star trek ship sounds

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The Soundscape for Science Fiction fans

Star Trek's Enterprise engine noise has been a recurring request. A slight problem delayed its release: our user interface had more sliders than it needed to recreate the sound! ;) So, instead of designing just an engine noise, we decided to throw some extra sounds and turn the engine noise into a fully featured intergalactic experience. This soundscape has all the background noises needed to immerse yourself in a classic Sci-Fi movie soundtrack. For the TOS fans, we even added those fluttery vintage synth tones, reminiscent of how the future was perceived like... back in the sixties!

If you plan to listen to the soundscape for more than 24 hours in a row - there is a YouTube Video that has the engine sound playing for a full day - make sure to turn the Animate feature on! If you are after that exact same sound as the video - only without the YouTube distortion - try our White Noise generator instead, and this particular Star Trek Ambient Engine Noise setting.

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STAR TREK: SOUND EFFECTS – OST 1988

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SIMILAR ITEMS (based on metadata)

Starship Ambiences

Enterprise-a rumble, enterprise-a bridge, bridge chatter, radio static, heart beat scanner, engineering, engines straining, brig forcefield, transporter room, computer room, ship sound fx.

• Force Field On
• Force Field Zap
• Communicator
• Shuttle Fly-By
• Hailing Freq
• Intercom Whistle
• Deflector Beam
• Ship Phaser
• Lots of Torps
• Phasers/Torps
• Tractor Beam
• Being Hailed
• Short Alert
• Distress Beacon

Computer beeps

• Buttons Long
• Buttons Short
• Button Short
• Button No Work
• Console Burnout
• Small Explosion
• Long Explosion

Transporter

• Transport Fail

Meta Sounds

• Triumph Sting
• Tension Sting
• Bad News Sting
• I'm a Doctor
• Comp "Working"

Equipment FX

• Tricorder Special
• Phaser Stun
• Phaser Kill
• Phaser Explosive
• Klingon Disruptor Pistol
• Disruptor Generic
• TOS Phaser Stun
• TOS Phaser Kill

Disruptor Battle

Romulan sound fx, rom ship noise.

• Disruptor Pistol
• Rom Transporter
• Rom Replicator
• Romulan Cloak
• Ship Disruptor
• Romulan Torp

Klingon Sound FX

Klingon ship rumble, klingon bridge.

• Klingon Torp
• Klingon Alarm
• Klingon Cloaking
• Klingon De-Cloaking
• Klingon Door
• Kling Disruptor Low
• Kling Disruptor High
• Klingon Transporter

Sound effects Technology

  Communication

  Holodeck

  Transporter

  Equipment

  Weapons

  Ship systems

  Bridge equipment

  Doors

  Miscellaneous

Cardassian Union

  Systems

Ferengi Alliance

Klingon Empire

Romulan Star Empire

Miscellaneous

Copyright information

The avaiable sound effects files were taken directly from the according Star Trek TV series or movies, and from diverse interactive CD-ROM applications or games (Star Trek: TNG Interactive Technical Manual, Star Trek Captain's Chair, Star Trek Generations, Star Trek: DS9 Harbinger). All copyrights are the property of their respective holders. Concerning the public use of the files: since the sounds have been reworked and enhanced by the author, I expect credits with link to the Star Trek Dimension at all events.  

© 1999-2000 by Star Trek Dimension / Webmaster . Last update: November 12th, 2000

• Photography

Star Trek Sound Effects

Kittens, Kisses, And Razorblades: Behind Star Trek's Iconic Sounds

Play with our soundboard and get the inside scoop on how sounds effects wizards took sci-fi where it had never gone before.

It may be true that in space no one can hear you scream, but in the   universe, space is a fairly cacophonous place filled with explosions, starships warping across the galaxy, phasers firing, and   engaged in mortal combat with the heroic Capt. James T. Kirk. Some of these effects are among the most memorable ever created for the medium that FCC chief Newton Minow once famously referred to as “a vast wasteland.”  

Back in 1966, Doug Grindstaff, sound mixer for the original  Star Trek  series, didn't realize at the time he was making TV history. In fact, he didn't even have a parking pass on the Desilu lot. Laughing about it now, he says he had the art department forge and laminate a pass for him, prompting studio executive Herbert F. Solow to proclaim, “You guys are really creative.” 

How creative they were is abundantly clear to anyone who has ever seen — or heard — the original series. The wall-to-wall sound effects were created in an analog world in which all audio was cut and mixed on magnetic tape, long before the advent of software-based sound tools. Each of the Enterprise sets had its own sonic “feel” — the chirp and ping of various sensors and instruments on the bridge, the throb of power in the transporter room and the deeper sound of power generators in engineering. This created the illusion of a massive space vessel where every part of the ship had its own distinct aural environment. The show’s space effects, while expertly done, were simple, so the rumble of the Enterprise’s engines and the sounds of phasers, photon torpedoes, and other energy forces (while they wouldn't really be heard in the vacuum of space) helped create the illusion of real, futuristic technology at work.  

“I think the sound effects for the original  Star Trek  are probably the most memorable and iconic ever produced for television.” 

“The first season we had about 10 editors,” recalls Grindstaff, who worked on all three seasons of the original  Star Trek  as well as the two pilots “ ” (the original pilot) and “ .”

“I said, ‘This is ridiculous. I can do it with three editors if you give me good men and myself. That’s all I need. Get the others out of here,’” says Grindstaff. “Then I had three editors and myself and we did the show. But what I would do is create the stuff and then they would put it in. It just worked. On the original pilot, I would get in at 7 o’clock and [executive producer] Gene Roddenberry would be there. I would get out at 2 o'clock the next morning. That’s a long day. And you’d work Saturday, Sunday, holidays. Nothing mattered. I enjoyed it. The people you were working with were great.”

