Behind The Sonic Magic At Skywalker Sound For May 4th + 11 Hand-Picked Stories On The Superb Sound Of Star Wars:

Posted May 4, 2022 by Asbjoern Andersen in Film sound, Sound community highlights

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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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E99Et5mzxv0

Much more on the superb sound of Star Wars
– hand-picked stories and interviews:

Quick navigation:

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

The Sound Of The Mandalorian – with Bonnie Wild:

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:

The Sound Of The Mandalorian | Dolby Institute Podcast

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Rare footage: Behind the sound of Empire Strikes Back here:

The Empire Strikes Back: Behind the Scenes - SOUNDS OF EMPIRE (Rare Footage 1979)

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How The Mandalorian Score Found The New Star Wars Sound:

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

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Behind the sound for Return of the Jedi – with Ben Burtt:

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

Star Wars: Return of the Jedi sound design explained by Ben Burtt

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Twenty Thousand Hertz special – the sound of Star Wars:

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:

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ABC’s fantastic Force of Sound documentary:

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

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

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Audio interviews:

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.

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)

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Ben Burtt, on the sound of Star Wars:

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:

Star Wars: A New Hope sound design explained by Ben Burtt

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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

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Go behind the sound of Rogue One here:

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

Sound Design for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

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Hear the Rise of Skywalker score here:

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

John Williams on Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Score

Hear the full score below, via Spotify:

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Behind the Audio of the Heroes of Star Wars Battlefront II:

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:

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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

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Foley Sound Effects Trunks Chests And Crates Play Track 154+ sounds included $54

Variations

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Not all boxes creak the same do they?

Looking for the different objects for this project made me realize that finding trunks and chests that have a nice sound to them, can be quite tricky. Some of the more then 200 years old traveling trunks recorded for this library did not have a very interesting sound to them, and some did not make a creak or very powerful open/closing sound. Fortunately I was lucky to find a bit of both.

I came across a local museum which had all sorts of categorized relics stored in chests and coffins, and was invited to go there record for a day. Many of the sounds included are the ones recorded her, where you literally could smell how much time has passed by.

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Storage rooms and basements

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We need more dirt debris

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Car Sound Effects Porsche 996 GT3 Play Track 5 sounds included $60

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