Lightsaber Sound Effect

I didn't know if this thread goes in this forum but I thought it would be the most pertinant.

What do they use to get the sound effects for the lightsabers? I know that they briefly show the ADR guys recording the lightsabers with a "thingy" in the documentary "Films are not Released, they escape". How is it done?

 

This probably goes in this forum.

Sorry I can't help you on the subject. You might try asking Ben Burtt on TOS.

 

They might have something about it over in the Fan Films forum.

 

Basically by twanging wires

 

I thought it was some kind of reverb from a broken microphone or something ?

 

34700 posts, and you don't know how lightsaber sounds are made? Pitiful.

 

Hey, I thought I knew. Burtt said something along those lines in The Beginning....

 

Oops, looks like we're both wrong

"The lightsaber was, in fact, the very first sound I created for A New Hope. Inspired by the McQuarrie concept paintings, I remembered a sound of an interlock motor on the old film projectors at the USC Cinema Department (I had been a projectionist there). The motors made a musical "hum" which I felt immediately would complement the image in the painting. I recorded that motor, and a few days later I had a broken microphone cable that caused my recorder to accidently pick up the buzz from the back of my TV picture tube. I recorded that buzz, and mixed it with the hum of the projector motor. Together these sounds became the basis for all the lightsabers."

From SW.com

I wonder which sound it was that he created by twanging cables then

EDIT: Well, that took all of 30 seconds to find!

"The Laser Blast noises used throughout the Star Wars movies are mostly made by striking power cables found on pilons local to ILM. (I strongly recommend you DO NOT try doing this to see if it really is true, just please take my word for it!)."

From http://zuul.gotdns.com/swunknown

Just a shame they don't know how to spell pylon

 

"a few days later I had a broken microphone cable that caused my recorder to accidently pick up the buzz from the back of my TV picture tube"

that's what I meant

 

Well you said microphone, and I said cable, so we're both right

 

best solution



okay, what does this have to do with Star Wars and Film Music?

 

Nothing! Absolutely Nothing! Stupid!! You so stupid!!

Actually you get that neat blaster sound any time you hit a high tension steel cable. I used to hit the guy wires holding up the towers on which big power lines ran behind a friend's house.

 

What does this have to do with Star Wars and Film Music?

Both are sound and not visual. I believe Lucas when he says that 50% of a movie is sound. Personally, what really impresses me in a movie is not the CG visual effects, but the quality and dynamics of the sound. Music and effects.

Thanks for the info on the lightsaber effects. I wonder if they still use the same technique seeing as ever lightsaber has it's own sound characteristics.