TALKIN' SOUND!...Armchair Analysis Of Popular TV And Motion Picture Effects!

What follows is some correspondence with a fellow Sound Effects Aficionado. I thought I would publish some of the content to show that we can be just as enthusiastic but but not goofy about the the subject.

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Bill, I love your past stories beyond the sound effects and I do think you are excellent at combining sound effects and blending them together and adding embellishment to an effect as you have done before too with previous tracks. I'm curious as to how the wind effects have been done: real wind recorded or artificially produced on a synthesizer? And all of those laser beam effects: how they basically made? And the Star Trek materialization and warp drive: I'm curious as to the origin of those sounds too. I look forward to hearing from you,
Sincerely, Bill

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Up front, let me say that some of my analysis of these effects may be what you could call educated speculation and some is based in fact. Since STAR TREK -THE ORIGINAL SERIES (TOS) was produced in the mid 1960's, everything was analog. This is not to say that there were no electronic sounds, but "synthesis" or "synthesized sound" is more synonymous with contemporary computer generated audio. As an example of the former, the music score and futuristic sound effects designed for the 1956 classic science fiction film "The Forbidden Planet were authored by Louis and Bebe Barron, using funky 1950's vintage vacuum tube driven "cybernetic" circuits. You can get the entire soundtrack through GNP Crescendo Records.

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Curiously, a lot of TOS effects were sounds recorded from shortwave radio receivers. The hand held communicator static is obvious but one sound, that of the ATAVACRON, was unique. The ATAVACRON effect was actually a real life digital signal that was part of a five minute transmission generated by WWV, a National Bureau of Standards (now the National Institute of Science and Technology) time and frequency station situated in Boulder Colorado. There was and still is a sister station at Kokole Point, Kauai Hawaii WWVH and both transmit on the following frequencies: 2500, 5000, 10000 and 15000 KHz.

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The WARP DRIVE for the USS ENTERPRISE sounds quite similar to an accelerating subway train rolling on rubber tires! When I was a kid, we all went to EXPO 67, a big time World's Fair held at Montreal. The transmit system consisted of shiny new and very clean subway cars which moved on rubber tires rather than rail trucks. The sound made by the trains as they moved out of the station was remarkably different from the New York City trains but sounded exactly like the ENTERPRISE taking off at WARP speed.

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As far as the winds are concerned, the recordings you sent appear to be mix of real wind, wind chimes and possibly some man-made wind effects. In the heyday of network radio programs in the 1930's and 1940's, sound effects men and possibly some sound effects women invented various Rube Goldberg contraptions to make wind noises.

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The PHOTON TORPEDO can be traced back to at least 1953 where the effect was heard in George Pal's "WAR OF THE WORLDS". In this movie, the sound is referred to as a SKELETON BEAM". The SKELETON BEAM then became the PHOTON TORPEDO in TOS. This same sound is heard in STAR TREK - THE ANIMATED SERIES, although when used, it was played approximately 1 1/2 times faster then the original speed. STAR TREK - THE NEXT GENERATION also used the effect but variously mixed it with other sounds. In one episode, editors ran the sound at half speed. The late Sam Horta did do some editing on STAR TREK so the movement of various TREK noises to FILMATION and HANNA-BARBERA is no surprise.

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The PHOTON TORPEDO is similar to the LASERS heard in STAR WARS. Sound designer Ben Burtt is quoted as saying that he made his sounds by whacking a radio broadcast tower guy wire with a hammer. The PHOTON TORPEDO sounds very similar albeit heavily amped up.

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The ENTERPRISE PHASERS are an end product of something referred to as REVERBERATION FEEDBACK. What the source audio was is anybody's guess but here's how this works: Since audio was recorded on either magnetic tape or 35mm magnetic film and since both devices had a separate record heard and a separate playback head, one could patch the playback audio into the record head either directly through a cable or through a mixing console. As sound is recorded at the record head, the playback head plays the result which is then fed back to the record head. Depending on how the editor sets each level, the effect could a simple echo...OR...it could go into infinite feedback. After a few seconds, the definition or signature of the original audio is totally lost and then begins to sound like a WAWAWAWA. The recurring or pulsing interval is a product of tape speed against the physical space between the heads. It appears TOS editors played their feedback LASERS at various speeds to depict weapons of various size.

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There were several other effects where this technique was employed. Any sound with a ringing decay is most likely a feedback product. Similar feedback effects can be heard in EARTH VS THE FLYING SAUCERS. The mind control machine, the foo lights and the ray guns were all feedback generated sounds.

