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May 4, 2022

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Discover the sounds of distant galaxies on your Mac

Skywalker Sound artists share their creative process, the origin of R2-D2’s voice, and their journey to build a vast sound library.

With a population of 1,000 in the rugged terrain of Nicasio, California, visitors to this isolated corner of Marin County are surrounded by a spirit of endless possibilities. Miles of hidden cables and gadgets are everywhere at your feet.

This is the location of Skywalker Ranch, a vast facility owned and devised by the creator of the magnificent Star Wars universe, George Lucas. At the heart of the ranch is Skywalker Sound, a world-class sound design, editing, mixing and audio post-production facility. Surrounded by vineyards and man-made Lake Ewok, the 153,000-square-foot red brick building stands as a monument to the often-repeated maxim by Lucas, whose sound is at least 50 percent of the movie-watching experience.

The sound library system Soundminer continues to expand Skywalker Sound’s library of nearly one million sounds, with its uniqueness enabling near-poetic descriptive keyword searches.

Skywalker runs approximately 130 Mac Pro racks, 50 iMacs, 50 MacBook Pros, and 50 Mac mini computers as its main audio application, with iPads, iPhones, and Apple TV devices. Increase the artistry of sound and rebuild the industry.

“I started with the Macintosh SE a long time ago,” says Ben Burtt, the legendary sound designer for the original “Star Wars” movie, prequel, and “Indiana Jones” franchise. “A word processor was a big leap for me as a writer.”

“In a sense, audio editing is really the same as a word processor. Cut and paste files,” Burtt continues. “Everything I experienced on a Mac immediately trained me on what happened with the digital sound cut. I started cutting with a Mac with Final Cut in the late 90’s. I currently own four Mac computers, each of which handles a different process. One is image editing, audio editing, manuscript creation, I’m completely surrounded. Alpha, Beta, Gamma, It’s labeled Delta. “

Talking to Skywalker Sound artists quickly reveals that they all have a personal library of important recordings. “Emotional sounds are what we always want,” says sound editor and sound designer Al Nelson.

For sound designers, even outdated equipment creates opportunities. “I love happy accidents and I love breaking technology and getting unexpected results,” says Nelson. “I love playing on digital systems with the wrong clock. That means the way the bits flow. It’s broken, it sounds like a bad radio. I have a really old PowerBook. And it has certain old software that I want to use. You can feed the recording there and break it digitally. “

No one knows when inspiration will occur. A contractor who knew Bert was always looking for a distinctive sound that was once called, saying he heard a strange broken ceiling fan in the apartment he was servicing. Bart’s recording of the wobbling blade later turned into the ominous sound of a laser gate that momentarily splits Qui-Gon Jinn and Darth Maul during the climax lightsaber duel of “Star Wars Episode 1-Phantom Menace.” I did.

Sources sometimes materialize from thin air. “I had people write me a letter on the internet,” My aunt has a really weird cough, do you want to record it for creatures, “Bart says. .. (Nelson calls these ingredients “creature sweeteners.”)

When collecting field recordings in nature, overseeing sound editor Baihui Yang emphasizes the convenience of having a MacBook Pro in the field. “You can bring a Pro Tools session to the field, monitor it, record it, and quickly put it together to test whether it works,” she says. “When I put all my recordings back in the studio, I don’t know if I missed that moment.” Applications like Keyboard Maestro, like matchbox software, are an integral part of her process.

Nelson has a background in classical guitars and other musical instruments, and often pursues musicality not only in the mixing room but also in the outside world. “We are all musicians. We are literally musicians and sound musicians,” he says. “Everything is a very timbral or orchestration approach. You can’t just throw noise on the screen. You have to clearly express and select flavors in the same way you orchestrate symphonic things. . ”

The sounds we associate with Apple (Mac’s iconic F-sharp startup chime, outbound email swoosh) share essential basic characteristics with many of Star Wars’ most famous sounds. , That is one of the activations. Consider how often idle droids explode with warnings and bleeps. Or, the lightsaber’s elegant, dormant handle suddenly shines. Or, a ship will fly around in space, move around, and plunge into the speed of light.

“What I learned from Star Wars is that Ben used all the natural sounds to create science fiction,” said Gary Rydstrom, a seven-time Oscar-winning sound designer who began working at Lucasfilm in 1983. say. I was inspired by manipulating something I had never heard before, based on a grainy, realistic sound. “

An important difference in Bert’s work is the performance factor. “Performance is especially useful for fantasy sounds, such as alien voices, creatures, weapons, and some weird things,” says Burtt. Early in finding R2-D2’s voice, which set the standard for how sound design affects character growth, Bart felt pressured to learn that droids share the scene with Alec Guinness. rice field.

“When I sat down and started experimenting with the R2 in the first movie, I suddenly realized I was interacting,” Bart explains. “Timing is very important. When I realized something was working, the image editor went back to the movie and started recutting many scenes and changed the timing slightly, just like any other dialogue. So I started to figure out the actual pace. ”Bert continued to refine the performance of the first part, serving as both a sound designer and an image editor.

As Skywalker Sound artists settle into the digital age of filmmaking, their advice to both aspiring and professional filmmakers is endless. “For young people who want to deal with sound in movies,’you need to listen to the world around you and create a sound effect collection,’” says Bart. “Getting and classifying recordings, because whenever you build a library of sounds, you make creative choices. Second, there are plenty of cheap applications that you can access right now on your iPad or MacBook. So you can actually do all sorts of cuts and sound mixing at home. I couldn’t do that. If I were a teenage filmmaker again, I would be surprised. I would have had a drone, I could make all sorts of recordings. During my formation, I couldn’t do anything like this. ”

Nelson proves that iPhone recordings are “fully usable” in a professional context.

“But you do that,” says Rydstrom. “Think about sound early on, as it’s one of your storytelling tools. Once you get started shooting and cutting, you claim it’s one of the more efficient storytelling tools.”

“It’s cheaper than visuals, and usually in a more emotionally powerful way, you can use sound to tell a lot of stories,” continues Rydstrom. “If you are interested in sound or filmmaking, you can record 4K or higher video on your iPhone. There is no excuse. What is part of our daily life is that you record sound and make a movie. It’s the same thing you need to do. That’s the real revolution. Ultimately, the whole process will be democratized. “

On Monday, May 9, 2022, fans can join sound designer Refrefers to share his favorite projects and how Skywalker Sound brings Apple Music’s Eddie Francis and iconic movie characters to life. .. Participants will watch Skywalker Ranch footage on Apple’s Behind the Mac film and learn how to create vocal effects for their characters from Apple Creative Pro using their voices, everyday objects, and GarageBand on the Mac. Sign up for this unique Today at Apple session. apple.co/skywalker-sound..

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