Ben Burtt on Lightsaber Sound Design

[benjaminshinobi]

The only way this could more perfectly encapsulate the 20th Century is if he blew up a transistor or something...

[Elipilification]

Always have been a fan of SW

[GratefulVince]

A genius

[Datelesswonders]

Does this explain how the clashing sound was made?

[digitaldave1234]

@Datelesswonders He also recorded sounds of Kenneth Strickfaden's lab equipment from Frankenstein, and I'd bet some of those high-energy sounds ended up in the Lightsaber family.

[uptohisneck]

the lightsaber sounds have gotta be some of the most perfect and memorable sound design ever. wellwellwelldone. and he did R2D2 and Chewbacca too? goddamn. sound design people are so awesome.

[dm5i]

@uptohisneck Sound design people are indeed awesome, but Ben Burtt’s kind of in a class by himself. He was also responsible for the sound of the land speeder, TIE fighters, the Imperial blaster rifle, the crack of Indiana Jones’s whip, and the popularization of the Wilhelm Scream. Among other things. Basically, if you grew up in the 80s like I did, he was responsible for at least half the soundtrack of your life.

[EnDZYm3]

Fucking genius. 

[sumbuddyx]

WHO THE FUCK WOULD DISLIKE THIS?????????

sorry for the caps.

[waitingforbrain]

@sumbuddyx

A Star Trek fan. :D

[Kraid2011]

His mouth is making my OCD itch.

[WesMantooth73]

SWEET!

[lyssajobi]

This is really interesting how he did all of this.

[zzsharka]

D J Ben !

[dragster178]

Sound design genius.

[ScrapBrainMusic]

Gotta love his "Yeah, I'm the fucking daddy" eyebrow throughout this, haha. Not a Star Wars fan but this guy's something of a genius.

[Parkinson9999]

That's so much more intersting (and better sounding) than software synth or something!!!

[LEGO171]

@Tukkiperse Here let me give you a video link: watch?v=uaiz7hi9_Gw&feature=ch­annel_video_title

Shes an Machinma Realm Director

[LEGO171]

Cupqaukes new terraria video brought me here

[Tukkiperse]

@LEGO171 whos cupqauke?

[HailAnts]

We're not worthy we're not worthy!!!

[katiekazoo212]

my sister's best friend is his adopted daughter, emma

[noffgrout]

@katiekazoo212 ummmm cool i guess

[TheCivilEngineer22]

a faceless icon!

[OffWIthTheRain]

this guy is obviously a genius

[llYossarian]

The sound on this video is, ironically, terrible. It just needs a little EQ and compression in Protools.

[mousaey]

Now, I just need an old projector motor, and I can make the lightsabre sounds!

[Oklastattempt]

10 people left their hands to Vader.

[DollarTaco]

is it me, or is his mouth crooked?

[Proletariat12]

@DollarTaco your dick is crooked.

[Kinkoyaburi]

To be honest I kinda hate the Wilhelm scream. It's focking annoying to hear it in a movie.

[WTAWWR08]

Gotta thank Doppler for those lightsaber thrust sounds.

[xdearlifex]

his mouth is diagonal. I know that's superficial but i can't stop looking at it o___o

[drummererb]

@xdearlifex He's the real life :/

[smashmansnake]

thumbs up if "thumbs up" comments really piss you off.

[tomfrankly]

@smashmansnake NICE TRY YOU CLEVER BASTARD. I'M NOT FALLING FOR YOUR TRAP!

[smashmansnake]

@tomfrankly DAMN! FOILED AGAIN! *jumps into escape pod headed for Tatooine*

[lukepc92]

A stormtrooper with a lightsaber? HERESY!

[UltimteLifeForm]

This man is a God. He made the Darth Vader breathing noises, R2D2 noises( most of which he did), Chewie's scream, lightsaber noises and the Wilhelm scream!

[MoodyEdghaim]

@UltimteLifeForm yeah, we all read the article, buddy.

[M46h1n3]

thumbs up if cracked brought you here

[MartinRavencroft]

@M46h1n3 

[maj1986]

@M46h1n3 NO motherfucker, I came here cuz I am a Ben Burrt fan!!!!

[cwillson1965]

@M46h1n3

Cracked



[bradn56]

@M46h1n3 so true

[DarkArgento]

@M46h1n3  Long life to this guy!!

[Pedgerow]

The amazing thing is that he manages to talk for three and a half minutes about how be invented the lightsabre sound, without ever actually making the sound himself.

[itsuki51]

Have to replicate this...

[QwAdr0x256]

after a while i forgot why i am watching this video, what is the guy talking about lol

[St3aua86]

got so sleepy listening to him.....

[quatz1981]

love the humming sounds of the lightsabres

[mcgurkryans]

Forget about the sound... this guy needs better visual effects work for the hair on his head. You're BALD! Deal with it.

[RedDubplate]

this guy is a fucking genies

[xStoochx]

So.. part of the sound of the lighsaber comes from the cosmic microwave background radiation from the big bang itself?

That's seems like the case when he talked about the tv. Holy crap!!

[orka16605]

@xStoochx That is pretty epic

[Bazzaland]

Awesome video - thanks Dave - loved hearing the backstory on some of the technical aspects of this incredible Sci-Fi series. Well done! And to you as well Ben - may the force.....be with you! :)

[rillloudmother]

cool

[jekkordie]

His a freakin genius

[MrMevko]

Fuck partys im going to use this as a pickup line

[Helderhugo]

Ben Burt is a genious of sound. He is the best of the best.

[nerdelicious5]

that dude deserves an award (if he hasn't already got one)

[birthnight]

fantastic video thank you very much for posting!

[str3123]

@birthnight Quote! Amazing video, thanks!

