Slinkies and Star Wars Sound Effects

[incawarrior1000]

lol

[rayhaku]

WHAAAAAT??!!

[LOLOMFGROFLCOPTER]

not fortunate enough to have a microphone? dude im not fortunate enough to have a slinky D:

[micolich]

@LOLOMFGROFLCOPTER Shoulda asked Santa for one for xmas ;P

[Landisnicholas]

Oh good I thought I was crazy and was the only one who hear star wars laser when using my slinky... I feel better now

[ztoiRiotz]

my face reaction at 1:20 --> :O

[saewerd91]

you are the man!!

[JoeWithers100]

Excuse me but I think I love you.

[21stCenturyBoxProduc]

Sound design is so freaking awesome.

[coltonandsydney123]

lol?

lol?

[manofmystery26]

that is bad ass!!!!!

[whoamavi]

you're my hero

[SunnyDB1TCH]

Epic

[JLadicuss]

This is how Ben Burtt got the sound for Eve's laser in Wall•e

[xlnyc]

awesome thank you

[TheFaust1980]

excellent bro! thanks for inspiration.

[pauljs75]

Cool foley work demonstration. I heard some of the original Star Wars sounds are also as diverse in sources as somebody tapping a span wire holding up an antenna tower with something metal and recording the noise of passing vehicle traffic on a nearby highway. Don't forget that in editing software you can loop it, reverse it, and alter pitch and/or duration. The most mundane sound sources can sometimes produce the most interesting effects.

[Armitage431]

I've read that the actual star wars blaster sounds were created from hitting a thick metal cable under tension.with another metal object.

[hardpulse]

Hello Reddit.

[dannythesuperfreak]

where are you from, your accent is marvelous

[micolich]

@dannythesuperfreak Australia, Western suburbs of Sydney to be precise. Glad you like it.

[SirSamcelot]

I'm totally going to do this, this is amazing.

[Ablahou]

So cool

[micolich]

@DwaynHicks No, but I'm on holidays so I should. I know that Burtt does use exactly this trick with the slinky in the sound effects for that movie (rather than the telephone pole guy-wire used for star wars).

Need to make a trip to the video store...

[snower5554]

my social worker does this at school in his office all the time lol

[darthgreivous]

That's awesome! Thanks for sharing!

[0SweetRevenge0]

I though I was the only one who got excited when I heard 'lazer guns' coming from my slinky. I it's al curled up and just sitting on the floor with nothing touching it, occasionally It will make a 'zzp' split-second buzzing sound- probably from some vibration or other. I also found a particular mug of mine when filled with tea and placed on a metal tray it will make a loud incessant buzzing noise. It's really cool, but we spent hours trying to figure out where the sound was coming from!

[METAL1ON]

Ace im buying a slinky today.

[doubleagfx]

OMG SO FRIGGEN AWESOME

[apmason]

Wow!

[lustreboy]

oh yeah!!!

the laser sound is wicked!!  nice vid!

[felipealvarez1982]

aussie accent?

[piroshki07]

good one, sir...

never knew we could do that with a slinky ^.^;

[L0B0TOMY]

You should become a foley artist. Clever work.

[micolich]

Hahaha, when I first read it, I thought you said I should become Axel Foley, which would be great. But a job as a foley artist would be fun too.

[L0B0TOMY]

Either or :D

[Repelsteeltje1337]

@micolich

Yeah like you invented this.

[micolich]

@Repelsteeltje1337 Did I claim to?

[maniacguitar]

@Repelsteeltje1337 such an unnecessary comment..

great job micolich!

[anafredd]

woah!! thats soo cool!! and its really wierd, because it almost sounds surreal, as if the slinky isn't really making the sound. gonna have to try it out for myself. XD

[Stevieboy74]

interesting vid...but way way way way way way way way way way way way way wayway way way way way way wayway way way way way way wayway way way way way way wayway way way way way way wayway way way way way way wayway way way way way way wayway way way way way way wayway way way way way way wayway way way way way way wayway way way way way way wayway way way way way way wayway way way way way way wayway way way way way way wayway way way way way way wayway way way too much time on your hands!!!

