I was wondering, has anybody ever found the creator(s) of the actual sound effects of the proton packs? What was their source, what influenced them, why did they go with the audio designs that they did? Were the sounds a happy accident? I’ve always thought that it was interesting to learn about the sources of famous sounds.
Much like Ben Burtt, famous for all his Lucasfilm work. Many of his famous sounds have mundane sources. Darth Vader’s breathing? A broken SCUBA respirator. The lightsaber hum? An electric field passing by a microphone. R2-D2? His own voice and a synthesizer. Anyways, you get the idea… Just wondered.
Actually, I’ve never heard of that. I have, however, always been interested in all things special effects, ranging from foley artists, to sound designers/engineers. Things like the sound the boulder makes in Raiders of the Lost Ark was the sound of a cinder block being dragged on the ground combined with a car rolling downhill on a gravel road. or the fact that many punch sounds are made from bats hitting wet leather or heads of cabbage. The more mundane the more interesting. The proton packs just happen to be ridiculously unique and really cool sounding.
I don’t know anything about the pack sounds. But some of the Slimer roars were found in a sound effects library entitled “Mad Ape” in a thread by FullTorsoApparition last February.
Did you ever attend the Magic of Myth exhibition of Star Wars costumes/props? On the audio tour, Ben Burtt talked about the creation of many sound effects that I’d never heard him explain before:
TIE Fighter howls were a baby elephant mixed with the sound of car tires kicking up water on wet pavement.
Emperor’s lightning bolts were a penny touched to dry ice and the sparks from the original lab equipment from Frankenstein.
An abridged version of the audio tour was once downloadable from Hyperspace on StarWars.com. It’s probably stil floating around on the internet somewhere.
I have a feeling the startup/hum could’ve been put together from electric (or turbo jet) motors starting. There’s a 30KW motor on youtube that sounds pretty similar. Also, some sine waves at around 5-7KHz thrown in are possible as well.
