Agreed. back when I was an electrician I noticed that a 12v DeWalt drill charger if moved close to an FM radio would make exactly the same sound. The times I would stand there for five minutes moving the charger from side to side if front of a clients Radio only to be tapped on the shoulder by either another builder or my client who would whisper: "Nigel...... are you ok... any chance we could have the lights back on"?
Crashburn 32 ... Which was taken from the growl of a big lizard in some old monster movie. And yes that TIE sound is the coolest movie sound effect of all time. Lightsaber is up there with it though.
With the other half being ILM and their revolutionary camera work/special effects. Literally invented so much new technology just because Lucas wanted the shot and they made it happen.
This man was swinging around to get the movement sounds while the fight scenes were playing, he made this movie way better than it could've turned out.
One can generate most of these sounds using a moog synthesizer. Especially the R2D2 chirps… that’s done by isolating the sample and hold circuit with the resonance turned up high, and the voltage frequency cutoff filter turned down low… and the modulation wheel turned up tracking the low frequency oscillator speed , which is tracking off the voltage frequency cutoff filter
There is NO ONE in Hollywood in 2018 that can create sounds as ICONIC as Ben Burtt. the fact that Lucasfilm is not using him for the NEW films is just disgusting.
@@seriousgoat76 Absolutely incorrect. Disney funds the projects, Lucasfilm under Kathleen creates the projects from top to bottom. NOT Disney. Yes I am right.
The most iconic weapon with the most iconic sound. You close your eyes and hear the lightsaber, the sound is as much iconic as the actual saber itself.
This is one thing we’re missing in media today… truly creative people who can think outside of the box. In fact, to guys like Burtt, there is no box. He created every sound by using real life things and then editing them. Guy doesn’t get a fraction of the credit he deserves.
Brian Hernandez I actually heard back in the day that the sound when the 2 sabres are locked together moving slightly, is actually 2 pieces of polystyrene rubbed together. Not sure about the actual stroke sound.
Fun Fact: the well-known wilhelm scream is Ben Burtt's signature. If you hear it, it means he was the chief sound designer of the movie.The lightsaber sound is probably the most ingenious and sophisticated sound effect ever designed.
wilhelm scream has been around forever! There are 3 sound effects that the sound effects guys have been using to call out to each other since the 30s: Wilhelm scream, castle thunder and the universal ringer.
The sound design in the original Star Wars movies is unparalleled to this day. Ben was able to make the sound effects themselves, blaster fire, lightsabers, X-Wing and TIE Fighters, their OWN characters in the movies. They had their own moods and personalities that came to life with the human characters themselves. The Lightsaber sound is synonymous with the Jedi and the Jedi with the sound of the Lightsaber. Brilliant stuff.
Sound Design, can be such a simple thing, even if it sounds "difficult". Case in point. The TIE FIGHTER engine sound was basically achieved by the trumpeting cry of an elephant , played back at half speed and then doctored with some electronic white noise.
In RAIDERS, when Indy and Sallah lift the lid off of the ARK, THAT was just a highly produced sound recording of the lid of a TOILET TANK being removed!
I watched another mini documentary about this sound. It was used during some test footage and no one even commented on it. They just thought it was supposed to be there. High praise indeed.
Part of the genius of George Lucas is recognizing genius in people and surrounding himself with those people (Ben Burtt, Gary Kurtz, John Dykstra, Dennis Muren, Joe Johnston, John Williams...)
when he said "it was like i had heard the sound of a lightsaber before" i realized that before star wars people didnt have any idea what that might sound like.
Pretty interesting how the basic sound of the lightsaber partly comes from the microphone picking up interference from a cathode ray tube which emits light itself.
@@nathanghys5760 no, prequels actually have background and story infrastructure. They even coordinate with the book series "legends" Disney took all the books out of canon.
@@djhudgins8412 I know. I don't support disney on that decision. There were some really wonderful stories in 'legends' (some really bad ones too). But connecting those stories doesn't make the prequels great.
I made my own theremin once and as soon as I plugged it in, the lightsaber sound was the first sound to come out of that thing. I was SOOOOO happy about that and guessed this was how Ben Burtt made the sound. No. He had to do a lot more work for it.
