Ben Burtt on Lightsaber Sound Design
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- čas přidán 22. 05. 2007
- Ben Burtt talks about creating the sounds for the lightsabers in Star Wars. As he worked on "A New Hope", Burtt probably wasn't aware that he was inventing modern sound design.
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Recently re-watched Star Wars IV for the millionth time, and was shocked how virtually undated the whole movie is, ESPECIALLY the sounds. Ben Burtt is one of the most unsung geniouses of audio: how could he think of the sounds and even yet find the way to produce them is beyond me. The sounds of Star Wars revolutionized everything.
This man is a God. He made the Darth Vader breathing noises, R2D2 noises( most of which he did), Chewie's scream, lightsaber noises and the Wilhelm scream!
I like how generally Jedi and Sith sabers sound subtly different too. Like jedi sabers usually (not always though) ignite with the standard bsshuu sorta noise, but red blades (and I think Windu's purple saber too) more often ignite with a harsher kssh sound. It's a subtle way of distinguishing between good and evil aurally =)
3:10 czcams.com/video/v2AC41dglnM/video.html good or evil?
3:16 czcams.com/video/gEPmA3USJdI/video.html I think we know the answer
Thanks, Mr. Burtt, many have created devices children play with, you certainly created the first sound children play with
Still with Darth Vader's breathing one of cinemas most iconic sounds ever.
Fucking hell this is awesome. So glad we had this guy working on the sound for Star Wars.
Another one of the production crew who just happened to hit pure gold on the same movie. Your music, sfx, model-makers, casting, and actors all do the same and you have yourself a timeless classic
i love how the microphone thing was a total accident but it worked perfectly.
wow, all this amazing new technology in the last 35+ years and we haven't had any movies that can match the original star wars trilogy in its excellence. Have any of these people seriously considered the philosophy of technology in art. I mean why do people have to believe there is such a thing as an obsolete tool in film making? Sure one method might be painstaking but could not the very nature of its painstaking operation help to yield better art?
The lightsaber sound effect is timeless the coolest weapon in cinema history
The humming of the light sabers sound very similar to hummingbirds.
GENIUS
Sound design is the least appreciated group in movie production. (Unless if you're into sound design like me) look up any movie scene and turn your speakers off, you'll then realize how important sounds are to a film.
+Joshua Brown Indeed. Pretty much the same deal for any form of entertainment involving multiple senses. Beloved video games, along with movies can attribute a lot of their success to quality sound design, which as you rightly state, goes almost totally unappreciated by the masses or even the producers. Sadly.
+Joey Baseball If the sound design and overall supervision is good, you'll leave the theatre saying "it was a good movie". If it's bad, you'll say "the movie was bad".
Sound has enormous effect on the overall sense of quality. Good sound can save poor photography and maybe even poor story or acting, but bad sound can ruin everything.
Dude.. this is a discussion. He's not saying that everyone is an idiot for not appreciating the production of sound or "ambiance". He's just saying that 90% of people don't appreciate or care to know how many people it takes to put together these multi-million dollar movies. Because most people will simply throw it under the bus just because they anticipated it to be something completely different than how the finished product was presented.
Yup, but that also secures our demand for work.
Awesome video - thanks Dave - loved hearing the backstory on some of the technical aspects of this incredible Sci-Fi series. Well done! And to you as well Ben - may the force.....be with you! :)
first like you got in 11 years
Awesome! I am an aspiring sound designer/producer and the clip at the end where he is swinging the microphone around was an awesome way of showing me and helping me with different ways of recording sound!
5 Stars!
Here's the thing: ask any movie goer to describe the sound of any inanimate object from any movie and chances are very good that they will not be able to. Except the light saber. Ben is a god.
love the humming sounds of the lightsabres
Great technique for sound recording / sampling. Thanks for sharing
You described that very well!
Absolutely Brilliant!!!
Wonderfully informative. Thanks for posting this.
👍
I love the shot of him swinging the shotgun mic around like a lightsaber. Pure awesome. Man's a genius.
This is really inspiring to watch.
Ben Burtt is my hero.
Yeah, Ben Burrt also did the Sound Design on Wall-E, which is of course excellent.
You can hear when the lightsabers are clashing that it is the same sort of sound as the laser pistols in the film. To create that he hits a tight, thick steel wire.
His a freakin genius
I heard that the clashing sound was made by hitting a big spring. My friend had a garage door spring that made a very similar sound when you tapped it with a wrench.
It was dry ice on metal.
Cool stuff!
Gotta thank Doppler for those lightsaber thrust sounds.
Ben Burt is a genious of sound. He is the best of the best.
A stormtrooper with a lightsaber? HERESY!
Sound design genius.
He's up there with the Shigeru Miyamotos of videogame design :) He's both a very clever and creative guy with a passion for his field of art. Inspirational.
More than a genius. He is a legend in the sound biz.
Ben Burtt rules, i'd love to do what he does
Pure rock star!!