“I think the sound effects for the original  Star Trek  are probably the most memorable and iconic ever produced for television,” offers Jeff Bond, the author of   and a distinguished Trekspert. “They were done at a time when people watched television sets that mostly had a single, small, monophonic speaker, and when there was nothing like the immersive, multi-layered sound mixes that movies started getting in the late '70s, and which television showcases today. The show’s sound editors Douglas Grindstaff, Jack Finlay, and Joseph Sorokin not only created extremely innovative and unique-sounding effects, they also created entire sonic environments for the starship Enterprise and the different planets the ship would visit.”

Grindstaff, who was nominated for an Emmy Award for the first season, first came to Hollywood upon returning from Korea, at the behest of his brother, who was working in radio. He first heard of a new pilot called  Star Trek  in 1965 while working on another series called  Swinging Summer,  a precursor to  Charlie’s Angels . “I was over at Goldwyn Studios when the phone rang and the head of the sound department introduced me on the phone to Gene Roddenberry. Gene had heard about me, and they needed someone to come over and help them on  Star Trek.  Gene was really into sound. On one episode that Gene liked very much, he sent me a memo with 11 pages of notes handwritten about the sound.”

 Courage even created the familiar “swish” of the Enterprise for the opening title sequence by blowing air across a microphone himself.

“There was a wonderful musicality to the consoles — the whistles and clicks,” says Lukas Kendall, publisher of  Film Score Monthly  and a producer on a number of  Star Trek soundtrack releases. “The sound effects got the balance just right between acoustic and electronic, futuristic yet timeless. There was a sonar ping to the viewscreen that you can practically whistle to yourself, it’s so melodic. It created this sense of a wondrous future where technology was our friend and not something to be feared.” 

“One of the reasons that the show’s effects are so distinctive and memorable is that they are often musical, and that goes back to the first composer who created music for the series, Alexander Courage,” says Bond. “When Courage was working on the show’s first pilot, ‘The Cage,’ he was assisted by a man named Jack Cookerly, one of the session keyboardists, who had modified one of the electric organs of the period to make strange ‘electronic’ sounds.”

“A lot of the sound effects were generated by musical means at the end of recording sessions with the orchestra,” says Kendall. “Cookerly had a device he called a ‘music box’ — a reconstructed Hammond organ — that laid the basic tracks for the transporter effects, the medical scanners in sickbay, and other sounds.” 

During the recording sessions, Courage took the time with Cookerly and some of the session musicians to create sound effects for the show, including the transporter sound, strange atmospheric and wind-chime sounds for the planet surface, the weird “thunk” of Capt. Christopher Pike (later to become Capt. Kirk) hurling himself against a transparent barrier confining him in an alien zoo, and numerous other sounds. Courage even created the familiar “swish” of the Enterprise for the opening title sequence by blowing air across a microphone himself. 

“Gene Roddenberry wanted to paint the whole show like you were painting a picture,” says Grindstaff. “And he wanted sounds everywhere. One time I asked him, ‘Don't you think we're getting too cartoony?’Because I felt it should be a little more dignified, but he wanted sound for everything. For example, I worked on one scene where [Dr. McCoy] is giving someone a shot. Gene says, ‘Doug, I'm missing one thing. The doctor injects him and I don't hear the shot.’I said, ‘You wouldn't hear a shot, Gene.’He said, ‘No, no, this is  Star Trek , we want a sound for it.’So I turned around to the mixing panel and I said, ‘Do you guys have an air compressor?’And they did. I fired up the air compressor, squirted it for a long enough period by the mic, went upstairs, played with it a little bit, and then put it in the show. And Gene loved it. So, that’s how Gene was. He didn't miss nothing!”

“The pneumatic ‘whoosh’ of the doors sliding open became a running joke in  Airplane II  with William Shatner.”

Adds Bond, “Later they adapted and expanded on these sounds, often using the tones of an electric organ [the first keyboard synthesizers were enhanced versions of these instruments and became available to the show’s composers during the second season]. The recorded tones had to be manipulated by using tape techniques — speeding up, slowing down, adding reverb or echoes to the tones. Some of the familiar effects came from Paramount’s own sound-effects library. The photon torpedo sound was originally created for the “skeleton ray” in George Pal’s  War of the Worlds , and some other  Trek  sound effects can be heard in the low budget sci-fi movie  The Space Children.  The effects, like the show’s music, were crucial in creating its verisimilitude. The show’s planet sets, created on a soundstage, couldn't reproduce the scope of a real exterior or even of a bigger-budgeted film production, so the ambient sounds helped to convince viewers they were in an alien environment.

"So many of the sounds became part of the culture,” says Kendall. “We all know what the transporter sounds like, and the phasers and the communicators. Much like actors, they had great personality and were easy to remember. The pneumatic ‘whoosh’ of the doors sliding open became a running joke in  Airplane II  with William Shatner."

Other iconic sounds in  Star Trek  included the Tribbles. In the case of  , Grindstaff took the sound of a dove and played with it. Says Grindstaff, “You'd slow it down, you'd speed it up, turn it backwards, stick a razorblade on the mag [audiotape track]. I would use scissors to cut it. I would use sandpaper. I would use emory board. I would use steel wool. Anything that I could do to make things work. And you could take a sound and you could speed it up and speed it up again and again and a new sound would come out."

Other classic sounds Grindstaff created for the series include the sound of the neural parasites in the episode “Operation: Annihilate,” made by sampling about a hundred kisses, a secret he refused to share with his producers. Meanwhile in “Catspaw,” featuring an ominous giant black cat, Grindstaff brought in a dog to antagonize the cat that provided the required hiss. In “Amok Time,” the Vulcan gong was a combination of a guitar’s electronic twang and the sound of the actual gong being struck on set.

"The sound effects were so brilliant in selling the futuristic environment that they liberated the music scores to focus on the storytelling,” says Kendall. “Sci-fi scores until that point often had eerie theremins and atmospheres, but Roddenberry wanted the scores to emphasize timeless human drama."

