Redesigning the sound of R2D2 (perhaps the most famous robot-droid movie character ever) is no easy task. Ben Burtt, the sound designer, describes designing the robot’s sound as “the hardest sound to develop” for Star Wars 1977. R2D2’s sound is a combination of Burtt’s voice making child-like noises along with a synthesizer, the ARP 2600. This synth was used to round up the more digital sound of the droid unit. Thousands of bleeps and clicks were recorded and then meticulously sliced and taped together to create a sort of “language”. This language eventually became the friendly voice of the droid.
We will be redesigning the sound of R2-D2 using Native Instruments “Massive” by Native Instruments. The sound of R2D2 comes from a combination of many sounds. For this tutorial, we will concentrate on the filter sweep. We will use only one oscillator with a white noise waveform attached to it.
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