Being a bit anal-retentive myself, I appreciate the correction. You obviously know your hats!
TOS myths and misconceptions...
- Thread starter Warped9
- Start date
Wholly in agreement. TOS' sound f/x were indeed fucking brilliant!
I definitely second that. Is there any info out there on how some of those effects were created?
I think I read somewhere that they filmed lights reflecting off crinkled up tinfoil, which they then added into a cross-disolve during post production...
I thought the question was specifically about SOUND effects.Wholly in agreement. TOS' sound f/x were indeed fucking brilliant!
I definitely second that. Is there any info out there on how some of those effects were created?
I think I read somewhere that they filmed lights reflecting off crinkled up tinfoil, which they then added into a cross-disolve during post production...
If you're referring to the transporter “glitter” effect, it was created by filming aluminum dust falling through a high-intensity light beam, and matted into the figures being “beamed” in postproduction.
Another technique used for the transporter effect was Alka-Seltzer in warm water.
As for the sound effects, the general approach was to start with an organic source, i.e., not something from a synthesizer. It made the sounds seem much more "real" than if they were obviously electronic, even in situations where something electronic would be considered completely appropriate. TNG continued with this approach, although the techniques for processing those original sound sources had advanced by light years by that time.
As for the sound effects, the general approach was to start with an organic source, i.e., not something from a synthesizer. It made the sounds seem much more "real" than if they were obviously electronic, even in situations where something electronic would be considered completely appropriate. TNG continued with this approach, although the techniques for processing those original sound sources had advanced by light years by that time.
Can you name any specific effects that were done this way? The phaser screech was definitely produced by an electronic tone generator, and most of the background bleeps and boops on the bridge were electronic as well.
My understanding is that the phaser sound started off as the sound of the cicada.
Electronic sound production was extremely limited back then. I believe the transporter sound was done with a cymbal. The external torpedo was some sort of string or cable being "twanged." Not sure about the interior torpedo sound, but I know it pre-dated TOS, as did the bridge science computer sound. The red alert klaxxon was actually a real general quarters klaxxon, with the pitch altered.
I used the very same technique a few years ago in order to replicate the effect. Came out pretty damn well, too.
No, actually the phaser whine is the sound of a swarm of locusts, adjusted in pitch and speed.
I hate to do this - but on one of the extras on the Star Trek 09 Blu ray disk, it was sated that the TOS phaser effect was water recorded coming though a small nozzle (to increase the water pressue); and that was further speeded up.
(Who knows - could have been all three depending on thee episode 
).
Also depending on the production. Was the water nozzle bit what they did in ST09, or is that what they said was done during TOS?
My understanding is that it was cicadas, not locusts.
Some of the sound effects in Star Trek were used in science fiction productions that preceded it. For example, the background electronic hums heard constantly on the bridge can be heard in various episodes of "The Twilight Zone". A couple of examples are on the spaceship in the episode "Third From the Sun", and the time machine in "Execution". I think there were a couple of other TZ episodes to use the effects, and I think they can also be heard in early episodes of either "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" or "Lost in Space", possibly both.
I know the photon torpedo sounds and a few others were in "War of the Worlds".
I hate to do this - but on one of the extras on the Star Trek 09 Blu ray disk, it was sated that the TOS phaser effect was water recorded coming though a small nozzle (to increase the water pressue); and that was further speeded up.
Are you sure that wasn't Ben Burtt explaining how he recreated the equivalent sound for the film?
Indeed. The phaser sound was a sped-up version of the same sound effect used for the Martian War Machines' levitation rays in The War of the Worlds (1953).
If you go to You Tube and watch the 3rd segment of the Twilight Zone episode "Third from the Sun" (aired in 1960), the part when they're aboard the spacecraft (a re-purposed C57d) at around the 3:00 mark you'll hear sound effects that were used for background operational sounds aboard the Enterprise bridge (mostly in earlier episodes).
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They said it was used for TOS. (The 'extra' was on how the sound effects and methods for obtaining/creating them had changed from the 1960ies to today. Also the guy was not dismissive of the older effects at all and was commenting on what a great job they did for the original series effects.)
Well, Ben Burtt generally knows his stuff...
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