So why, after five decades, does  Star Trek  continue to endure? It’s a mystery even to those who worked on the original show. “If I had only known, I would have kept stuff like you wouldn't believe,” laughs Grindstaff. “But I didn't realize it. No one did.”

More Trek Stories, Both True And Fictional

• September 16, 2024 | ‘Section 31’ And ‘Lower Decks’ Heading Up New York Comic Con Star Trek Universe Panel
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Relax To Ambient Engine Sound Of The USS Enterprise (TOS & TNG)

| December 10, 2011 | By: Alex Fletcher 81 comments so far

Relax on the Enterprise

The following YouTube video, which appears to be going viral, comes from crysknife007 who says he loved the ambient sound of Star Trek: The Next Generation so much he cleaned up a clip from the show and looped it for 24 hours. (also available as a download )

And if you want to go old school. Here is 2 hours of engine noise from the original USS Enterprise from the 1960s Star Trek . [NOTE: Video has no image]

via Reddit .

Now I’ve heard everything!

Interesting idea… but I’d rather hear the sounds of the TOS Enterprise. “Ya ken tell how fast sheez goin’ just by the feel of the deck plates….”

Whats next, ambient Galactica for 24 hours? Not that that would be that relaxing, you’d feel like your house was about to fall apart.

I swear I remember some study back in the nineties that stated that the ambient noise on TNG had a calming effect.

I know it works on me, that’s for sure. Great stuff. :)

What about the ambient noise of farts ?

Slow news day?…

…and I’d far rather the comforting sounds of the ‘electronic hum’ and ‘beeps’ and ‘swishing doorway’ of the original TOS bridge, ahem.

how about the warp core next…

For SF inspired ambeince, you still can’t beat the TARDIS hum ….

They could use that for torture! Hours and hours of that….awful. I’m a big fan of Trek; but this is just going a bit far. It’s that, sometimes fine, line between fandom and the crazy stuff…

Can’t wait for TNG Blu-ray or Trek 12. Great stuff there.

Sounds good to me. But what about the Ambiant sound of the Agony Booth with the screams that go with it. That has a calming effect on me as well.

play both at the same time for ultimate geekdom!

When someone posts a loop of a klingon fart let me know.

http://whitenoisewarpcore.ytmnd.com/

Worf’s screams would be great!

What was so cool about TOS is you could instantly tell what room they were in by the ambient sounds. Bridge, transporter…engine room…they all had a sound unique to that room. Great sound design on that show…not so much on the sequels, everything was too similar.

5 & 12 –

This should get ya started…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-QnvoOd3WQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ve4PRaA5y48&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDcYivVKjFE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yp-_upAWng8&feature=related

Yeah, two minutes was about all I could take of that. I can not imagine letting that play for 24 hours.

Useful as pink noise. Also, those who find it grating, you’re not supposed to play it so loud.

I’ve always loved the ambient sound from the ships. I can’t imagine visiting set and not hearing that sound.

not new to me. I used to relax to any of the TOS rooms more than 20 years ago. amazon.com/gp/product/B000QZX0XS/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B000001P04&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1QMDJX3HP25FG9KRENN6

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swm1yVHOBbk&feature=related

‘Nuff said.

This is awesome! Any chance of getting the ambient sound of the engine room?

I specifically downloaded the System 47 screensaver so that I could fall asleep to the sounds of the Enterprise E. Saying that actually reminds me of Nicholas Meyer’s commentary on the merchandise he wanted for Star Trek VI. “Wouldn’t you sleep better in the blankets that keep the crew of the Enterprise warm?”

Screw the haters, this is awesome! I love this stuff! I would love to have this in the background of my lab playing all the time, it would me feel like I’m not doing remedial work!

Yawn. Now if it was the TOS warp power-up then I’d be interested.

Now, does anyone know the exact decible level that these should be played at for the true experience, or is that taking things too far?

Relaxing. That’s exactly what it’s always been to me. There’s another version of the corridor ambient noise where the beats are faster that has always been so soothing to me. You always heard it when they were walking through to their quarters ( I remember it in particular at the beginning of “Amok Time”.) It’s my favorite and almost therapeutic.

Ive always thought that when I had that dream house, ….with the great kitchen, and wooden floors, and three car garage, and instant hot water, and personal study/office with brown wood and leather chairs, and a globe of the world in it (because important people are always supposed to have one in their study) and itd have an adjoining hidden room behind the bookcase that served as a storage and viewing room for all the expensive Golden Age comics I don’t really have — (but then again, this is my dream house), and the great media room, and all the other things I don’t have……that I’d also have an exact replica, on one wing of the house that looked and sounded like a deck from TOS Enterprise. Complete with that sound going 24/7.

Play both at the same time, wowzers!

Anyone know where I could download these sounds as MP3 audio files?

Maybe it’s just me, but all I hear is the sound of my computer speakers…I don’t hear anything that sounds like ambient sounds of the Enterprise on either clip.

@29: This is what I use: http://youtubedownload.altervista.org/

It converts YouTube videos to mp3. It appears there was an upgrade a few months ago, so I’m glad you asked.

I can hear the TNG one but get nothing from the TOS clip even though the play counter is moving. Happens when I try to watch it at YouTube, so it’s not an embed problem, it’s something with the original video.

In the meantime, here’s 5 minutes of TOS ambient bridge sounds… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlDGwSZfHDQ&feature=player_embedded

I actually like the quivering picolo-type sound in the bridge background on the Reliant. It sounds every few minutes and you can hear it when no one speaks. You can hear it on the HMS Bounty in Voyage Home after Kirk gives his lecture about primitive culture and Earths lack of ET experience and Spock ties his robe fragment around his head to cover his ears. That affect works well in the former ship for its sounding like the ping of sonar on submarines.