Wrong. Star Wars is just one of the most famous films ever made so you watch videos about its production. They are still been innovative in new films it's just people don't appreciate it as much because they don't understand the new technologies been employed and just bark out "cgi and green screen" without understanding how much work and creativity goes into new films.
@@neothechosenone1502 Wrong. Sci fi films now have all these green screens and CGI (some which can look pretty crappie at times) back in the day film makers had to invent stuff on the fly and where making ORIGINAL material, not drawing out an object in a computer from a design made years before (looking at you JJ Abrams hack) for a reboot...
@@AlbertoRodriguez-zb3iu Oh buddy buddy Do you know how much CGI Star Wars has? A lot. Have you ever tried making a 3d model? Have you ever tried modelling it,UV mapping it, shading it, texturing it,rigging it, and animating it? Do you have any idea how much talent it takes to make something with CGI? A buttload. You have to be an artist on the top of your game to be hired as a 3d artist. You know nothing of the hard work it takes to make new films.
@@neothechosenone1502 Now...a ton. Back then some green screen. The rest of the visual effects were painstakingly made in studio as was the sound effects like the master in this video invented. Film makers now have it very easy compared to then.
@@AlbertoRodriguez-zb3iu Mate You have no idea what you're talking about. Try making the dragon from Game Of Thrones on your pc. I dare you to try. If it's so easy go ahead and make something and try posting it on youtube. You're very ignorant on the amount of work cgi and green screens take because you have never worked with them. You think the computer does all the work because you never tried it. I have. I have made 3d models and I can tell you it takes as much talent as practical effects. All those photo realistic cgi characters and scenery you see in games and films had to be made by a person from scratch. Only because it's digital does not mean it's easy.
I remember from reading a copy of the first draft script that lightsabers were originally going to be more common weapons, not special weapons for Jedi only.
The only aspect of making the light saber sound, which I never managed to hear explained by Ben Burtt, is the sound of the weapons being switched on and off, which I always thought was perhaps even more cool than the sound of them moving through the air. And these sounds also had something like the same core element, but also a signature variation from character to character .... Anybody ever pick up that info?
Ben Burtt is the only sound designer I know of to ever have name recognition. Think I'm wrong? Then name me another sound designer whose fame has traveled as far as Ben Burtt's.
I am just curious about for the last part on recording the movement, how can Mr Burtt holding the microphone, moving around without capturing the wind noise ?
Comments are restored thanks to me! :) )) Interesting video btw. The sound designer for the game Republic Commando also used vegetables to create many of the sound effects.
Back in 1980 when I was a young kid & SW TESB was released in theatres.CBS showed a special of the "Magic behind the making of TESB"(sorry I forgot the original title).A sound effect person(I think it was Ben Burtt)who discovered the sound of the Storm trooper blaster by hitting a telephone pole wire with a wrench.
I dunno. What about that farty kinda purr, the bass hum? Like at 3:20; that's my favorite sound of a lightsaber. I don't think he's telling us everything!
I actually got a technical question. Trying to have some fun and recreate / create new lightsaber sounds using the same technique as mr Burt. I'm talking about swinging the mic in front of a speaker (or the source of the hum). What I have found so far, is that I can't seem to get rid of the wind noise when swinging. I use a shotgun mic, it has a hairy windcover. Interesting enough, he seems to be swinging a super long shotgun mic without any cover whatsoever. Any ideas?
The _only_ thing this doesn't explain about the Lightsaber sound effect is what was used to create the sound of the clashes. For the Saber lockups, I heard that was using the sound of metal interacting with dry ice, but nothing about the clashes.
I never caught that he took advantage of the doppler effect with a speaker playing the base sound. Very cool. Yeah, today, studios just say, "Can't you synthesize that exactly? That's what we have that expensive software package for."
The microphone picked up inductively (from the deflection yoke) the 60 Hz signal that the TV use for vertical deflection of the cathode ray beam. I can add, it is the same noise you can ear when close to high power transmission transformers...
