Star Wars occupied most of my childhood. The original film was released when I was 5 years old and, after seeing that, Luke Skywalker, tie fighters and Wookies consumed the majority of my brother, Stefan, and my waking hours… during our sleeping hours, we had The Empire Strikes Back sheets!
It is a movie with very well designed and unique sounds: R2D2 beeps and boops, lightsaber hums and the terrifyingly unmistakable scream of the tie fighter are just a few of the obvious ones. We used to imitate them as we played and Stefan and I can still identify key parts of the movies blindfolded by just hearing the sound effects or music.
With this history (or misspent youth) I was super pumped to have one of my favourite podcasts, Twenty Thousand Hertz, do an episode on the backstories of many of the key sounds from the Star Wars movies. They interview Ben Burtt, the sound designer who worked with George Lucas to define these iconic sounds and it was fascinating to hear where they came from. I have known some of this history from previous nerdy pursuits, but it was great to hear it from the guy who actually created them and get to hear, from a sound design perspective, how it was done, layer by layer.
If you love Star Wars too, this is a must-listen. If you don’t, you still may like the show, but, frankly, you have bigger problems. 😉
A lovingly crafted podcast that reveals the stories behind the world’s most recognizable and interesting sounds.
From electric guitars to samplers to drum machines and beyond, the music we love is only possible thanks to the technology used to create it. In many ways, the history of popular music is really a history of technological innovation. In this episode, we partnered with BandLab to unpack four inventions that changed music forever. Featuring author and journalist Greg Milner.
Watch our video shorts on Youtube, Instagram, and TikTok.
Follow us on Reddit, Twitter, and Facebook.
Sign up for Twenty Thousand Hertz+to get our entire catalog ad-free.
If you know what this week’s mystery sound is, tell us at mystery.20k.org
Visit bandlab.com/download to start creating and sharing music anytime, anywhere.
Buy Greg’s book Perfecting Sound Forever: An Aural History of Recorded Music.
Episode transcript, music, and credits can be found here: https://www.20k.org/episodes/tunetech
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