You know what? I was a baby and young child when TNG was on the air and my grandmother watched it all the time. New episodes and then reruns once they kicked up. Some of the first sounds I reacted to with a measure of comfort were the hum of the Enterprise-D’s engines.

I often use rainymood.com to help me sleep at night but I’d be willing to bet this will work too. I have a connection to that hum in an admittedly weird way, and I think it’s going to do just fine as an occasional replacement.

I’ll have to admit that the TNG sound of the Enterprise D is soothing. I feel like I’m in a very safe, high tech starship.

It was really interesting to discover when watching the dvd extras for XI that when it came to designing the sound for the new film, they had real difficulty in recreating those sounds. Apparently the original sound designer left no notes behind on how they were done. I just assumed they’d somehow sample them from the original if it came to it, but I guess there’s just no substitute for the “real” thing…

What junk. My water and heating boiler sounds slot better than that

Cool! That ambient sound is similar to that of a mild Earthquake.

30. Captain Karl – December 10, 2011 “Maybe it’s just me, but all I hear is the sound of my computer speakers…I don’t hear anything that sounds like ambient sounds of the Enterprise on either clip.”

The sound of your speakers? What sound is that? I mean, speakers produce the sounds we put through them–music, movies, ambient warp-engine noise–but they don’t really have a sound of their own.

Both clips worked perfectly for me, right away, right after this story was posted and still today. But I’m really curious about what “the sound of my computer speakers” sounds like… It’s like saying, “The only thing I see on my tv is the image of the tv.” Huh?

aw.. TOS Enterprise’s engines are indeed “purrin’ like happy kittens”. Thank you fpr posting this…

I’m sorry, but that’s no different than having my air conditioner run all day…

Ahhhh, this helped me get to sleep last night.

I am typing this from on board the USS Enterprise-D, apparently. Unless my ears deceive me.

wow someone was bored

Oh nice idea… the TOS sound is more soothing actually :)

I had a track like this for years that i pulled from a video game its not exactly revolutionary but still cool

I like bridge chimes/beeps/whirs myself. Soothing.

It’s making me sleepy…

hehe never tried this but I’ve definitely fallen asleep to the ambient noise of TOS Blu-Ray menus. Bridge sounds chirping away in my dreams.

This could be the reason why my son puts on a TNG episode to watch when he can’t sleep, but is tired, and sure enough, ten minutes into the programme, he’s out to it. The same happens to me as well, especially any TOS, TNG or Star Trek 09. It’s not that we are bored. We are just tired and watching what is good and familiar can have a soporific effect.

• Entertainment

Hear 13 iconic Star Trek sounds created by the late Douglas Grindstaff

Listen to a Tribble cooing and a phaser blasting and remember the man who made it happen.

• Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year"​ award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.

The Tribbles' distinctive coos were created by Douglas Grindstaff.

Douglas Grindstaff, the man responsible for many of the signature sounds in the original Star Trek TV series, died July 23 at age 87, StarTrek.com reported .

"Please join us in remembering Douglas Grindstaff, the award-winning sound editor and designer behind many iconic  #StarTrek  sounds," reads a tweet from the show's official Twitter account.

Please join us in remembering Douglas Grindstaff, the award-winning sound editor and designer behind many iconic #StarTrek sounds #TOS #StarTrekFamily #StarTrekRemembers https://t.co/J0qxlSo1AQ pic.twitter.com/XncRDozxmT — Star Trek (@StarTrek) July 25, 2018

Grindstaff and co-workers Joseph Sorokin and Jack Finlay teamed up to deliver all the background sounds and effects on the fabled CBS show, which ran from 1966-1969. (CBS is CNET's parent company.)  In 1967, Grindstaff was nominated for an Emmy Award in the Individual Achievements in Film and Sound Editing category.

Fans appreciated Grindstaff's work. "He made the Enterprise come alive," wrote Twitter user Kelly Key. "The background buzz on the bridge always reminded me of crickets and cicadas from a field on a summer night -- full of life and activity."

He made the Enterprise come alive. The background buzz on the bridge always reminded me of crickets and cicadas from a field on a summer night-full of life and activity. — Kelly Key (@KellywrtrKey) July 25, 2018

May the stars always shine brightly down on DG. May the songs of the universe call his name. — Ann Flynt (@AnnFlynt) July 25, 2018

a talented man - RIP : were his beautiful ambient sounds ever available on some kind of mp3 ? did they ever do that - its very theraputic stuff - please advize — JonjackJones (@JackJohnCarter) July 25, 2018

Why must all the great people die...RIP Douglas ♡ — san || 🖖 (@triwizardkirk) July 26, 2018

Grindstaff is survived by his wife Marcia, his three children and her three children, and by 16 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren, with more on the way. Grindstaff, a Korean War combat veteran, also worked on such shows as The Brady Bunch, Dallas and Mission: Impossible.

Take a listen to some of the memorable sounds Grindstaff helped bring to life.

1. Red alert klaxon

Set this one up on your iPhone for the most unnerving wake-up alarm ever.

2. Transporter sounds

Some of us seriously thought this would be the transportation of the future. Still waiting though.

3. Tribbles cooing

Poor Kirk just wanted his chicken sandwich and coffee, Tribble-free.

4. Phasers firing

Some of us may've made these noises while running around the backyard pointing random objects at our neighbors. 

5. Bridge doors

Modern doors just don't close with this satisfying swoosh.

6. Boatswain's whistle

On the original show, the boatswain's (pronounced BEAU-son's) whistle was used to open shipboard communications via the ship's intercom. You'll know it when you hear it.

7. Heartbeats

Dr. McCoy probably heard a lot of these in sick bay.

8. Hull hit

That sounds like a bad one. 

9. Inside the shuttle craft

Lots of sounds share space inside the shuttle.

10. Sick bay scanners

These sound a little bit like a plaintive waterfowl calling to its mate.

11. Warp drive

Brace yourself: Warp speed, Mr. Sulu.

