Behind the Sound Effects of STAR WARS

Ben Burtt created many of the distinctive and iconic sound effects used in STAR WARS such as the sound of a lightsaber being activated, the sound of a TIE Fighter screaming past, or even R2-D2’s voice (which was mostly Ben Burtt’s own vocalizations altered electronically and combined with other sounds, such as water pipes, and dry ice being rubbed against metal).

Burtt created a tradition in movie sound of using a scream originally used for a character being eaten by an alligator in the 1951 movie “Distant Drums” (which Burtt named “the Wilhelm Scream” after the character who utters the scream in the 1953 western “Charge at Feather River”) and using it numerous times over the course of several movies beginning with a stormtrooper who is shot off a balcony just before Luke and Leia swing across the chasm.

This distinctive scream has been picked up by other sound designers and used in countless movies since such as “Raiders of the Lost Ark” (1981), “Beauty and the Beast” (1991), “Resevoir Dogs” (1992), “Toy Story” (1995), “The Lord of the Rings: the Two Towers” (2002) etc. Burtt’s theory on who’s voice originally performed the scream? After some research he’s come to believe it was performed by Sheb Wooley best known for his song “The Purple People Eater.”

Some of Ben Burtt’s sound effects formulas for “Star Wars” include…

Chewbacca’s voice was a combination of bear, walrus and other animal sounds.
TIE Fighters were the sound of an elephant howling slowed down and stretched out digitally.
The laser blasts were created by “tapping” various radio tower guide wires with a hammer combined with bazooka sounds.
The doors on the spaceships were created from the sound of air doors on the Philadelphia subway.
The Jawa language was created by having ILM employees speaking words from various African dialects and then altering them digitally.
The Lightsaber “hum” was created by combining the sound of an old movie projector with the hum of the picture tube in Ben Burtt’s television set.
Luke’s Landspeeder was the sound of the Los Angeles freeway traffic recorded through a vacuum cleaner tube.
The Star Destroyers used the slowed down sound of the Goodyear blimp as part of their sound.
Darth Vader’s breathing was created by placing a microphone inside the regulator of a scuba mask and breathing into it.

Ben Burtt’s work earned him an Academy Award.