The Secret Background Behind Star Wars' Blaster Sound
The Star Wars franchise is easily one of, if not the biggest, franchises on the planet. The fanbase spans generations, thanks to the continued new projects and expansions on the original story, but a big part of the franchise's continued success, is the soundtrack which accompanies each film. The legendary John Williams has scored numerous successful franchises, including Indiana Jones, ET, and Jaws, to name a few, but Star Wars fans hold a special place in their hearts for him thanks to the music included throughout the entire saga. No Star Wars fan can listen to "Binary Sunset" or "Across the Stars" without feeling a sometimes overwhelming range of emotions.
Now, whilst Williams is to thank for all the scores of the films, there is someone else equally as important for sounds from the franchise, and that is the amazing sound engineer Ben Burtt. Sadly, not a lot of people know who this man is or his importance, so we are going to tell you.
Burtt is responsible for many of the most well-known sounds in Hollywood, but none moreso than the iconic noise of a lightsaber and blaster. In a previous article regarding facts from the Star Wars universe, we explained where the distinct "hum" and "whirr" came from, but even big fans of the franchise don't know where the equally distinct blaster sound came from, and it turns out, it was discovered in the strangest of circumstances. Considering the blaster is one of the first actual sounds we hear in A New Hope and is used continuously throughout various forms of media, finding out its backstory just makes it even more iconic in my eyes.
Last year, the Webby-winning podcast, Twenty Thousand Hertz, which examines the stories behind some of the world's most iconic sounds, brought out a special on Star Wars. Specifically, they focused on the sounds created by Burtt, and the explanation behind the blaster noise may surprise you.
The podcast explains that Burtt found the sound, initially by complete accident, thanks to his backpack. The incident not only created the famous "pew pew" effect, but it also led to the background noise for Y-fighters as well.
The story goes, during his time hiking in the Poconos, Burtt's backpack became caught on a guy-wire (a cable used to add stability to free standing structures), and the noise it made inspired him. This led him to begin visiting various radio towers in Los Angeles. At each, he would hit guy-wires with a wrench continuously, until he got the specific noise he was looking for. Who'd have thought such a relatively simple and unusual idea led to one of the most instantly recognizable sounds to everyone, including non-Star Wars fans. We also found out, during one day, the wind began blowing in a certain way which caused a sound he would later use for when the Y-wings zoom by.
It's always fun to learn new information about films and franchises we love, and it's an added bonus when the backstories turn out to be relatively funny or unusual, with most occurring by seemingly random happenstance.
People like Burtt would be considered pioneers in the world of sound effects. It's clear he took inspiration from all sorts of places in his life. It's perhaps sad, then, that with modern technology, we don't get as much of these random backstories, as most sounds can be made from a computer now.
The world of sound and special effects in films has grown exponentially since the days of the original trilogy, so much so even George Lucas himself couldn't help but revisit his earlier work and make some tweaks (not all for the better in some fans' opinions, I might add), but a lot of its growth is also thanks to the Star Wars franchise. Lucas and producer Gary Kurtz ended up creating their own special effects department during the filming of the original trilogy, the now extremely well known Industrial Light & Magic, but Burtt deserves his credit as well.
You can check out the podcast and others from Twenty Thousand Hertz with the link below:
https://megaphone.link/TTH5181500658
Do you know any other interesting background stories like the above? Let us know.
Until next time!
Source(s): Nerdist