12. Food and drink synthesizer

Kirk was more of a coffee achiever, but later on, Jean-Luc Picard would demand his "Earl Grey, hot."

13. Open a hailing frequency

Nichelle Nichols' Lt. Uhura, the Enterprise's communications officer, was a pioneering character.

First published July 30, 4:29 p.m. PT.  Update, July 31, 1:09 p.m. PT:  Adds some of Grindstaff's most iconic sounds.  

Zip me up, Scotty: 50 years of Star Trek uniforms

Star Trek Ringtones

Beam your phone up with these great ringtones from the Star Trek tv series. Sound effects from the star ships, computers and actors are here.

Category: Sound FX    Tracks: 63    Views: 2058022   

by Jason Booth - 63 tracks

Joann7872 • 6 years ago -

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Boards form Jason Booth

© Copyright 2007-2019

September 19, 2024

Mystery of Deep-Ocean ‘Biotwang’ Sound Has Finally Been Solved

A strange sound dubbed “biotwang” was first heard bouncing around the Mariana Trench 10 years ago, and scientists have finally figured out where it comes from

By Melissa Hobson

A Bryde's whale ( Balaenoptera edeni ).

By Wildestanimal/Getty Images

Recorded by microphones deep in the ocean, the unexplained sound—a low, sonorous grunting followed by a squeaky, mechanical echo, like a frog burping in space—first rumbled through a computer speaker about a decade ago. Baffled researchers called it the “biotwang.”

“You’ve got this low-frequency portion, like a moan,” says Lauren Harrell , a data scientist at Google Research’s AI for Social Good, adding her own impression of a hearty groan. “Then you have the higher-frequency component that sounds, to me, like the original Star Trek Enterprise ship—the ‘bip boo, bip boo’ sound.”

Autonomous underwater gliders first recorded the odd noise echoing through the miles-deep Mariana Trench in 2014. Researchers couldn’t identify a source, but they had some theories. “There’s enough other artificial, Star Wars –sounding whale calls that they guessed it was made by a baleen whale,” says Ann Allen , a research oceanographer at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). But she notes that “anybody who’s not familiar with whales would never think this was made by an animal.”

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Hear the biotwang for yourself:

Confirming which marine animal makes a peculiar noise isn’t easy, though: it requires a person on a boat to see and identify the source at exactly the same time the sound is heard. “It takes a lot of time, a lot of effort and a fair amount of luck,” Allen says.

That’s how Allen, Harrell and their colleagues finally solved the biotwang mystery . While surveying whales off the Mariana Islands, an archipelago near the trench of the same name in the North Pacific Ocean, Allen and other NOAA researchers saw a mysterious species called the Bryde’s whale ( Balaenoptera edeni ) 10 times. These whales are spread out far across the huge open ocean, so it’s hard for scientists to observe or study them. On nine of the occasions that Bryde’s whales turned up, the researchers also heard the biotwang. “Once, it’s a coincidence,” Allen says. “Twice is happenstance. Nine times, it’s definitely a Bryde’s whale.”

After identifying the source, they reviewed years of audio data from underwater hydrophones to find out where this specific whale sound had previously been heard. But NOAA’s growing database has more than 200,000 hours of such recordings. “It’s so much data that it’s simply impossible to analyze [manually],” says Olaf Meynecke , who specializes in baleen whales as a research fellow at Griffith University in Australia and wasn’t involved in Allen’s new biotwang study, which was published on Wednesday in Frontiers in Marine Science .

When analyzing audio data for another project, Allen had been “flabbergasted” by the huge volumes of data to slog through. At one point, she says, her dad suggested, “Just get Google to do it for you.” So Allen reached out to company staff, and, to her surprise, they agreed. The company provided AI tools that helped speed up analysis by transforming audio data into an image called a spectrogram and then training algorithms to look for certain frequencies using image recognition.

The new study lays out the evidence associating biotwangs with Bryde’s whales in the western North Pacific. The data confirmed that the animals the researchers studied comprise a distinct Bryde’s whale population and showed where in the ocean they were found during different seasons and years—something that had previously been impossible because scientists couldn’t tell different populations of the mysterious whales apart. And in 2016, when a strong El Niño led to a shift in the location of the whales’ food (largely krill, sardines and anchovies), there were lots of biotwangs—even in the northwestern Hawaiian Islands, an area these whales only ventured into under certain climate conditions. This could mean that their movements are at least partially determined by their prey’s distribution, which changes with environmental conditions.

"We seem to be so detached from, or simply have no access to, this amazing acoustic underwater world. I think it’s about time that we change that." - Olaf Meynecke, Griffith University

Once scientists know where and when these whales travel, Harrell says, AI models could “connect that data to climate and environmental factors” and thus support protection efforts. As climate change worsens and there are possible changes to El Niño and its cold-water counterpart, La Niña, “these whales will have to travel further—and they may have to work a little harder in order to find food,” Allen says.

The technology isn’t perfect. “These algorithms can only search for a frequency they know,” Meynecke says. Baleen whale vocalizations change over time and between populations. But because the tools are open-source, other scientists can use them to discover more about whale language. “We seem to be so detached from, or simply have no access to, this amazing acoustic underwater world,” he says. “I think it’s about time that we change that.”

Industrial Light & Magic’s Everlasting ‘Star Trek III’ Starship Designs

45+ years | 500+ film and tv credits | 135+ awards.

Sep 12, 2024

Take a deep dive into the history and lore behind the starship designs created by ILM and introduced 40 years ago in The Search for Spock .

By Jay Stobie

Written and produced by Harve Bennett, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) afforded actor Leonard Nimoy his first opportunity to direct a Star Trek feature. With Ken Ralston as visual effects supervisor, the film also supplied Industrial Light & Magic with the chance to leave its own indelible legacy on the Star Trek franchise. ILM’s work on Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) had included a collaboration with the Lucasfilm Computer Division which yielded the first all-CG sequence in a feature film, yet the company had an even greater impact on the film series’ third installment.

