Behind the Sonic Magic at Skywalker Sound for May 4th + 11 Hand-Picked Stories on the Superb Sound of Star Wars:

In celebration of May 4th, check out this excellent feature on the sonic wizardry happening at Skywalker Sound + explore a number of hand-picked stories and interviews on the superb sound of Star Wars below. Happy Star Wars Day!

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Click below to jump straight to your desired Star Wars sound story:

The Sound Of The Mandalorian – with Bonnie Wild
How The Mandalorian Score Found The New Star Wars Sound
Behind the sound for Return of the Jedi – with Ben Burtt
Rare footage: Behind the sound of Empire Strikes Back
Twenty Thousand Hertz special – the sound of Star Wars
ABC’s fantastic Force of Sound documentary
The Rise of Skywalker audio interviews
Shaping the satisfying sound of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
Go behind the sound of Rogue One
John Williams on creating the score for Rise of Skywalker
Behind the Sonic Magic at Skywalker Sound
Behind the Audio of the Heroes of Star Wars Battlefront II
More great Star Wars reads

 
In this great interview by the Dolby Institute and the Soundworks Collection, Bonnie Wild – sound effects editor and re-recording mixer of Disney+’s hit show The Mandalorian – takes us behind the scenes for a conversation about achieving cinematic scale and production value on a television budget, balancing the palette of new sound creation with classic Star Wars sounds we all know and love, why mixing in a home theater environment was important for the show, and how to do a Jawa loop group session:

 

Get the story behind Ludwig Görransson’s score for The Mandalorian:

Check out Mike James Gallagher’s great feature on the sound of Return of the Jedi – with Ben Burtt:

In this episode from Audio Podcast Alliance member Twenty Thousand Hertz, the team explores how Ben Burtt created the sonic universe of Star Wars from scratch, one sound at a time – featuring Marshall McGee:

Go behind the sound of Star Wars in ABC’s fantastic documentary below:

 
In this Soundworks Collection interview, supervising sound editors Matthew Wood and David Acord delve into the conceptual and sonic intricacies of evolving “force lightning,” and about working in stages from temp mixes to the final mix in a film with a legacy. They share experiences working playfully and dynamically with director J.J. Abrams, recording lines in actor Adam Driver’s closet, and working on previous Star Wars films.

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Matthew Wood and David Acord, co-sound supervisors on Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, have been working on the sound of the SW films for nearly two decades. Join us for a wide-ranging conversation on the audio restorations of the original films, the voice of Baby Yoda from The Mandalorian, the importance of sound to George Lucas… and even the controversy about whether Han or Greedo shot first and the notorious “Maclunkey.”
 

(via @Soundworks)

Mike James Gallagher has released this brilliant educational video with commentary by legendary sound designer Ben Burtt, giving you the interesting stories behind the making of the Star Wars: A New Hope sound design:

Watch the video here:

Shaping the satisfying sound of ‘Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order’


How Respawn Entertainment’s sound team designed their first Star Wars game — Jedi: Fallen Order:
 
Read the story here

Get the story behind he sound for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story in this in-depth feature:

Here’s legendary composer John Williams on creating the score for Rise of Skywalker:

Hear the full score below, via Spotify:

EA Dice’s Philip Eriksson shows how the audio team at DICE unified the sound experiences from all eras of Star Wars into one soundscape for Star Wars Battlefront II:

More great Star Wars reads:
Hear how Star Wars Battlefront II’s stellar sound was made here • Go behind the excellent Star Wars Battlefront trailer sound design here