
Millennium Falcon's SFX Demonstrated by Sound Designer Ben Burtt (1980) [video] - shawndumas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8G6RChOLrTA
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Adaptive
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)

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enbrill
you mean a movie called blue harvest ;)

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teddyh
That was _Return of the Jedi_.

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zo1
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](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.

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Gracana
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.

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bane
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.

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ericcholis
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.

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TeMPOraL
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.

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js2
My favorite part may be watching Burtt operate the 35+ year old mixing
console.

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

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joezydeco
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](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENU5dKJvVpY&54m08s)

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codezero
The biplane starter sound was instantly recognizable, pretty cool.

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NittLion78
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.

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

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agumonkey
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.

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shangxiao
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!

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at-fates-hands
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.

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lechevalierd3on
That is so awesome, thanks you for sharing this!