Among its many contributions to Star Trek III , ILM tackled the monumental task of designing and building five major starship and space station models that were introduced in the film. Though crafted specifically for this project, those steadfast exterior designs became staples in the Star Trek universe and appeared in prominent scenes across numerous films and television series. As we celebrate The Search for Spock ’s 40th anniversary, let’s examine the long-lasting nature of ILM’s iconic creations and explore the circumstances in which they were employed in later Star Trek productions.

The Merchantman: A Criminal Craft

A small, boxy vessel with a curved forward section lurked in deep space during the first act of Star Trek III , referred to as a merchantman by the film’s script. The ship carried a Klingon passenger (Cathie Shirriff) who had purchased intelligence related to the terraforming device known as Genesis. A much larger Klingon ship (more on that in a moment) lowered its cloaking device, becoming visible long enough to receive the data. Unfortunately, the Klingon operative had glanced at the information, prompting the vessel to swoop around and obliterate the merchantman with its weaponry.

From the earliest stages of pre-production on Star Trek III , the team at ILM — including Ralston, visual effects art directors Nilo Rodis and David Carson, supervising modelmaker Steve Gawley, and modelmaker Bill George — presented their creations to Nimoy and Bennett, who suggested alterations before final approval. Rodis and Carson generated concepts, while Gawley and George offered input and spearheaded model construction. The meticulous process was adaptable to each model’s role in the script, as the merchantman’s brief appearance meant it was fabricated in a relatively short amount of time. “The merchant ship was a design we threw together in a couple of weeks from a bunch of model parts,” visual effects cameraman Donald Dow told writer Brad Munson in Cinefex . “It was going to be blown up right at the very start, so there was no sense putting a lot of time into it.”

Yet, for a vessel not expected to see much screen time, the merchantman ultimately proved to be a testament to ILM’s dedication to quality, as the ship fulfilled its purpose in the film and went on to experience a revitalized livelihood in future productions. Boasting slight modifications in each instance, the merchantman reappeared as different vessels on six occasions. From a Sheliak transport carrying colonists in Star Trek: The Next Generation ’s (1987) “The Ensigns of Command” to a Cardassian freighter targeted by saboteurs in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ’s (1993) “The Maquis, Part I,” the merchantman turned into a reliable resource for both series, as well as for Star Trek: Voyager (1995). In an intriguing twist, the merchantman — best known for being destroyed by a Klingon Bird-of-Prey in The Search for Spock — was even reconfigured to become a Klingon vessel in Deep Space Nine ’s “Rules of Engagement.”

The Klingon Bird-of-Prey: A Fearsome Fighter

An imposing warship with a head-like bridge section and angled wings, the Klingon Bird-of-Prey easily outmatched the merchantman. Commanded by a Klingon named Kruge (Christopher Lloyd), the Bird-of-Prey was armed with a cloaking device that concealed it from its enemy’s scanners. Kruge sought the power of the Genesis device, traveling to the Genesis Planet and making quick work of the U.S.S. Grissom . Despite its swift victories over lesser foes, the Bird-of-Prey soon found itself squared off against the legendary U.S.S. Enterprise . Of course, unbeknownst to Kruge, James T. Kirk’s famed vessel had been severely damaged in Star Trek II and only maintained a skeleton crew on its bridge.

Perhaps the most distinctive starship ILM assembled for Star Trek III , the Klingon Bird-of-Prey model featured an intimidating green color scheme and motorized wings that could be raised above its primary hull. On top of bringing the vessel’s exterior to life, ILM pioneered the visual effect that permitted the Bird-of-Prey to decloak and become visible. “[Optical photography supervisor] Ken Smith came up with the optical effect,” Ralston shared with Nora Lee in American Cinematographer . “By using a ripple glass he threw the color sync off on each separation, so that everything is just a little out of whack. Then it all gets in sync and forms the ship.” The design impressed creatives to such a degree that, following the U.S.S. Enterprise ’s destruction (yet another visual effect executed by ILM) in The Search for Spock , Kruge’s captured Bird-of-Prey — playfully renamed the H.M.S. Bounty by Kirk’s defiant crew — inherited the role of hero ship in the film’s Nimoy-directed sequel, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986).

However, the Bird-of-Prey’s prolific career was only just beginning. The ship’s signature profile played key parts as other nefarious Klingon vessels across the next three Star Trek films — Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) , Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) , and Star Trek Generations (1994) — and popped up in numerous The Next Generation , Deep Space Nine , and Voyager episodes. As with many starships that began as physical models, the Bird-of-Prey was ultimately supplemented with a CG build in the latter stages of Deep Space Nine ’s seven-season run. The craft even ended up in animated configurations for Star Trek: Lower Decks (2020) and Star Trek: Prodigy (2021). Nevertheless, all the Bird-of-Prey models that followed were based on the look established by ILM’s initial build. Furthermore, the 22nd century iterations of the Bird-of-Prey and Klingon D5-class variants which debuted in Star Trek: Enterprise (2001), a prequel series set over 100 years before The Search for Spock , were tailored to reflect their lineage as in-universe predecessors to ILM’s original Bird-of-Prey from Star Trek III .

Earth Spacedock: A Safe Haven in Space

As the U.S.S. Enterprise glided through the solar system on its way to a much-deserved respite from action, it was greeted by the sight of Earth Spacedock. With a mushroom-shaped upper section atop a stem extending downward, the gargantuan space station permitted entire starships to enter its massive superstructure and dock at a central core complete with repair facilities. Abuzz with ships and various shuttles, the lively starbase watched over Earth and kept the Federation’s fleet ready to serve missions of exploration and defense.

