Diving Deeper into Andor S2’s Superb Sound: Building Sonic Intensity for Ep. 208 – with David Acord and Margit Pfeiffer

The most emotionally devastating episode of Andor Season 2 (now streaming on Disney+) is without a doubt Ep. 208 “Who Are You?” After the Imperial forces massacre Ghorman protestors, Dreena sends out an emergency transmission on all open channels telling anyone listening about the Empire’s siege of the planet and the murder of innocent citizens. She warns that the conspiracy is real and begs for help.

It’s no wonder Ep. 208 was chosen for Emmy consideration for both Sound Editing and Sound Mixing. Emmy and MPSE Award-winning Re-Recording Mixer/Sound Designer/Supervising Sound Editor David Acord and MPSE Award-winning Dialogue & ADR Supervisor/Supervising Sound Editor Margit Pfeiffer at Skywalker Sound created a compelling Ghorman protest that goes from chanting and singing to full out panic as the Imperial assault begins. The ensuing massacre is intense, with Stormtroopers and Imperial forces in a shootout with the Ghorman citizens. The scary KX security droids are deployed and wreak havoc on the mostly unarmed civilians.

Here, Acord and Pfeiffer break down their sound work scene by scene, discuss their approach to recording loop group remotely and then building believable crowds, designing new weapon sounds, mixing the conflict from different perspectives, and much more!

Andor | Season 2 Trailer | Streaming on Disney+

After completing Andor Season 1, you’re familiar with showrunner Tony Gilroy’s style — his likes and dislikes. How did that experience impact your approach to sound on Season 2? What were you able to change about your approach to sound on the show for this new season?

David Acord – Sound Supervisor/Sound Designer/Re-Recording Mixer

David Acord (DA): I’m not sure if I’ve changed my approach. If I look at the way Season 1 started and the way Season 2 started, I guess it took a minute going into Season 1 to get the aesthetic of the show and to get into the groove of it because it’s such a different show compared to a lot of the other Star Wars projects. Getting into that headspace took a bit, but by Season 2, you’re already there. You get it from the start, which gives you a bit of a leg up when you’re mixing or cutting, to know what to focus on and what not to focus on — at least from an effects standpoint, and probably from a dialogue standpoint too.

Margit Pfeiffer (MP): It’s very similar. There’s the familiarity of knowing what the filmmakers are looking for creatively, what attention to detail is desired, as well as the workflow and key people involved. The main differences in Season 2 were the varied environments and locations within the Star Wars universe, as well as the entirely new fictional language called Ghor.

Let’s look at Ep. 208, “Who Are You?” — the episode opens with a system warning alert over the city capital. Cassian prepares his weapons, and he hears the Imperial forces assembling outside. You hear orders being shouted and barricades being set up. Can you talk about your sound work for this scene?

DA: The whole episode up to the other side of the courtyard fight is one long crescendo. That alarm starting at the beginning is like the metronome setting the tone here. We’re kicking off this conflict, and the drumbeat starts when Cassian looks out the window and sees them setting up the barricades. And it just escalates a little bit at a time throughout the episode and peaks around the fight between Cassian and Cyril – that’s around the peak of the episode from a sound standpoint.

The idea was that the beginning would be very quiet. It’s a quiet morning in the city. You hear a subtle alarm in the background, and that voice saying whatever it’s saying. This lulls you into the beginning of the episode.

Margit Pfeiffer – Dialogue & ADR Supervisor/Supervising Sound Editor

MP: The PA alert marks the end of the overnight curfew. Soldiers are setting up barricades at the entrances of Palmo Plaza. There is a light backdrop of Ghor language chatter. Carro Rylanz is the first to sense that this could be a setup, a trap.

We start our sonically dramatic arc with the protestors chanting as they enter the plaza from all directions. The tension is building and slowly escalating into a violent confrontation with the Imperials. Angry callouts are followed by sheer panic when the Ghor people discover that they are now trapped. The Ghor anthem starts, and KX units arrive to join the brutal fight. Death grunts mix in this tapestry of sound with weapons, impacts, and explosions, climaxing in the panic screams of people being slaughtered in the massacre. Dreena issues a desperate emergency radio call. Dave weaved all these elements carefully around the haunting music. The final blow is the deadly fight between Cassian and Syril.

