if you’re in Europe/running on 50Hz)
6 Scale value and drive oscillator

(The tea should not be neglected, be sure to drink it once you’re done making noise.)

See the Max patch for a more in-depth explanation: flickr.com/photos/kylemcdonald/212649409

Here’s something for Sasha fans/trance fans: Sasha’s announced a new CD, Invol2ver, that promises to take a visit to the same territory he explored on the Involver CD.

The CD features twelve heavily worked-over tracks, including tunes from Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, synth pop stars Ladytron, indie troubadour Ray La Montagne and Telefon Tel Aviv. Limited edition copies will include a second CD of Sasha remix exclusives.

Tracks:

01. Intro - Sasha
02. Telefon Tel Aviv - You Are the Worst Thing in the World
03. Rone - Flesh
04. Sasha - Untitled (with Ray LaMontagne vocal sample)
05. Sasha - Lowlife (with Adam Parker Vocal sample)
06. Sasha - Midnight (with Adam Parker vocal sample)
07. Apparat - Arcadia
08. Home Video - That You Might
09. Ladytron - Destroy Everything You Touch
10. M83 - Couleurs
11. Thom Yorke - The Eraser
12. Sasha - 3 Little Pigs
13. Engineers - Sometime I Realise

Sasha releases Involver2 on Global Underground on September 8th 2008.

Steinberg has announced price drops for Cubase & Wavelab:

We would like to inform you about an adjustment in the pricing structure for Cubase 4 and WaveLab 6. We have decided to lower the prices of both products* as of July 1st, 2008 to €599.00**. The pricing for several upgrades to Cubase 4 has also been reduced, so that the upgrade path from Cubase Studio 4 and Cubase SL versions to Cubase 4 is now only €199.00**. Upgrades to WaveLab 6 from WaveLab Studio 6 have also been lowered in price. Please visit the Steinberg Online-Shop for more information. We know that this comes unexpectedly for customers who have recently purchased Cubase 4 at the old recommended retail price. This is why we will be offering these customers a special rebate on a future purchase.

Is this the Logic Pro effect?

Details on the new pricing are available at the Steinberg site.

This is a rough cut of a new documentary, the Vinyl Revolution.

The video captures some wonderful characters that represent a disappearing world.

via Crate Kings

Scientist have found that people who took magic mushrooms in a study looked back at the experience, up to 14 month later, as one of the top five spiritual and meaningful experiences of their lives.

“It’s one thing to have a dramatic experience you say is impressive,” says neuroscientist Roland Griffiths of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, who led the research. “It’s another thing to say you consider it as meaningful 14 months later. There’s something about the saliency of these experiences that’s stunning.”

Either there’s more to psychedelics than people thought, or John Hopkins just gets some impressive mushrooms.

For a lot of people, though, music is their drug of choice, especially trance music.

If you’re into psychedelic trance music and culture, check out the latest issue of Goagadar, a free psychedelic culture web magazine. It features interviews, music news, trance reviews and even an interview with Hawkwind’s Dave Brock.

via moleirinho in the forum

PKNTS has designed an interesting modular sound toy for kids:

AMK is a modular sound toy designed for preschool children. In combination with a computer, single sounds and sound sets can be transfered to sound blocks, called ‘Klangbausteine.’

Childrend can play independently with each module, or combine the sounds by plugging blocks together.

Only one sound per block, and age-based limited possibilies of sound modification, makes the toy easy to learn and understand.

These look pretty interesting, and look like they are ripe for bending. If you’ve had a chance to check these out, let me know what you think.

SimplyNoise is a site that offers nothing but noise; it’s a noise generator for the Web.

The only control is a slider that controls a low-pass filter.

According to the site, noise can help you block distractions, sleep and “find your zen”.

IK Multimedia and Muse Research have teamed up to offer the Total Workstation Rack, powered by SampleTank and Receptor.

The Total Workstation Rack is a combination of Muse Research’s unique Receptor hardware plug-in player with IK’s Total Workstation line of Powered By SampleTank instruments: SampleTank 2.5, Sonik Synth 2, Miroslav Philharmonik, SampleMoog and SampleTron. These IK products come pre-installed and authorized within Receptor, allowing immediate access to make music live and in the studio.

The Total Workstation Rack is available for  $1,999.99/€1,599.99.

Heartcode is the name of the latest free music download from net label iimusic.

It features 10 8-bit style tracks, including:

01 Temp Sound Solutions - The Menu for Today
02 Alex Mauer - Ikea Shopper Credits
03 Disasterpeace - Ensis
04 Animal Style - Stalactite
05 Phlogiston - Crystal Waves (feat. Shnabubula)
06 Alex Mauer - Monstrox
07 Shnabubula - Get Pumped
08 Xoc - Rubles from Heaven
09 Norrin Radd - Four Lights
10 Temp Sound Solutions - Heart Pitches

If you need any more proof that interesting synths can be made from just about anything, for very little money, check out the Sonic Picnic Set:

the sonic picnic set is a low tech modular system
connections are made as needed using crocodile clips
these pictures show some of the boxes

You gotta love this 4-joystick panner, too:

Check out all the modules.

Goldbaby Productions has released a fun new sample pack that features arguably Moog’s worst synth, the Realistic Concermate (Radio Shack) Moog MG-1.

There are a lot of reasons the MG-1 was so cheesy, starting with the fact that it’s got the Radio Shack stamp all over it, moving on to the flawed construction to the dumbed-down control panel.

Despite the fact that it was a pretty cheesy little synth, it was a Moog with a real Moog filter, and if the sound wasn’t f’d up enough, Goldbaby ran it through a bunch of Audio Damage effects.

Download URL.

Don’t miss the rest of the free goodies at Goldbaby’s site.

Image: Kriton Visuals