Sound rules!
the sound of a wrench hitting a metal cable you refer to is the basis for the blaster guns sound...
@birthnight Quote! Amazing video, thanks!
Well done :)
Ben Burtt is pretty much the most amazing sound person on the planet
Nice. I've always wondered how they came up with the sound for them.
very interesting!!
Legend
Yes, indeed!
SWEET!
Cool!
This is really interesting how he did all of this.
Really!
Sometimes I really wonder how the world of geniuses like him is like. He must look at things so differently from everyone else. *_*
i wish he would had talk about more about how to use the shot gun mic for the lightsaber sund fx
Super interesting.
wall-e's voice isnt human exactly, but with instruments that he uses, he makes beeping and buzzing sounds
so many sounds from New hope are great. Another is when the death star laser gets fired up by the guys in the black samurai helmets. med-low pitch to low low pitch in 3.5 seconds.
Give that man a cookie!
The only way this could more perfectly encapsulate the 20th Century is if he blew up a transistor or something...
That's very interesting.
One of those sound effects every kid makes :)
Quite a few adults too 😎👍🏻
So the moving saber sounds were Ben shadow-duelling with a microphone in sync with the screen?
And here's me thinking it couldn't get any cooler.
Watching this with the google.com/starwars setup... awesome!
This interview is from the laser disc version of the trilogy.
Damn....
I wish there was an easier way to find these Laser-disc extras.
it was a tension spring from a radio tower, i think
That is do COOL !!!!
that is so interesting
Wellll... not quite... Stereo had been dabbled with before. And in large-format-cinema multichannel-audio was pretty much the norm since the ginormous screens where introduced.
What Lucas and his pals did was to device a way to get stereo-sound that would play as stereo on a normal sound-pickup and for those theaters with the decoders, that same signal would be decoded to 4channel-surround-sound. And I think that the same track could also be played on a mono-theatre.
He is my uncle!
Sean Burtt For some reason I don't believe you
Sean Burtt he is somehow related to me🤔
we dont really care to be honest with you.
That's a pretty good trick, considering he's an only child...
The only man in the universe who can accurately portray this face: :/
So.. I was listening to "Hendersin - Lonely Road" And somehow made my way here...
So what they did was quite revolutionary even though they didn't quite "invent Stereophonic sound in cinemas"
cool
genius
@UltimteLifeForm yeah, we all read the article, buddy.
He's talking about Burtt not going "wwwwoooomm" himself at any point during the interview, duh.
Hey, i wanna try that out, the microphone television signal cross thing. And a projectors motor, lol. I wonder if you could do that with a radio signal and with an electric guitars speaker on microphone, to call myself on another phone and produce multiple sounds of the dopler shift. I WANNA TRY THAT OUT. I'm gonna make a lightsaber sound from scratch, like him. Very interesting. THANK YOU BEN BURTT, YOURE MY SOUND HERO!!
GameGrumps brought me here.
Bass clarinets also sound like a lightsabers if you play low notes.
Microphone = Lightsaber. :)
Question then is. Mircosaber or Lightphone :P
"Genius..." XD
This mas is a Genius
@M46h1n3
Cracked
Can anyone explain?
I'm into sound design being a musician and filmmaker. I did an experiment and played the lightsaber hum through my pc, and waved my phone around in front of it whilst it was recording, to see if the Doppler effect would kick in, and make it sound like a lightsaber being swung around. When I listened back to the recording, it sounded the same all the way through. Why is this?
You would most likely need a directional mic to get the full effect. The phone mics are usually meant to set down and record the space around you.
you'll need a proper speaker, a proper microphone and make very wide albeit harmonious movement, like they achieved by placing the mic on the tip of a "wand" as seen on the video
Now, I just need an old projector motor, and I can make the lightsabre sounds!
Wow this comment is OLD
his mouth is diagonal. I know that's superficial but i can't stop looking at it o___o
He did make the sound, shit ass. He combined hums and that's what made the sound. If you go all sceptic like this, you can also conclude that music is no music and no one ever 'created' sound. Have some respect for this guy man... jeez
@LEGO171 whos cupqauke?
wouldn't putting a mic in front a speaker produce feedback??
Cupqaukes new terraria video brought me here
Is it just me, or was this guy like a teenager when he worked on Ep. 4? When was this recorded? It doesn't seem grainy enough for the late 70's/early 80's, lol.
rotorcraft68 He was in college I think
mine too. =o)
Boss.
Sometimes, the most practical things are genius.
Ive heard that its from taking a hammer to the metal cables that hold telephone poles in place. I have no proof of this.
thumbs up if cracked brought you here
WHO THE FUCK WOULD DISLIKE THIS?????????
sorry for the caps.
? what are you talking about ...this line of work is still at work... so is ben burtt
What a genius. Who else but this man deserves 72 virgins and paradise.
@sumbuddyx
A Star Trek fan. :D
@Cinemasins brought me here...
Ahooyy
HE HAS BROWN HAIR!!!