Let’s talk about the protests in the capital square. You hear the protestors for much of this episode, chanting “We are the Ghor. The galaxy is watching.” They sing the planetary anthem. That plays underneath so much of this episode, even under conversations like Carro Rylanz confronting Syril. You even hear it from inside buildings. Can you talk about recording the loop group sessions for that? Was there chanting from production to layer that with? How did you get clarity, but also make it feel like tons of people are chanting?

MP: It was a multi-layered process. We started with the production tracks as beds to build out from. Our wonderful production sound mixer, Danny Hambrook, recorded tracks with multiple microphones covering the crowds on set chanting, plus close-ups of most actors singing.

Our wonderful production sound mixer, Danny Hambrook, recorded tracks with multiple microphones covering the crowds on set chanting

Then we filled in the rest with loop group to create the detail and varying energy from cut to cut. Matt Wood was part of and recorded the wonderful Loop Troup from Skywalker Sound. Tony Gilroy wrote all the specific callouts and chants, which were then translated into the Ghor language by its creator Marina Tyndall, who already served as Diego Luna’s dialect coach on Rogue One.

First, we rehearsed the many Ghor lines with accents resembling French phonetics. Instead of recording everyone together in a studio as usual, I was connected via Zoom from London, Matt was at Skywalker Sound, and the voice actors were in their own home studios all over California. This way I had everyone on a separate track and was able to select and place each line according to Tony’s detailed instructions using the most authentic-sounding accents.

Instead of recording everyone together in a studio as usual, I was connected via Zoom from London, Matt was at Skywalker Sound, and the voice actors were in their own home studios all over California.

It’s very difficult to perform, chant, and even sing in a fictional language, and then do so individually in a vacuum alone. The result was impressive, though. I synced, layered, and doubled the chants, giving each location of the plaza a different feel, even matched the lip movement of extras in close-up shots to give them a voice, too. In the end, we have great detail and emotional energy as well as variety in this very long scene made up of mostly human sounds.

DA: Mixing the protest crowds was tricky. You want to give a sense of different spaces. Even though it’s all in the same general area, the crowds are not all in the same space. The crowd sound could be slightly different, have a bit of a different reflection, a little different perspective depending on where we find ourselves when the camera cuts to different spots.

The density of the crowd changes, and the reflections or slap off the building changes. In some places, you hear those protest horns, and in some places, you don’t. There’s music in those places. There’s occasional dialogue in places, so I’m carving out space for those moments as well. The build-up to the battle was probably trickier to mix than the battle itself.

Tony was very keen on having the dialogue get a bit crowded, so to speak, with the elements around them.

To make space for the conversations, I panned the protest crowds to the sides to carve out the middle for the dialogue, with slight dips here and there. I didn’t do too much with EQ to subdue the crowd. Tony was very keen on having the dialogue get a bit crowded, so to speak, with the elements around them. So it was okay that you had to lean in a bit to understand the dialogue in some of those moments. The idea is to put you in the space of the character. Maybe Cassian can’t always hear what Wilmon is saying over the comms because of the crowd, and vice versa. The idea is to let the audience feel that same sense of tense frustration.

You probably have a huge library of Star Wars weapons sounds by now! What went into the sound of the Ghor/rebel weapons? Of course, the Stormtrooper blasters have that sound. Did you make anything new for this season of Andor?

DA: Of course! That’s the fun part. There are some new weapons in there. We tried to make a Ghor-specific weapon. The Stormtrooper rifles are the same sounds we used for Season 1. Cassian’s gun has its own sound. The sniper rifle is its own thing.

The main thing for the Ghor weapons was to have a bit of variety in their sound because they’re this ragtag, guerrilla group

There’s a multiplicity of Ghor weapons. They’re not all the same gun. The main thing for the Ghor weapons was to have a bit of variety in their sound because they’re this ragtag, guerrilla group that doesn’t have the same uniformity that the Imperials have with their weapons.

We’re trying to make weapons sounds that are a bit different, but that gets harder because you don’t want to go weird with it, which you can. That opens up a whole new world of sounds you can do, but that’s not this show. We’re not doing that. So, making a grounded sounding weapon like we do for Anodor that has variety gets a little tricky after a while. But that’s the fun part for me, making the sounds.

What went into the sniper rifle sound?

DA: There’s usually a practical gun sound, an energy/synthetic-type sound, and maybe a bit of a mechanical element. The practical sound was a Barrett .50 caliber sniper rifle.

The practical sound was a Barrett .50 caliber sniper rifle.