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With regard to the TRANSPORTER materialization, I do not know. It would appear to be a tonality perhaps generated by some musical instrument such as an organ. There is some echo but I couldn't tell you otherwise. According to the website FILMSOUNDS the transporter materialization was done with a piano wire stretched across a physical beam. Since this document will be posted on my blog as well, maybe some knowledgeable audio aficionado will have a more concise answer. Likewise, some of the TOS bridge noises have been around since the late 1950's but their source remains a mystery to me.

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So that's it for the moment. More later!
Bill.
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Hi Bill,
OK, let's take a look at your recent correspondence and see what I can answer and what I can speculate on.

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With regard to the ATOM SMASHER clip that I sent, the Universal Frankenstein Laboratory effect you speak of is the sound of a really big Van DeGraff electrostatic generator! This sound was sourced form the Universal Sound Effects Library. A number of years ago, I visited a science museum in nearby Boston, Massachusetts where such a device was not only on display but was run as part of the visitors tour through the museum. The generator consisted of two vertical cylindrical metal shafts. At the top of each shaft was a huge metal sphere. Inside each shaft are moving components which move very quickly and produce enormous voltages of electrostatic energy.

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Electrical sparks in excess of 5 to 10 feet rise off the spheres and make contact with nearby grounded metal elements. The sight and sound is quite spectacular! Other Frankenstein laboratory machines included Jacob's Ladders. Jacob's Ladders consist of a hefty transformer with two vertical rods attached. When the juice is applied, a nasty spark rises up between the two elements. When the spark disappears, there is a loud pop or snap. One of the stock electric shock effects heard on Hanna Barbera cartoons is just such a device.

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Editors at HB got a lot of mileage out of the Jacob's Ladder by speeding the recording up and mixing them with many other of their remarkable science fiction sounds. In one of the Jonny Quest episodes, a scientist is seen playing a videotape of a missile launch. As the video finishes, a raspy electrical sound is heard, which is the same Jacob's Ladder with the sparks or snaps edited out.

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In the SPACE BATTLE sequence, the far away sounding sonic vibration sounds were taken from the Hanna Barbera Sound FX Libary but to add something more interesting to the track, I rotated the perspective or listener's point of view through a 360 degree spin. This effect has been around since at least the very early 1960's. It was used on occasion in the animated series SPACE ANGEL in various ways. This recording was generated using a device known as an audio generator or variable frequency oscillator, a VFO, with the output passed through an echo chamber. When I was a kid, I had an Eldon audio generator. It produced sine wave or square wave audio from 20 Hz (cycles per second) through 200 KHz. Anything above 20 KHz is only readable by dogs. The VFO had a tunable dial which could be swept up or down in frequency and sounded weird enough without an echo.

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With the WAR OF THE WORLDS, the reversed electric guitar effect applies not to the heat ray or skeleton beams but to the effects heard just before the heat ray fires. That sound, along other WOTW effects, is also included on Disc 3 of the Hanna Barbera Sound FX Library. How they made the ACK ACK ACK heat ray, I couldn't tell you. I have listened to this this at much lower speeds/sampling rates) but couldn't really come up with a good answer.

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I have a three disc DVD set of 1950's science fiction films which includes EARTH VS THE FLYING SAUCERS. It was stated in the commentary that much of the film was done on location in some sort of filtration plant. The equipment inside this facility was the source of the roaring saucer sound. The playback speed was jockeyed from slow to very fast to match the saucers lifting off and landing. My initial guess for the flying saucers was that of a vehicle driving over a bridge. There are a few bridges in this area that when you cross the span at high speed, the resultant audio is very similar to the sound of those stop-motion animated saucers.

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The SPONGE BOB effect, I couldn't tell you. Initially, it was hard to hear because I was listening via laptop with tiny speakers. When I put it on bigger speakers, it was readable but still I couldn't hazard a guess. As far as the generator sound is concerned, I believe it to be just that, a generator. The Hanna Barbera version was altered by wowing it up from slow to a playback speed slightly higher in pitch than the original recording. On occasion the effect was equalized or muffled to make the generator more background. Anytime Jonny Quest and company used an electric boat in the story, the generator noise was used but it was quite muffled and run at low gain.

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With the USS Enterprise warp drive, I believe the sound used was that of a rubber tire driven light rail or subway. The listener's perspective appears tobe from within the rail car.

