Just your typical day at any ordinary high school. Two students from Bennington High School decided, as one does in the band room, they could have a pretty realistic lightsaber duel while playing their instruments. It’s one of those crazy ideas that works out great because it seriously does sound like a lightsaber duel, minus the crashing noise when they hit each other. Maybe they should get someone on another instrument to get that noise in. Symbols might be effective?
Of course they didn’t actually record sousaphones when making “Star Wars‘” iconic lightsaber sounds. The creation of those was thanks to sound designer Ben Burtt. As he imagined what lightsabers would sound like he remembered the distinct noise of what projector motors made. He was often put in charge of them while at school and they’d made a peculiar sound that he thought might just do the trick. A thrumming noise that sounded full of energy. The rest was created by accident as he walked by a television set with a microphone that was still on. This combined with the sound of the projectors and pulling and pushing the microphone different distances from the TV monitor created the whooshing sounds were all familiar with.
So maybe for these kids the next step isn’t to have another instrument join them but to some how get the A/V Club involved instead. Anyway check out this fun video of two sousaphone players battling it out for the ultimate spot of number one sousaphone player in school.
