Pew Pew! The making of Star Wars’ iconic sounds

Twenty Thousand Hertz

Dallas Taylor

Design, Music, Music Commentary, Arts

4.9 • 4.5K Ratings

🗓️ 13 May 2020

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When you think about Star Wars, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Lightsabers? Spaceships? Alien creatures? What about all of the sounds that go with those things? How were those sounds made, and what makes them so good? In this episode, we explore how legendary Sound Designer Ben Burtt created the sonic universe of Star Wars from scratch, one sound at a time. Featuring Marshall McGhee. Twenty Thousand Hertz is produced by Defacto Sound. Subscribe on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to see our video series. If you know what this week's mystery sound is, tell us at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠mystery.20k.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Support the show and get ad-free episodes at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠20k.org/plus⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Follow Dallas on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠Facebook⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Join our community on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Reddit⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Check out Marshall’s Youtube channel Waveform. Episode transcript, music, and credits can be found here: https://www.20k.org/episodes/starwarspewpew Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to 20,000 Hertz.
0:13.0	The original Star Wars trilogy was groundbreaking in all kinds of ways.
0:18.0	The costumes were incredibly creative.
0:20.0	The special effects were mind-boggling.
0:22.6	And for sound design, Star Wars was completely revolutionary.
0:31.6	Whether or not you're a Star Wars fan is completely beside the point, because you know exactly what a
0:38.5	lightsaber sounds like. You also know what R2D2 sounds like. And you also know what Darth Vader's
0:49.4	breathing sounds like.
0:57.1	These sound effects go well beyond the movie.
0:59.1	They're a part of our creative culture,
1:02.4	and every bit as famous as the movie's most quoted lines.
1:03.8	The force will be with you.
1:04.7	Do.
1:06.7	Oh, do not.
1:08.8	There is no try.
1:12.4	No, I am your father.
1:21.4	And there's a reason sound designers keep going back to Star Wars for inspiration, even today, decades later.
1:27.0	The sounds of Star Wars do such a great job of immersing us in a galaxy far, far away. They make this wild world of aliens,
1:29.8	robots, and space wizards feel real. Making these movies sound just right took an incredible
1:35.8	amount of effort and creativity. And in the sound design world, the mastermind behind these
1:40.9	sound effects is truly a legend.
1:47.0	His name is Ben Burt. Ben worked on Star Wars very early in his career.
	...

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