If you close your eyes and listen to the hum of the lightsaber. You can see Darth Vader standing over Luke saying. "You are beaten! It is useless to resist! Don't let yourself be destroyed as Obi Wan did!
the sound fx and music ARE star wars! the story line on the first one is kind of cheesy actually, the visuals and sound saved it though. 2nd one had everything on the other hand
Someone once pointed out to me that the opening riff of Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" sounds suspiciously like a lightsaber if you tune it down an octave.
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
One of the greatest, if not THE greatest sound effect of modern cinema. No matter when or where you hear it, everyone knows the sound of a lightsaber.
For me, it's the sound of a Tie Fighter.
Agreed. back when I was an electrician I noticed that a 12v DeWalt drill charger if moved close to an FM radio would make exactly the same sound. The times I would stand there for five minutes moving the charger from side to side if front of a clients Radio only to be tapped on the shoulder by either another builder or my client who would whisper: "Nigel...... are you ok... any chance we could have the lights back on"?
Crashburn 32 ... Which was taken from the growl of a big lizard in some old monster movie. And yes that TIE sound is the coolest movie sound effect of all time. Lightsaber is up there with it though.
Chris you are a fucking liar
Crashburn 32 uuuuuuuUUUURRRRRRAAAAHHHHhhhh
A master of his art, every sound he created for Star Wars is as important as that thing itself
stars wars is the fake version of dune
@@wickedhouston5538 I like them both, they're not similar at all
@@wickedhouston5538 dune is gay
@@novustalks7525 gay is good
@@pradabears not in the case of dune
This guy and John Williams is half of Star Wars right there.
Totally agree!
With the other half being ILM and their revolutionary camera work/special effects. Literally invented so much new technology just because Lucas wanted the shot and they made it happen.
This man was swinging around to get the movement sounds while the fight scenes were playing, he made this movie way better than it could've turned out.
never heard of foley before huh
The sound effects are half the reason we love Star Wars
One can generate most of these sounds using a moog synthesizer. Especially the R2D2 chirps… that’s done by isolating the sample and hold circuit with the resonance turned up high, and the voltage frequency cutoff filter turned down low… and the modulation wheel turned up tracking the low frequency oscillator speed , which is tracking off the voltage frequency cutoff filter
There is NO ONE in Hollywood in 2018 that can create sounds as ICONIC as Ben Burtt. the fact that Lucasfilm is not using him for the NEW films is just disgusting.
Its not lucasfilm thats in charge anymore its disney.
@@seriousgoat76 Absolutely incorrect. Disney funds the projects, Lucasfilm under Kathleen creates the projects from top to bottom. NOT Disney. Yes I am right.
Disney is disgusting
Its MAGIC Disney owns it. Lucas film operates it and does a very shitty job under KK
@@KentKaliber but you dont think Disney has any influence over Kathleen Kennedys decisions? Lol
Only true geeks can reach this level of artistry. You can just feel his fascination with the world of sounds. Beautiful to watch. We owe him a lot.
0:44 that is so cool... those early paintings framed so much of the aesthetic of the entire franchise. That artist should be proud.
The most iconic weapon with the most iconic sound. You close your eyes and hear the lightsaber, the sound is as much iconic as the actual saber itself.
In essencse its captivating as many things in life vibrate a certain wave of sound off and on back and foeth similar to a light saber
You can hear it regardless of what your eyes are doing.
This is one thing we’re missing in media today… truly creative people who can think outside of the box. In fact, to guys like Burtt, there is no box.
He created every sound by using real life things and then editing them. Guy doesn’t get a fraction of the credit he deserves.
What a Genius. His sound is what made Star Wars possible.
Ben Burtt is the JOHN WILLIAMS of Sound Design!
Wonder how he created the ignition and retraction sounds. They are just as paradigm shifting.
I'll take a wild guess on the "retraction sound" and say that it was a "reversed" recording of the ignition sound, IMHO.
@@a.barnard3205 it is
But the contact sound, when it hits another blade?
Brian Hernandez I actually heard back in the day that the sound when the 2 sabres are locked together moving slightly, is actually 2 pieces of polystyrene rubbed together. Not sure about the actual stroke sound.
Dry ice interacting with bits of metal.
This man has not aged. Best effect ever.