For the energy element, I can’t remember exactly what I used, but sometimes I’ll use a synth sound, sometimes a more practical method like the Ben Burtt technique of banging guy wires. There are many ways you can achieve a sound that has an energy element to it, and then you twist it a little bit in Pro Tools. But the main thing is to have that punch that we want to use for the guns in our show.
 

The riot police edge closer to the protestors, walking through the barricades and pushing the protestors back. Bottles are thrown. Things are getting tense. How did you use sound to escalate the tension here?

DA: It’s funny, when you do these battle scenes, no matter what the project is, nothing sells a battle to me like the human element of it.

nothing sells a battle to me like the human element of it […] what raises the level is what Margit is doing on her side of the board, which is all the dialogue of the loop group

Once you have the voices in there, whether it’s efforts or cries or screams or commands or whatever they’re yelling, that’s what brings it to life. All the laser fire and the ricochets and explosions, that’s all fun stuff, and of course it sells the danger, but I think what raises the level is what Margit is doing on her side of the board, which is all the dialogue of the loop group.

in the backdrop, the panic is rising, marked by scared callouts, pained screams, and terrified yells

MP: It’s the energy of the crowd, their efforts, the panic in their voices; you change and escalate with that. I try to punch the cuts back and forth between the Imperials and the Ghor people. You have anger on one side and moments of despair on the other. You hear the hard punches, death grunts, weapons, and impacts. And in the backdrop, the panic is rising, marked by scared callouts, pained screams, and terrified yells. As a human being, you respond to that. You feel the terror of what is happening on screen, the finality of it all.

Turning the emotional tide of the crowd, from singing to panic, what’s your approach to that? Was that something you recorded with your loop group? Was that something Danny recorded on set with the actors?

MP: Turning the tide from singing into panic was mostly done editorially. To get the timing of it all right, first, it’s loud chants followed by a single person starting off the Ghor anthem with more and more people joining in. Then, there are cut-aways to other sections of the plaza, to the dialogue guiding us along in the storyline, and eventually, the panicked screams.

We record vignettes of various voices and densities that are required for whatever the desired energy is

We use production as much as we can and then top off with the loop group. We record vignettes of various voices and densities that are required for whatever the desired energy is. That could be singing, whispers, callouts, screams, even breaths or efforts. Each creates a different form of intimacy with what we see on screen and provides ins and outs in terms of energy. Production tracks alone do not allow for that level of control.

Learn more about the sound of Andor Season 2:

Check out this in this in-depth interview with David Acord and Margit Pfeiffer by Audio Podcast Alliance member The Dolby Institute – here’s their official introduction:

Supervising Sound Editor, Re-recording Mixer, and Sound Designer Mixer David Acord and Supervising Sound Editor and Dialogue & ADR Supervisor Margit Pfeiffer join us to discuss the powerful, visceral sound of the final season of “Andor.” As one of the darkest and most grounded series in the Star Wars galaxy, “Andor” features a deeply cinematic soundscape — ranging from brutal hand-to-hand combat to haunting silence, immersive crowd scenes, and intentionally fuzzy radio transmissions. David and Margit break down their collaborative process, the evolution of the sonic language across the series, and how they used Dolby Atmos® to bring audiences even deeper into the world of espionage, rebellion, and sacrifice.

Watch the video below:

before ramping it up, you have to make some room in the dynamics by thinning it out

For example, the moment the anthem starts, it’s intimate and very emotional, a brief respite from the wall of sound generated by the chanting crowd. On the opposite side of the plaza, we have a very different intensity, as the Ghor people find out that they are trapped and being shot at by the Imperials. Both are big plot points, selling the impending doom. To keep it sonically interesting and to draw the audience in, it has to feel different. And before ramping it up, you have to make some room in the dynamics by thinning it out, thereby leading to a greater effect in what follows. It’s pretty much the same concept as in writing music.

When the battle begins, TIE fighters zoom overhead, there’s a sniper on the roof, shots are fired by the Stormtroopers and the rebels. What were some of the challenges of mixing this battle?

DA: Typically, when you mix, the main thing you want to hear is the dialogue and music. Then you have effects and foley bringing up the rear in terms of importance. We’re changing it up a bit, so there are moments when the effects take over the music. There are a lot of handoffs between music and effects happening throughout the battle. It gives you a sense of motion in a way.