[stinkyswass]

I can't wait to tell all the ladies this the next time i'm at a party! :-)

[billychair2]

hhahhaha

[FreakDaMIghet]

@stinkyswass, I'm shoure girls love to talk about star wars. I always here them in the halls at school, "Oh yeah. star wars is great!!!"

lol

But hopefully the ladies you talk to might be the ones who dress like slave Leia at comacon. OH THOUSE SLAVE LEIAS ARE SO HOT!!!!!!

[dennisberndtsson]

@stinkyswass trust me, it's nothing you wanna metion on your weddiing.. HUUuu

[RexNovi]

@stinkyswass reading this before watching, i assumed he was gonna use a vibrator lol

[UberTroll13]

@stinkyswass

you don't get invited to parties, you sit at home in your dath vader costume

[Parau1990]

@stinkyswass I think I might have bad news for you...

[maj1986]

@stinkyswass Your a loser.

[n64boys]

cool

[geoffpeterstrio]

very interesting!!

[JaneAstron]

Remind me never to ask this guy for directions.

[sleestack808]

@JaneAstron lol

[NullPoint84]

@JaneAstron you wanted him to get right to the point, huh?

[SidJustice1]

Nice. I've always wondered how they came up with the sound for them.

[BMFRaw]

How totally FREAKIN cool! I love documentary stuff like this! :-)

[Nelsonics]

Ben you're a genius!!! I wish i could be as creative as you. what a fun job you have.

[knitterhead]

Wonderfully informative. Thanks for posting this.

[animeknight999]

I want to be like him

[technologic21]

Cool!

[joellouisfire]

Awesome! I am an aspiring sound designer/producer and the clip at the end where he is swinging the microphone around was an awesome way of showing me and helping me with different ways of recording sound!

5 Stars!

[R2DIT2]

And STAR WARS IV. was the first STEREO movie.

[jmalmsten]

Wellll... not quite... Stereo had been dabbled with before. And in large-format-cinema multichannel-audio was pretty much the norm since the ginormous screens where introduced.

What Lucas and his pals did was to device a way to get stereo-sound that would play as stereo on a normal sound-pickup and for those theaters with the decoders, that same signal would be decoded to 4channel-surround-sound. And I think that the same track could also be played on a mono-theatre.

[jmalmsten]

So what they did was quite revolutionary even though they didn't quite "invent Stereophonic sound in cinemas"

[Riddler95]

No

Disney's Sleeping Beauty was the first movie to use Stereo Sound.

[Waaarriorz]

nice accident !!!!

[clg26]

That is so cool!

[bestvids2009]

he talks really similarly to dave mustaine of megadeth. seriously!

[LifeJuice90]

dont thumb him down he does talk like him which actually is the other way around. Dave sounds like Ben Burtt.

[xxstorm912xx]

this was priceless

[Saturdayelectro]

The best work you can got!

[mastersnap007]

dang....movie ppl don't have skills like this anymore.

[sacredgeometry]

? what are you talking about ...this line of work is still at work... so is ben burtt

[jastanger]

Yeah, Ben Burrt also did the Sound Design on Wall-E, which is of course excellent.

[islandmac75]

The talent comes in recognizing the accident as more than just an buzz. That ear of his is linked to a great imagination.

[elpheal]

Really!

Sometimes I really wonder how the world of geniuses like him is like. He must look at things so differently from everyone else. *_*

[canadianbbaconn]

i love how the microphone thing was a total accident but it worked perfectly.

[waitingformusic]

SIMPLY AWESOME!

[fusionfreq]

wow, any more videos of ben anywhere? books?

[XTREEMMAK]

Well done :)

[AliaSparrow]

Ben Burtt is amazing!

He just worked on the movie WALL-E. It's amazing how he did the sound design.

[meowmeowblackcat]

isnt this the guy who did WALL-E's voice?

[greggerm]

Yes, indeed!

[dukcaboose]

wall-e's voice isnt human exactly, but with instruments that he uses, he makes beeping and buzzing sounds

[meowmeowblackcat]

uhm obviously, im not retarded

[MacNitro]

Genious

[EylkWroth]

Ben Burtt is pretty much the most amazing sound person on the planet

[VivaToddVegas]

Ben Burtt is my hero.

[i3econ]

mine too. =o)

[goofyindie]

wouldn't putting a mic in front a speaker produce feedback??

[wanv]

only if the mic is feeding the output of the speaker. which -- in this case -- it wasn't. the speaker was outputting the "hum"

[Munki6]

^ what he said

[antiwebbite]

not if the microphone isn't being monitors through that speaker...

feedback is a loop...it is produced because the same sound is going in the microphone and the out of the speaker and then in the microphone and then out of the speaker...faster and faster until your ears explode.

[360flip33]

not true. feedback is that but it does not get louder. it keeps the same tone. and when he was moving the microphone around he had the microphone recording, not coming out of the speaker he was waving it in front of. what was coming out of the speaker was the sound of the still lightsaber

[LilBrandont]

OMG, is it just me or did any1 else just realize the greatest sound of all time (besides sum1 yelling the word free) was created by "ACCIDENT" (1:54). lol!!

[skengeboy]

This is really inspiring to watch.

[HuntedBySquirrels]

Would love to do stuff like that! What a genious.

[seeminglee]

Great technique for sound recording / sampling. Thanks for sharing

[FKHost]

awesomeeeee =]

[darkerjosh]

ben burtt is the best person who could be in charge for sound effects. the blaster bolt sound effect and the lightsaber effect were very clever.

[sgtpepper1138]

Ben Burtt rules, i'd love to do what he does

[j5221436598]

lightsabers rule!!!

[3Elvis]

Simple yet so brilliant! The sound of lightsabers is awesome and classic at the same time.