Thanks Ben Burtt
A Pioneer of the film industry. He also doesn't age? Look at that before and after picture! Maybe creating the sound gave him life 🤔 haha
Like your job & not worrying about it really helps I beg
Ummm he most certainly had aged....this interview wasn't recorded just a few years ago....🙄🙄🙄
@@Anth230 r/wooosh
I have suspected for YEARS that the light sabre sound was some sort of ‘impedance’ hum! The man is a genius!
He is amazing!
Yes he is!;) i love this guy!;) he is soo good in doing these sounds!;) i dont know why dysney wont use this guy that does these wonderful soundss!!
I heard that!
Lightsaber sound is one of my favourite sounds.
Preach!
It's like one of the most beautiful sounds in the whole universe
So true
Fun Fact: the well-known wilhelm scream is Ben Burtt's signature. If you hear it, it means he was the chief sound designer of the movie.The lightsaber sound is probably the most ingenious and sophisticated sound effect ever designed.
wilhelm scream has been around forever! There are 3 sound effects that the sound effects guys have been using to call out to each other since the 30s: Wilhelm scream, castle thunder and the universal ringer.
The sound design in the original Star Wars movies is unparalleled to this day. Ben was able to make the sound effects themselves, blaster fire, lightsabers, X-Wing and TIE Fighters, their OWN characters in the movies. They had their own moods and personalities that came to life with the human characters themselves. The Lightsaber sound is synonymous with the Jedi and the Jedi with the sound of the Lightsaber. Brilliant stuff.
Sound Design, can be such a simple thing, even if it sounds "difficult".
Case in point. The TIE FIGHTER engine sound was basically achieved by the trumpeting cry of an elephant , played back at half speed and then doctored with some electronic white noise.
In RAIDERS, when Indy and Sallah lift the lid off of the ARK, THAT was just a highly produced sound recording of the lid of a TOILET TANK being removed!
And the sound of "liquid creeping snakes" in the Well Of Souls was made by fingers caressing a cheese casserole!
A. Barnard wow elephant cry!!!?
He's a genius.
You sir, are the MVP!
Lies again? From the mouth sex that brought Jules Jordan
I always thought they had just Ewan McGregor make “woosh” noises
I Am Groot like a wooookie
Same
Ben Burtt is the sound design genius for plenty of movies in the world. 3 cheers for him.
Absolutely creative and innovative genius. The sound of a lightsaber is so distinctive and set apart from any other fictional weapon
I watched another mini documentary about this sound. It was used during some test footage and no one even commented on it. They just thought it was supposed to be there. High praise indeed.
Part of the genius of George Lucas is recognizing genius in people and surrounding himself with those people (Ben Burtt, Gary Kurtz, John Dykstra, Dennis Muren, Joe Johnston, John Williams...)
When Gary Kurtz fucked off, that was the end of Star Wars.
Don't forget to add his ex wife Marcia....
This was wonderful to watch. Ben Burtt, George, and crew really did amazing things to give us teh wonderful world of Star Wars.
when he said "it was like i had heard the sound of a lightsaber before" i realized that before star wars people didnt have any idea what that might sound like.
It is a very congruent sound effect; it has that electric hum of lights and appliances we are all familiar with.
Ben is the man! So lucky to have met him so many times
Pretty interesting how the basic sound of the lightsaber partly comes from the microphone picking up interference from a cathode ray tube which emits light itself.
Another thing the newer films lack: BEN BURTT
That is cool. Star Wars used to be so cool.
It still is when you don't look at what Disney is crapping out
@@djhudgins8412 and ignore the prequels
@@nathanghys5760 no, prequels actually have background and story infrastructure. They even coordinate with the book series "legends" Disney took all the books out of canon.
@@djhudgins8412 I know. I don't support disney on that decision. There were some really wonderful stories in 'legends' (some really bad ones too). But connecting those stories doesn't make the prequels great.
@@nathanghys5760 eh, I'm biased. I grew up with them.
Sounds of my childhood ❤
Ben is one of the greatest sound designers of all time.
Out of the box ingenuity plus tech background equals ultimately mind blowing results.