The trickiest thing is managing the crowd sounds and the crowd chants around music, having those two things balance each other and not step on each other

The trickiest thing is managing the crowd sounds and the crowd chants around music, having those two things balance each other and not step on each other because they end up being in the same frequency range. You want to hear them both at the same time in some cases. I can lean into some of the lower ends of the music or the higher ends to carve around the crowd sounds. Of course, there’s a whole stretch of the battle where there’s no music and we can just have fun with the effects.

Syril and Cassian duke it out. What went into the sound for this scene?

DA: That’s maybe one of the most visceral, brutal fights I’ve ever seen on screen. These two guys want to kill each other.

Foley really helps to sell that and ground it. Tony wanted us to make sure the punches were not superhero punches

Foley really helps to sell that and ground it. Tony wanted us to make sure the punches were not superhero punches. They’re hard punches, but these are real guys throwing haymakers at each other. You feel that it’s a strong punch, but it’s a real punch.

Dreena does a broadcast on an open channel, letting anyone listening know what’s happening on Ghorman. I love the processing on her voice because it’s just enough to sell the broadcast sound, but you still feel all the emotion in her voice. What went into the processing on her voice?

DA: Yeah, it’s pretty minimal processing. It’s funny, when you do voice processing in editorial, you lean into it and have fun with it, and then when you get to the dub stage and you’re mixing, 9 out of 10 times, you back off about 80% of it. And it’s all in favor of clarity. Of course, you want to make sure you hear the words. The important thing is the words, not the processing.

after the first couple of lines, I was able to lean into the music a little bit to support the emotion

So, for Dreena, it’s a very minimal process. It’s just a light radio futz. You do the classic thing of having the unfutzed dialogue track and a futzed track, and you balance them and lean a bit more on the unfutzed track. The futzed track is just there for some color.

While it’s important to hear her, everything she’s saying isn’t a plot point, so after the first couple of lines, I was able to lean into the music a little bit to support the emotion. Again, it’s Tony’s idea of leaning into things a bit when it comes to dialogue.

It’s the hopelessness and the helplessness that we want to sell

MP: It’s the haunting quality of her voice that matters most; it’s Dreena’s performance. You don’t need to hang on every single word; you can see what is happening. But you want to feel the energy, the desperation, all the way to the end, where Cassian is listening in his spaceship, and he’s moved by her broadcast. It’s the hopelessness and the helplessness that we want to sell, the pain and the ultimate loss of the Ghor people.

What was the most challenging scene to mix in Ep. 208? Why?

DA: It’s probably when the KX droids come out, and then we’re at peak intensity at that point in terms of the chaos in the street, and then the score comes back in. Everything is at 11 at that point in terms of what you’re seeing on-screen. The challenge is finding those moments where we can poke out effects and not clobber the music at the same time.

The challenge is finding those moments where we can poke out effects and not clobber the music at the same time.

Another scene was that moment in the square when Syril has a realization of what he’s been a part of, that he’s created this mess. That’s a fun moment to have an ear break for the audience in a way, and to reveal what’s happening in that moment. It was a nice break before getting back into the chaos where it gets a little more complicated.

The Imperial KX security droids were also in Rogue One. Were there pre-existing sounds you could use for Andor? Did you create new ones?

DA: We actually used the pre-existing ones from Rogue One, and it was the same with Season 1. There was a KX droid that showed up in Ep. 7 of Season 1.

We used the sounds that Chris Scarabosio made for ‘Rogue One’

We used the sounds that Chris Scarabosio made for Rogue One for the KX droid, with the same voice process and the same actor, too.

It was fun to show those droids in a more menacing, terrifying way, with their full capability and what they’re meant for. To see that in this episode was pretty cool.

On the dialogue side, what was your biggest challenge on this episode?

MP: The biggest challenge was to keep the chant interesting, especially something that is repetitive in nature and runs for almost 10 minutes within that sequence. This chant had to be built of different elements doing the same thing but sounding slightly different.

If we need to fill in empty spots where the energy drops or a transition is needed, I often use loop group.

For example, the production recording runs throughout; if we are with the crowd near or far, we want to hear it in the space that matches the picture. Mostly that is accomplished with changing the combination of microphones, reverb, and EQ. Close-ups focus on a single person, so we want to hear this voice above all the others. If we need to fill in empty spots where the energy drops or a transition is needed, I often use loop group. It’s the same for extras in the background that we want to feel more than actually hear.

