#LIGHTSABER SOUND EFFECT CREATION MOVIE#

He achieved that by taking a microphone and waving it through the air next to the speaker as the foundational lightsaber sound was playing. So I took that buzz and recorded it and combined it with the projector motor sound and that 50-50 combination of those two sounds became the basic lightsaber tone.вЂќДЇrom there, all Burtt needed was a sense of motion, the thrumming and slashing of battle. вЂњIt picked up a transmission from the television set and a signal was induced into its sound-reproducing mechanism. When he passed by a television set that was on but with its volume all the way down, the microphone let out a whine. On that day, Burtt was recording something, and crossed the room with his microphone still turned on. The Star Wars George Lucas Doesn't Want You To See Rose Eveleth And that I found it one day by accident.вЂќ вЂњWhat was missing was kind of a buzzy, sparkling sound, the scintillating element which I was looking for. вЂњIt was just a humming sound,вЂќ Burtt said. That pleasant white noise became the foundation for what the lightsaber would sound like.

вЂњIt would slowly change in pitch, and it would beat against another motor-there were two motors-and they would harmonize with each other.вЂќ вЂњAnd they had an interlock motor which connected them to the system, which, when they just sat there and idled, made a wonderful humming sound,вЂќ Burtt said.

#LIGHTSABER SOUND EFFECT CREATION MOVIE#

He helped operate a projection booth at the school that used ancient Simplex projectors, the kind that used to whir and murmur in old movie houses. вЂњI think maybe somewhere in my subconscious.вЂќДЄt the time, Burtt, who had majored in physics during college, was a graduate student at the University of Southern CaliforniaвЂ™s School of Cinema-Television. вЂњI could kind of hear the sound in my head, of lightsabers,вЂќ said Ben Burtt, the sound designer who created the distinctive pitch, in an interview for a Star Wars video extra. That sound was invented in a mixture of serendipity, imagination, and mundanity.

It is personal, precise, and deliberate-emitting no haphazard pew-pew-pewing, but instead a reassuring, almost meditative hummmmmm. Its neon glow may be visible from afar, but the lightsaber is designed for face-to-face combat.

Lightsaber sound effect creation