Amazing
I love the screeching sound the sabers make when they're slicing through metal. It's so.... satisfying.
One of the most iconic sounds one hears on television was produced by a television.
He created the coolest sounding weapon of all time hands down
Thank you for that sound
The greatest sound of a holy and agent weapon the LIGHTSABER! How did Ben put it about a blaster HOW UNCIVILIZED!
A true unsung hero. Thank you.
He is super impressed with himself and proud of his creation 😅
The Maestro of the Star Wars sound effects
I made my own theremin once and as soon as I plugged it in, the lightsaber sound was the first sound to come out of that thing. I was SOOOOO happy about that and guessed this was how Ben Burtt made the sound. No. He had to do a lot more work for it.
What movies of today lack...
Innovation.
Wrong. Star Wars is just one of the most famous films ever made so you watch videos about its production.
They are still been innovative in new films it's just people don't appreciate it as much because they don't understand the new technologies been employed and just bark out "cgi and green screen" without understanding how much work and creativity goes into new films.
@@neothechosenone1502
Wrong.
Sci fi films now have all these green screens and CGI (some which can look pretty crappie at times) back in the day film makers had to invent stuff on the fly and where making ORIGINAL material, not drawing out an object in a computer from a design made years before (looking at you JJ Abrams hack) for a reboot...
@@AlbertoRodriguez-zb3iu
Oh buddy buddy
Do you know how much CGI Star Wars has? A lot.
Have you ever tried making a 3d model? Have you ever tried modelling it,UV mapping it, shading it, texturing it,rigging it, and animating it? Do you have any idea how much talent it takes to make something with CGI? A buttload. You have to be an artist on the top of your game to be hired as a 3d artist.
You know nothing of the hard work it takes to make new films.
@@neothechosenone1502
Now...a ton.
Back then some green screen. The rest of the visual effects were painstakingly made in studio as was the sound effects like the master in this video invented.
Film makers now have it very easy compared to then.
@@AlbertoRodriguez-zb3iu
Mate You have no idea what you're talking about.
Try making the dragon from Game Of Thrones on your pc. I dare you to try. If it's so easy go ahead and make something and try posting it on youtube.
You're very ignorant on the amount of work cgi and green screens take because you have never worked with them. You think the computer does all the work because you never tried it.
I have.
I have made 3d models and I can tell you it takes as much talent as practical effects.
All those photo realistic cgi characters and scenery you see in games and films had to be made by a person from scratch.
Only because it's digital does not mean it's easy.
His dad I believe was my chemistry professor in college. He showed us this.
That’s so amazing, the lightsaber itself was made of spare camera parts, and the sound was from a projector and a TV. That’s so neat.
I knew this from back in the 80s ...I was a bantha club member
Good for you bud
I remember from reading a copy of the first draft script that lightsabers were originally going to be more common weapons, not special weapons for Jedi only.
He has a ear for sound legendary!!!
Stormtroopers holding lightsabers ? Blasphemy !
daniel280456 concept art
Don't worry they won't hit anything
daniel280456 originally they were supposed to carry them the elite force of storm troopers like the riot troopers in new movies with the shock baton
Some of the Troopers in the concept looked like phase 1 Dark Troopers
It's a good thing he never trademarked that sound because I would owe him millions.
This man is an underrated legend.
That is fking unreal
1:05. I think this is the look everyone should have when facing their fears.
Mark Hamill is a great actor that’s how
Ben Burtt is a sonic genius.
We can credit Been Burtt for discovering the Wilhelm Scream.
You mean "re-discovering" the Wilhelm Scream.
WOW Benn Burtt thankyou!!!
Ben is theeee greatest
this guy is a genius!
If only there was this kind of creativity in the modern Star Wars Episodes 7-9 movies, maybe they wouldn't be garbage movies!
It's so simple but so cool
The only aspect of making the light saber sound, which I never managed to hear explained by Ben Burtt, is the sound of the weapons being switched on and off, which I always thought was perhaps even more cool than the sound of them moving through the air. And these sounds also had something like the same core element, but also a signature variation from character to character .... Anybody ever pick up that info?