[micolich]

My job is to teach physics, and to do that effectively you need to make it interesting. That's not way too much time on my hands, it's just trying to break the usual 'cycle of abuse' in physics of lecturer stands at blackboard and writes equations for an hour, student gets bored, student becomes academic and repeats process on a new cohort of students.

[Stevieboy74]

That's fair enough...I've looked at some of your other vids and you seem like a pretty good teacher actually, so I admit that I was way way way way way way (repeat to fade...again) over hasty in my judgement of your video content...so apologies.

We need more good teachers in the world. Most of mine as a kid at school sucked and it seems great at the time because you can slack off, but in the long run it does you zero good.

Keep up the good work

[micolich]

Thanks, will do. More vids coming in early 2010 when I get home to Sydney.

[marischneider]

oh my goodness... give me back the few minutes of my life that I lost watching this!

[pedranm]

Awful. Really sorry I watched this shit. The guy speaks too much, and there's so little action.

[piradertyu]

geek

[hippieforhimbradd44]

this guy is so hot

[YdOuUmRb]

i don't see why this was rated badly on "bestofyoutube" i think this is a flippin great find. i use to bite my slinky and let it drop to get the same sound effect, never put the 2 halves together to realize it sounded like star wars effects. 5/5 :D!

[MuscularBeaverx]

wow great idea

[micepop]

That is so cool!

[ChriszBboy]

cool!

[Aritul]

Very cool.

[Finni100]

wow awsome

[warvector]

Nice video dude! xD

[feageee]

rlllllly nice vid ahahhaa, its exactly the same sound omg, thanks man!

[algonkin64]

I believe the original sound effect was done with steel tension wires that hold up tall radio entennas...but this one is just as cool.

[micolich]

Yes, that's correct. Was done using the guy-wire for a huge radio mast in California. About 1/2" thick stranded steel cable hit with a hand wrench, with the microphone in contact with the wire about a foot or so in front of the tap point. You can see it in a documentary called SPFX about the making of the Empire Strikes Back. There's actually parts of it on YouTube.

[Emetris]

yeah i came across this vid while searching for that documentary. the sound of your equipment turned out very good, and i didn't expect the sound of the cuup to be that good.

i want to try this some time!

great video

[RouteZeroDesign]

Very clever, a nice easy way to make royalty free sound effects

[imitator229]

i dont like the way you look at me throughout the entire video.

[micolich]

What do you want me to do? Stand in the corner like in the Blair Witch project??

[baraka1408]

ROFLMAO nice one man. I thought your video kicked ass! Thanks for sharing! :D

[imitator229]

just look at directly at the camera a bit less it seems way un-natural lol... oh and i should add that i do like the vieo and those sounds are cool etx etx

[micolich]

Hahah, I was just being a cheeky bastard. Yeah, I'm trying to do them better as I go along, takes a bit of practice to get comfortable in front of a camera. You should see some of my really early stuff, it was terrible.

[Pashford]

How the hell did you discover that method?

Excellent vid!

[FilmakerMike]

This is absolutely AWESOME! Now I want to go buy a slinky at my local Wal*Mart and try it at home.

[Arcsylon]

I did that all the timne when i was younger. What i did was biting down on it then "play" the spring =)

[StupidInventions]

Awesome!

The coolest Slinky video on youtube since my Infinite Slinky invention! :)

Keep up the good work!

[2muchwatching]

the slinkey goes...

PEW PEW!!

slinkey + toy gun + foam cup = the perfect prank.

[Trisscarr]

This is really badass

[darkgear6]

ive done that before, i put my ear up to the end

[CarlCampbell]

Ben Burtt would be proud!

[micolich]

Now there's a guy I'd love to have a beer with!

[algonkin64]

If it's me that you meant... sure...why not? LOL!

[spiv]

neat

[Tanru2000]

Do the people in the offices near you wonder where your blaster is!?! :D

[thelastsoviet]

Epic.

[SpicySpleen]

cool man thanks for the tut.

[braingnawer]

AWESOME