Phaser Sound Secret: Stolen from a Classic Sci-Fi Film
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In the mid-1960s, when Gene Roddenberry was initially brainstorming the science fiction technology he wished to incorporate into his sci-fi series “Star Trek,” he was captivated by the concept of creating a sense of realism. Although “Star Trek” is filled with impossible fictional technologies such as faster-than-light travel, matter transporters, and food replicators, each of these imaginative devices has roots in reality, giving them the appearance of being potentially achievable in the future. Roddenberry envisioned his spacefaring characters using lasers as weapons, believing they would replace traditional projectile weapons like guns and would be non-lethal. However, upon examining the laser technology available during the 1960s, he discovered that much of what he had written for his sci-fi show had already been developed. Therefore,He renamed Starfleet’s weapons from lasers to phasers., believing that would sound more advanced.
Phasers have been a familiar part of “Star Trek” from the start, and the expression “set phasers on stun” has become part of general language, even beyond “Star Trek” fans. The sound that phasers produce — a long, high-pitched trilling — is strongly remembered by all Star Trek enthusiasts. It was utilized many times during the 1966 series.
The sound of the phaser was previously examined by sound designer, editor, and director Ben Burtt, who is perhaps most famous forhis audio contributions to the “Star Wars” filmsand the “Indiana Jones” series (but with numerous other credits as well). Burtt spoke withTrekMovieback in 2009, and with the most discerning hearing in the industry, he managed to recognize that the phaser sound effect was essentially a modified version of the Martian warship sound effects from Byron Haskin’s 1953 film “War of the Worlds.”
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The sound effect used for Star Trek’s phasers was the same as that of the Martian vessels in War of the Worlds.
When a Star Trek fan watches clips of “War of the Worlds,”The audio is extremely noticeable. It’s quite evident that the creators of “Star Trek” directly borrowed the Martian sound effect. Ben Burtt not only was aware that the phasers used the same sound effect, but he also understood how the effect was created. He explained it in this way:
In the original series, the consistent sound of the phaser was inspired by the hovering noise of the Martian war machines from the 1953 version of Paramount’s ‘.War of the Worlds. The original was created using tape feedback from an electric guitar and a harp. You can obtain a very comparable sound on a Moog synthesizer by modulating a continuous sine wave with pink noise.
You’ve likely heard of a Moog synthesizer. The phrase “pink noise” is commonly used in the industry to describe the loud, hissing sound that could be heard from an old television without a signal. A sine wave, when related to sound design, refers to a consistent, unchanging sound. Sine waves can typically be seen on a standard oscilloscope, and they produce a sliding electrical hum, with their pitch dependent on the wave’s frequency. It appears that one can create a phaser effect—or more specifically, a Martian war machine sound—using an old synthesizer capable of producing a steady electric hum, modified by the “fuzz” of pink noise. It’s all quite straightforward—especially for someone like Ben Burtt, who likely has these items readily available at home.
Burtt worked on the sound for the 2009 revival of “Star Trek,” as well asits follow-up, “Star Trek Into Darkness.”
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Read the original article on SlashFilm.
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