I'm equally curious about this and how he created the sounds of lightsabers clashing with each other and other objects
Best UA-cam recommendation
Ben Burtt is the only sound designer I know of to ever have name recognition.
Think I'm wrong?
Then name me another sound designer whose fame has traveled as far as Ben Burtt's.
I agree I honestly can’t name you any others without googling. But I am an original trilogy fan.
Wow your right.
I am just curious about for the last part on recording the movement, how can Mr Burtt holding the microphone, moving around without capturing the wind noise ?
Incredible, very creative.
LOVED IT!
When Benn Burtt chats online with people, he constantly uses :P
Comments are restored thanks to me! :) ))
Interesting video btw. The sound designer for the game Republic Commando also used vegetables to create many of the sound effects.
Thanks Michael I don’t know why they weren’t turned off. Perhaps UA-cam turned them off. Thanks also for removing the dislikes. Appreciate it.
@@PeterHobbs1 np. How you mistake my name for Michael :D?
Back in 1980 when I was a young kid & SW TESB was released in theatres.CBS showed a special of the "Magic behind the making of TESB"(sorry I forgot the original title).A sound effect person(I think it was Ben Burtt)who discovered the sound of the Storm trooper blaster by hitting a telephone pole wire with a wrench.
Yeaaa! I saw him doing that!;) wuaaoo!!;)
Yes, and the next day I was outside tapping on a guy wire of a telephone pole to recreate that amazing sound.
He also played the voice of Han Solo
Genius.
Hell, the ignition of the lightsaber is my text notification sound
Awesome story, thx!
The sound alone is equivalent in value to the prequels.
This guy has a face that’s constantly smirking
Looks like Saul Goodman
If I was the guy who made the lightsaber sound I would also have that facial expression
Genius!
Fascinating! What about the impact sounds of the sabers when they clash?
Dry ice
I dunno. What about that farty kinda purr, the bass hum? Like at 3:20; that's my favorite sound of a lightsaber. I don't think he's telling us everything!
I actually got a technical question. Trying to have some fun and recreate / create new lightsaber sounds using the same technique as mr Burt. I'm talking about swinging the mic in front of a speaker (or the source of the hum). What I have found so far, is that I can't seem to get rid of the wind noise when swinging. I use a shotgun mic, it has a hairy windcover. Interesting enough, he seems to be swinging a super long shotgun mic without any cover whatsoever. Any ideas?
No ideas from myself but I wish you the best of luck Luke!
Louder source, slower movements, no cover.
Absolutely amazing. Does anyone know how he created the awesome lightsaber IGNITE sound effect?
Very cool loved the original trilogy
A genius who makes do with what he has with the limitations of technology in that time period.
What kind of microphones do people who make the sound effects out in the field use?
"mechanical harmony"
What was the impact crash sound made of?
The _only_ thing this doesn't explain about the Lightsaber sound effect is what was used to create the sound of the clashes. For the Saber lockups, I heard that was using the sound of metal interacting with dry ice, but nothing about the clashes.
And WHAT kind of metal would THAT be?
I never caught that he took advantage of the doppler effect with a speaker playing the base sound. Very cool. Yeah, today, studios just say, "Can't you synthesize that exactly? That's what we have that expensive software package for."
Software is nice, but imagination, is MORE important!
Yeah now they just rely on tech that costs a fortune.Strange
The microphone picked up inductively (from the deflection yoke) the 60 Hz signal that the TV use for vertical deflection of the cathode ray beam.
I can add, it is the same noise you can ear when close to high power transmission transformers...
That is so fucking cool!
Great explanation, but how was the clash sound made when the lightsabers crossed and hit??
My favorite movies
If you close your eyes and listen to the hum of the lightsaber. You can see Darth Vader standing over Luke saying. "You are beaten! It is useless to resist! Don't let yourself be destroyed as Obi Wan did!
When a soundman was art back then
the sound fx and music ARE star wars! the story line on the first one is kind of cheesy actually, the visuals and sound saved it though. 2nd one had everything on the other hand
Welp, time to watch ESB again...
Same
Someone once pointed out to me that the opening riff of Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" sounds suspiciously like a lightsaber if you tune it down an octave.
Genious