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There were two versions of the magic effect heard in BELL BOOK AND CANDLE and also heavily used in MISTER MAGOO'S 1001 ARABIAN NIGHTS. Both composites used the same initial musical chord which I believe to be an organ. The note is sustained for about four seconds and than ascends in pitch. The following effect is a chord struck on a piano. The piano element is run at twice normal speed. In the first version, the third element is a chime which is warped downward in pitch. The organ is edited end to end against the piano element, while the warped chime is mixed with and overlays the piano chord.

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The second version of the BELL BOOK AND CANDLE effect uses the same organ note along with the edited in speed up but the piano chord is of a slightly higher pitch. This is quite apparent when listening closely that the piano chord is a distinctly different recording rather than a slightly sped copy of the first piano chord. How's that for excruciatingly painful and remarkably obscure detail? What follows appears to be three overlapping chimes or bells that go into reverberation feedback. This is the version that Hanna Barbera used for the Wonder Twins Power "Shape of a (fill in the blank)". To me, the first version sounds more magical while the second version is more spacey. In fact, the ringing tail was heavily used as various ray guns and other devices and played from half speed to 4X speed. The opening drone tone in the ATOM SMASHER I sent is the organ from these effects but I looped it.

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All the various Warner Bothers airplane and jet plane sounds I have here are recordings of real aircraft played at double speed. In the case of the classic World War II vintage dive bomber, the clip that runs in excess of forty seconds, there is some interesting background. This is the effect you hear in just about every WWII war flick and related television program. Although identified as a "dive bomber" in the Hanna Barbera package, in the Universal library, it's listed as a "single prop TBF". The two recordings are of the exact same aircraft and are the exact identical recording and yet the two are not quite the same. There is a significant difference between the two tracks. When I first got the Universal Sound Effects Library and listened to this clip, it just did not sound the same, but then I figured it out. The Universal recording is the original unmodified recording. The aircraft goes into the dive and flies by but what is missing is the classic screaming or wailing. The screaming effect was added after the fact to better sweeten the recording. After all, it IS a sound effect recording. How the scream was produced, I could not tell you. In reality, the aircraft best known for the dive bomb sound were the German Stuka fighters. Due to this aircraft's unique wing design, when the Stuka went into a dive, a screaming sound was heard.

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Now to the one question I knew you would ask! The additional flute music I mixed in came from a CD entitled DISNEY'S HAUNTED MANSION. This disc is identified as "the complete original Disneyland attraction soundtrack". Included is music, sound effects, voice clips, outtakes and more. I got it on eBAY a few years back. The flute music and wind were from this disc. In fact, it's actually only one half of a stereo recording where the music and wind are on one track and bells tolling are on the other track. Check eBAY. At one time this disc was commonly seen so it may still be there.

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With regard to the Scooby Doo bats, I listened to the intro music and could only discern what sounded like one set of squeaks even though the animation displays many bats. In the HAUNTED MANSION composite I sent, I used the original reverb effect mixed with the gargoyles. If you want, I can generate something similar with the bat sounds you sent. Mixing multiple sounds is easybut the original doesn't sound as busy as the visual shows.

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OK Bill,
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Enclosed in this package are a number of recordings. You mentioned the Hanna Barbera generator slowing down sequence. I have included two versions. The first is the forward to start and reverse to end. I first heard this in the episode of the Jetsons where they are shopping for a new car. There is a brief scene where the family and the car salesman are traveling on a moving floor and this sound is utilized for the effect.

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The second version was heard more often in later HB science fiction oriented programs where the the generator sound is slowed down in pitch to a stop through the use of a variable speed control on the the playback machine.

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I created an effects composite based on your request for a Frankenstein Laboratory with all sorts of snapping electricity, Jacob's Ladders and thunder. I have also included a separate clip of the VanDeGraff machine taken from the Universal Sound Effects Library.

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With regard to the phaser effects, it was not the radio frequency static. The actual source I couldn't tell you but the final audio is the result of reverberation feedback, the theory behind which I detailed in one of the previous letters.

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Thw wind in the Disney Haunted Mansion music does not not appear to be a real wind, more like a synthesized filtered white noise. In fact, if you listen carefully, you will notice that the wind tonality changes pitch in step with the musical notes of the spooky tune. Many electric organs have this and many other effects programmed in as a specialty where the pitch is controlled by the keyboard.

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I was able to secure a copy of the music intro to Scooby Doo with the bat noises to use as a map for replication and so have included three clips. The first is the one I sent previously with the womp-womps and the gargoyle screams. One of the bats you sent is very close if not the same as what's in the original recording with one bat and the second with multiple bats.

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So there you go, more stuff. And so! More later!
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Bill.>