ILM’s Spacedock assignment necessitated three separate builds; namely the station’s illuminated exterior, its cavernous interior docking bay, and an interior view through the windows of a small, lounge-type set. Approximately five feet tall and three-and-a-half feet in diameter, the exterior model relied on a complex lighting system, which Ralston described in American Cinematographer . “[The Spacedock exterior] had lights inside after the door opens up and running lights that go inside. Sometimes it is hard to sync up all those functions with the motion control system. But I think it worked nicely.”

The issue of conveying the sheer size of a docking area able to house a multitude of starships received ILM’s innovative attention and expertise. “We found that the interior demanded some degree of atmospheric haze, even though there probably wouldn’t be any in outer space. It just needed help to look slightly degraded — not so crisp and clean,” visual effects cameraman Scott Farrar shared in Cinefex . “We ended up using blue gels on the lights and shooting in smoke for the basic fill look. Then, when we went to the light passes, we used a diffusion filter.”

As timeless as Earth Spacedock’s inaugural performance turned out to be, the station’s unveiling soon led to its return to the big-screen. In addition to being featured in the three Star Trek films which followed immediately after The Search for Spock , Earth Spacedock appeared as several other Federation starbases — Starbase 74, Lya Station Alpha, Starbase 133, and Starbase 84 — in The Next Generation via the use of stock footage. A version of Earth Spacedock seemed to be in the midst of orbital construction in the Star Trek: Discovery (2017) episode “Will You Take My Hand?,” while the design was translated into animated form to represent Douglas Station in Lower Decks . According to in-universe lore, Earth Spacedock was retired from service and transported to Athan Prime, where it was last seen as the central hub of the Fleet Museum in Star Trek: Picard ’s (2020) third season.

U.S.S. Excelsior: The Transwarp Testbed

Dubbed “The Great Experiment,” the U.S.S. Excelsior acted as a testbed for an advanced faster-than-light propulsion system known as the transwarp drive. The Excelsior was spotted while berthed in Earth Spacedock, though the starship soon found itself attempting to engage its experimental engines as it pursued Admiral Kirk’s unauthorized departure aboard the Enterprise . Unfortunately for the Excelsior , Montgomery Scott (James Doohan) — the Enterprise ’s chief engineer — had sabotaged the transwarp system, causing the vessel’s trial run to stall out in an abrupt and unflattering fashion.

As outlined in Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection , early U.S.S. Excelsior concepts devised by Nilo Rodis and David Carson led to Bill George’s own distinctive study model and a 7 ½-foot studio model constructed with the oversight of Steve Gawley. Our first encounter with the starship coincided with the Enterprise ’s arrival at Earth Spacedock, resulting in an arduous challenge for ILM — Excelsior needed to appear stationary within the confines of the station’s interior. “[The Excelsior ] was shot separately from everything else. [Visual effects cameraman] Sel Eddy shot that stuff,” Ralston told American Cinematographer . “We had to match the moves so that it looked like it was locked right into the space dock. It was a pain. We had to cheat on some of the shots where there was so much trouble with the moves.” Their diligence paid off, as the majestic sequence endures as one of The Search for Spock ’s most awe-inducing visuals.

The Excelsior returned in The Voyage Home and The Final Frontier , but it received its biggest chance to shine in The Undiscovered Country , which also featured visual effects by ILM. Now captained by Hikaru Sulu (George Takei), the U.S.S. Excelsior rescued the U.S.S. Enterprise -A during a crucial battle against a rogue Klingon Bird-of-Prey. The model was heavily modified for fresh cinematic escapades in Star Trek Generations , then bearing the legendary registry of the U.S.S. Enterprise -B. The Enterprise -B variant was also utilized as the U.S.S. Lakota , an upgraded Excelsior -class vessel, in Deep Space Nine ’s “Paradise Lost.”

ILM’s Excelsior design prevailed via cameos in The Next Generation , as exterior shots of the vessel — now deployed to represent an entire line of Excelsior -class starships — debuted in the show’s first and second season premieres, “Encounter at Farpoint” and “The Child.” These views were subsequently reused as stock footage to depict various Excelsior -class ships in no less than ten additional episodes of the series. As with the Klingon Bird-of-Prey, ILM’s original Excelsior model served as the basis from which all future Excelsior -class physical and CGI builds stemmed. Deep Space Nine aficionados will point to the abundance of Excelsior -class vessels dispersed throughout Dominion War-era battles in “Sacrifice of Angels,” “Tears of the Prophets,” and the series’ finale, “What You Leave Behind,” as evidence that the starships were an integral part of Starfleet’s defense armada. In fact, at least three Excelsior -class vessels stayed in active service long enough to have been prepared to confront the vaunted Borg Collective in Voyager ’s own season finale, “Endgame.”

U.S.S. Grissom : A Scientific Scout

On a research mission to study the Genesis Planet, the U.S.S. Grissom was classified as a relatively small science vessel. After detecting an anomalous lifeform on the planet’s surface and beaming down a landing party consisting of Lieutenant Saavik (Robin Curtis) and Doctor David Marcus (Merritt Butrick), the Grissom remained tragically unaware as Kruge’s Klingon Bird-of-Prey approached under cloak and jammed all outgoing transmissions. The Bird-of-Prey dropped its invisibility field and coalesced into view, pouncing on the Grissom and destroying the Starfleet ship with a single blast.

The Roddenberry Archive notes the U.S.S. Grissom was yet another Star Trek III design conceived of by Nilo Rodis and David Carson and built by Steve Gawley and Bill George. The Grissom stood as a departure from the traditional Starfleet aesthetic in which a ship’s primary saucer was affixed to its secondary hull by a neck-like connection. A gap separated the two elements on the Grissom , with the only structures linking them being thin pylons extending from the vessel’s warp nacelles. The ship’s tragic fate didn’t merely come down to creating the biggest explosion, as plot considerations factored into ILM’s take on the Grissom ’s destruction. “I didn’t think we should do something flamboyant at that point,” Ralston pointed out in Cinefex . “If we played all our best cards at the start, we’d have nothing left to show when it came time to blow up the Enterprise .”

