Millennium Falcon's SFX Demonstrated by Sound Designer Ben Burtt (1980) [video] | Hacker News Reader

Millennium Falcon's SFX Demonstrated by Sound Designer Ben Burtt (1980) [video]

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163 pointsshawndumas20 comments

My parents have mentioned the story of how, at an EAA convention, they asked a couple guys with mics and field recorders what they were doing, and they said they were recording audio for a movie called Star Wars. I'm betting that's the biplane.

(I will now imagine that I can faintly hear the ambient sounds of breathless, curious hippies in the background of that millennium falcon shot)

you mean a movie called blue harvest ;)

That was Return of the Jedi.

Wow, this is the same guy that did the sound-effects for Wall-E. I mention that because I watched a documentary/interview a while back about the sounds used for that movie. Turns out, it's the same guy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSf8Er2gV_Q

The nice thing about that interview is that it had a few "demonstrations" of Ben making sounds from mundane objects. E.g. a slinky making "pew pew" sounds. Or objects making sounds for some of the old Disney cartoons. It's quite amazing what they were able to accomplish with relatively small constructions/gadgets.

When I was a kid, I had a little device I bought from radioshack that consisted of an amplifier and a magnetic pickup that could be stuck to the back of a telephone handset to give you a speakerphone. I think I bought it because it was inexpensive and interesting, and boy how interesting it turned out to be! I discovered the pew-pew slinky sound and many others by playing around with that little thing.

Special effects for Star Wars were through Industrial Light & Magic (associated with Lucasfilm), a part of which was bought off by Steve Jobs as Pixar. Now, both Pixar and all of Lucasfilm are owned by Disney...

It's often said that the Star Wars idea of a lived-in universe was a unique thing. And that from models to set design, everything had to look used. I think that this carries through to the SFX, which were assemblages and mixes of several real sounds, banged together with analog equipment.

The new trilogy never quite "felt" right, there was always this disconnect of the visuals and the sound effects. I remember seeing a video going over how they built up the sound effects for the pod racer scene and, while it was interesting, I never really felt like the sounds fit the film in the same way the sounds did with the original films.

Passion of the craft is in full effect here. Having an ear to catch mundane sounds like the water pipes helped create a subtle but recognizable sound.

Reminds me of a guy who was responsible for sound effects in a game we're writing for Global Game Jam few years ago; he basically showed up in the middle of the contest (AFAIR he had to stay at work - university radio station, btw.), took his recorder, went around the building recording some door hinges and water faucet sounds, and came back few hours later with a complete set of sounds effects for our surreal fantasy point&click game. I have a lot of respect for his skills.

My favorite part may be watching Burtt operate the 35+ year old mixing console.

I now "get" how multi-track tapes were mixed after watching the video.

You should look up the "Classic Albums" series on YouTube or Netflix. The musicians and producers behind a number of iconic albums dissect their songs at the mixing board. It's really neat stuff.

Here's an example from Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENU5dKJvVpY&54m08s

The biplane starter sound was instantly recognizable, pretty cool.

You might also recognize it from Temple of Doom when Indy goes to check the fuel level on Lao Che's plane and the engines shut down.

Nice catch! I will have to make sure to listen for that the next time I watch :)

I love how these guys built a canvas of space fantasy out of mundane sounds, it was so easy to make some cheesy sound, but they always found a way to make it fit in the universe.

I was watching "Five Easy Pieces" the other day and instantly recognised the sound effect for the garbage compactor from episode IV. In this particular film it was the sound of the oil pump equipment in one of the scenes at the oil field!

It's funny because I saw a documentary on all the weird places the sounds come from and have done the same thing were I associate a specific sound in the movie to something in real life, not the other way around. I did this with the Imperial Walkers sound.

Strange how the brain works sometimes.

In Queensrÿche's classic metal concept album Operation: Mindcrime, the PA announcement in the hospital has been used in many places. "Dr. Blair, Dr. Blair, Dr. J. Hamilton" Once you've heard it...

That is so awesome, thanks you for sharing this!

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