At the same time, the goal is to not clutter the track — less if usually more — and that means deciding where the dialogue, sound effects, or music should lead. It’s important to make choices and leave room for every element to shine in the mix. Weaving from one to the other keeps your ears interested. Cutting per se, I do mostly for energy when it comes to crowds. In the end, whatever you hear has to serve a purpose and serve the story.

What did you learn while working on Season 2? What’s stuck with you from your experience of creating and mixing sound for this season?

MP: The best stories and experiences start with a brilliant script. There is no fixing it in post when the pages read flat and then ‘surprisingly’ the final product is lacking. For me, it is a joy to work with writer-directors such as Tony and Dan Gilroy. Every word matters, every storyline is well thought out, and nothing is left to chance. It’s the same as we do in sound. Every syllable matters, every performance has been turned inside out, examined, and arranged to tell the story best. It’s the attention to detail and creative freedom that stands out when working on Andor. It’s rare, and seldom happens. Every single person in every department went above and beyond and helped create something exceptional. This one will be hard to beat. We are all really proud of the final result and the people we shared the journey with.

working with a fictional language and shooting loop group in a conlang was a first of sorts, since Ghor is prominently featured, instead of just a backdrop

Also, working with a fictional language and shooting loop group in a conlang was a first of sorts, since Ghor is prominently featured, instead of just a backdrop. To dive into that level of detail from dialogue all the way to loop group, and have the opportunity to build it out over five episodes was unusual and great fun!

The inception of the Ghor language already happened during Season 1, when Tony and Marina Tyndall created it based on French phonetics, meaning the sound, melody, and cadence of French. Tony cast French actors to play the Ghormans, and they could basically read the fictional lines, yet where all words had meaning and followed grammatical structure, off a page. They could even improvise in it! But mostly, obviously, they stuck to the script.

Singing in a fictional language is really not that easy to do, but our world-class cast of voice actors was totally into it

For the ADR sessions, we had a vocal coach along to make sure the pronunciation was correct and as intended. As training material for our ADR and loop group sessions, I got the written text plus sound samples, with which we practiced and rehearsed. Singing in a fictional language is really not that easy to do, but our world-class cast of voice actors was totally into it, and we had great fun. The result speaks for itself. I’m really grateful to have had this opportunity!

DA: The show has a very long schedule. A lot of episodic shows have a very compact schedule with more people on and more stages rolling. You end up learning each other’s shorthand throughout the first season.

The thing you learn in the second season is the value of familiarity with the people around you.

The thing you learn in the second season is the value of familiarity with the people around you. You can predict what people want, or what they need, or what they’re going to say. You have that rhythm with each other. That was evident in Season 2, the value of having that familiarity with such a good crew and with John Gilroy, our picture editor. That just made everything so much smoother and cleaner and neater and just more fun, really.

MP: And full credit to you, Dave, because you did such an excellent job with the mixes, from the premixes at Skywalker Sound, to all of us sitting on the final stage in London. You addressed the tastes and priorities of Tony, Sanne, and John from the start, so the final mix was about as smooth as it ever could have gone. And you were the only mixer; while sometimes two or three mixers handle either the dialogue, effects, or music, you did it all at once and perfectly, even with our tight deadlines. Best I have ever seen!

DA: Well, the material was well-prepared, and that’s 90% of it right there. So, I appreciate you guys, too. Thank you.

Did it help to be involved with so many aspects, from sound supervision and sound design to the mix? While you were doing sound editorial, were you thinking about the mix?

DA: That helped on the sound effects side, for sure. You already know what’s going to play and what isn’t going to play, and you know when you don’t need effects for this or backgrounds there. We can focus our energies elsewhere in the episode. We can guide our effects editors to focus on what I think is going to play and what’s going to be important. Sometimes I’m not right, but usually I’m right.

there was no trial and error to see what fits on the mix stage. We had solved all the problems upfront

MP: That applies for the dialogue, ADR, and loop group, too. On this long schedule with a small crew, the advantage was that we added things to the AAF early on and all along, over the course of months. Takes, edits, and processing were pre-approved, or Tony and John swapped or even rewrote lines for better context or performances. So there was no trial and error to see what fits on the mix stage. We had solved all the problems upfront, which made for a very efficient and great-sounding mix.

A big thanks to David Acord and Margit Pfeiffer for giving us a behind-the-scenes look at the sound of Andor Season 2 and to Jennifer Walden for the interview!

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