The Grissom ’s grizzly demise did not spell the end for the distinctive vessel, as the model functioned as the template for what would become known as the Oberth -class starship line. The design reemerged as a different ship of the same class berthed within Earth Spacedock in Star Trek IV before earning a recurring spot as a variety of Oberth -class ships that encountered the U.S.S. Enterprise -D in seven episodes of The Next Generation . The design garnered a great deal of attention in “The Pegasus,” an episode in which it was presented as the U.S.S. Pegasus , a testbed for an illegal Federation cloaking device. One Oberth -class ship assisted in the rescue of the Enterprise -D’s surviving crew at Veridian III in Star Trek Generations , while others could be found in the background at the Battle of Wolf 359 in Deep Space Nine ’s “Emissary” and the ILM-orchestrated Battle of Sector 001 in Star Trek: First Contact . Like Earth Spacedock and the Klingon Bird-of-Prey, the Oberth -class design found itself turned into animated form for Lower Decks , this time in the episode “First First Contact.”

The Search for Spock ’s Legacy

Crafting memorable starships and space stations for any production is a tremendous responsibility, yet Industrial Light & Magic’s contributions to Star Trek III: The Search for Spock accomplished this lofty goal and so much more. Having not one, but five major designs go on to resurface in significant roles is an achievement beyond all expectations. A recent scene in Star Trek: Picard ’s third season exemplified ILM’s incredible feat, as Kruge’s Klingon Bird-of-Prey and the U.S.S. Excelsior were both positioned around Earth Spacedock as part of the Fleet Museum’s honorary assemblage of classic starships. The everlasting nature of the designs speaks to the eternal appeal of ILM’s work. Whether the new studio models that ILM designed and built for Star Trek III were reused as they were originally constructed, recreated by other visual effects companies at a later date, or called upon by future artists to inspire their own takes on starships, the original models’ extensive influence on the Star Trek universe cannot be overstated.

Jay Stobie (he/him) is a writer, author, and consultant who has contributed articles to ILM.com, Skysound.com, Star Wars Insider , StarWars.com, Star Trek Explorer , Star Trek Magazine , and StarTrek.com. Jay loves sci-fi, fantasy, and film, and you can learn more about him by visiting JayStobie.com or finding him on Twitter, Instagram, and other social media platforms at @StobiesGalaxy.

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Elusive whale’s Star Trek-like call could be their version of ‘Marco Polo’

By Laura Baisas

Posted on Sep 18, 2024 12:00 AM EDT

Whales are known for their noises, from humpback whale songs to the clicks and whistles of orcas and other toothed cetaceans. The elusive and understudied Bryde’s whale makes an even more mysterious noise called “Biotwang.” This whizzing tone using both low and high frequency pings sounds somewhat electronic or mechanical, unlike more melodic songs made by some baleen whales . 

Now, this strange vocalization has been recorded and is part of a new repository that can help other scientists study whale vocalizations from eight different species. The findings are described in a study published September 18 in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science .

[Related: We finally know how baleen whales make noise .]

What is Biotwang?

Bryde’s whales– pronounced broodus –are found in the central and western North Pacific. They are less well-known than other baleen whales like humpbacks or right whales. 

“Bryde’s whales are different from other baleen whales in that we think they may feed year round, migrating between low latitudes and mid latitudes, and following their food all over the ocean,” study co-author and NOAA research oceanographer Ann Allen tells Popular Science . 

Their more complex patterns of movement around the ocean make them difficult for scientists to find. The team recorded several of these sounds in 2014 using autonomous acoustic recordings taken in the Mariana Archipelago near Guam. 

“We only consistently found it in the Western North Pacific, which means that this call may be distinct to a population only found in this area,” says Allen. “That’s important because whale calls travel really far underwater, and allow us to monitor whales year round without needing a person there observing, but we can only do that if we know what species is making the sound.”

What has proven more elusive than the whales themselves is narrowing in on what biotwang is used for. The team heard Biotwangs from individual whales, small mixed groups, and mothers with calves during migration. 

“It’s possible that they use the Biotwang as a contact call, a sort of ‘Marco Polo’ of the ocean,” says Allen. “But we need more information before we can say for sure.”

Twang, boings, and a lot of data

The team at NOAA had long term audio recordings of parts of the Pacific Ocean going back to 2005 and was able to pinpoint that Bryde’s whales are the source of this unusual sound. They then worked with a team of researchers from Google to analyze it. The data scientists used the Biotwang recordings to fine-tune their multi-species cetacean AI model to analyze such a large set of underwater sounds from the Pacific Ocean. With so much noise from vessels, plants, animals, and the moving of the ocean itself , undersea sounds can be difficult to decipher. 

“Biotwang has this low frequency component that is followed by this higher frequency component,” study co-author and Google data scientist Lauren Harrell tells Popular Science . “I think it actually sounds like the original ‘ping’ on the Starship Enterprise from Star Trek .”

In addition to telling Bryde’s whales apart from other noises based on their Biotwang, the model also can be used to better predict humpback whale migrations and identify some of the sounds that minke whales make, commonly called the “minke boing.” These noises were first detected by submarines off the coast of California and Hawai’i in the 1950s and described as a “metallic-like ring.”

[Related: We can protect whales from ship strikes by translating their songs .]

“The minke boing also has a similar history as Biotwang, as this mysterious sound that scientists later uncovered was coming from a particular whale species,” says Harrell. “We were able to create minke labels in the model and find that minke boing all because we went back though all of these samplings.”

The model that Harrel and the team worked on now allows researchers to decipher the vocalizations of up to eight separate whale species in a single recording. They can then use it to track the sounds to where and when they appear in different parts of the world to inform better conservation practices.

“Having a model that can at least go through these long term data sets efficiently and identify and classify where some of these species are likely present, that can then also break that down by time and frequency can really unlock our ability to study these species,” says Harrell.