"Star Wars" on SSB

[eorange]

I'm trying to remember where I read this story. I think it was maybe Pop Comm, or online, but I can't find it.

Recall in Episode 4 when the rebels are executing the final attack on the Death Star. I always thought the comms between the rebel base and the fighters sounded like ham radio / SSB.

As it turns out, this story said that SSB radios were used by the filmmakers to produce those comms, and if you were lucky enough in 1976-1977 to be tuned in, you could have actually heard those comms being produced for the movie.

Anyone ever hear of this?

[scancapecod]

I was just watching the new "Battlestar Galactica" series recently and noticed the same thing. I wonder if anyone was able to monitor them? Their comms certainly sound SSB in nature. I'm referring to the first season DVD's, as I didn't watch the series as it happened.

[NW0U]

I recognized SSB on the movies but there's no reason they would have used antennas and much power to get the audio captured. No need. 2 radios in the same room into dummy loads would work fine.


Did you know that " tay o frame krin kano" said into LSB will come out "Telephone Company" when heard on USB?

For some reason, not many people know this. They should.

[kb9sxk]

Pop Comm mag a few years ago.

[Hooligan]

Originally Posted by eorange

I'm trying to remember where I read this story. I think it was maybe Pop Comm, or online, but I can't find it.

Recall in Episode 4 when the rebels are executing the final attack on the Death Star. I always thought the comms between the rebel base and the fighters sounded like ham radio / SSB.

As it turns out, this story said that SSB radios were used by the filmmakers to produce those comms, and if you were lucky enough in 1976-1977 to be tuned in, you could have actually heard those comms being produced for the movie.

Anyone ever hear of this?

George Lucas also used SSB-sounding audio in his first major movie THX-1138 (released 1971), and possibly also in his short UCLA Film School movie project Electronic Labyrinth THX1138 4EB (1967) that the later THX1138 production was based on.

Also, the tones from Canadian Timse Standard Station CHU were played as prominent background noises in the rebel command post (on the icy planet Hoth?) in one of the Star Wars sequels.

Who wrote the Pop Comm article about it? There isn't necessarily a lot of veracity to what appears in rags like Pop Comm & Monitoring Times. Did the article also claim that the Donald Duck cartoons from the 1940s & up used SSB for the duck voices? What sort of ham radio was used for Alvin & the Chipmunks? Did anybody QSL them?

I think the SSBish sounding audio could have been created on a decent sound board, instead of using an SSB transmitter & an SSB receiver too, but when I was a young twerp I'd occasionally make crank phone calls (thankfully/alas, I was a young twerp well before Caller ID) by having the telephone up to the receiver of my HF/SSB receiver tuned to 27.3857MHz USB, while I uttered my stupidity thru my CB transmitting on CB channel 38 (27.3850).

[eorange]

Originally Posted by Hooligan

but when I was a young twerp I'd occasionally make crank phone calls (thankfully/alas, I was a young twerp well before Caller ID) by having the telephone up to the receiver of my HF/SSB receiver tuned to 27.3857MHz USB, while I uttered my stupidity thru my CB transmitting on CB channel 38 (27.3850).

Now that's a funny story!

I am now pretty sure it was from Pop Comm. That issue is long gone, so I don't know who the author was. It made for some interesting reading, but admittedly it sounded somewhat hokey. Agreed on the sound board, even with a phaser and/or flanger mixed in could produce SSB-like sound.

[kb2vxa]

Plenty of "radio sounds" have appeared in movies over the years but you don't need any radio equipment to produce them. With a little pitch bending and phase shifting SSB is about the easiest, analog gear has been around a long time and digital editing suites have made it child's play. Cool Edit Pro and now since Adobe bought Syntrillium, Audition makes it all so easy and FYI those Ghost Hunters have it on their laptops as I have it right here at my fingertips. Speaking of child's play, I started experimenting with sound altering effects back in the 60s when "digital" referred to fingers and toes and "solid state" was something frozen.

Thanks for the chuckle, Alvin and the Chipmunks were my inspiration. They were recorded by David Seville speaking very slowly in a normal pitch, then when the tape was played back at double speed the chipmunks appeared. My CB persona The Mysteron was produced with tape echo and feedback, speeding it up produced The Mousteron. "I may be small but I can still destroy you." (;->)

Phasers, flangers, multiple delay echoes all digitally produced are one of my specialties. Heh, my version of Mister Spaceman is something The Byrds never intended on one of David Crosby's more highly stoned days.

[kb9sxk]

I have the Pop Com somewere in my shack. I will try to find it and post the author's name.

[10-95]

It's highly unlikely that any transceivers were used for BSG. There are software programs
on the market now that can be used to add effects to audio. I use a program called Adobe Audition everyday at work and I can make audio sound like SSB with it.

[scancapecod]

I expect you're right. I do find it interesting that they opt for that "SSB sound" in these series though. They should opt for the P25 digital approach instead.

Unique topic nonetheless.

[rankin39]

I recall an episode of the original Star Trek involving time travel that had audio from the WWV running in the background. It was very obvious at the time.
Bob, WoNXN

[N_Jay]

Originally Posted by scancapecod

I expect you're right. I do find it interesting that they opt for that "SSB sound" in these series though. They should opt for the P25 digital approach instead.

Unique topic nonetheless.

"By Your Command"

Or is it This

[poltergeisty]

ILM could have downloaded a copy of invert.

It's like Hollywood to spend hoards of $$$$

YouTube - Shall we play a game?



Scroll down to the V's.. DSP : Software: DSP

Now that I think of it. I have a Darth Vader mask that reproduces your voice into three different robotic voice outputs. The circuitry is simple. Does anyone remember watching a news magazine type show like Dateline where they mask the voice??

Here we go! genuine CRAP! YouTube - Confessions of an Area 51 Employee Part 3 (Underground Base)

[KI6ABZ]

Originally Posted by poltergeisty

Now that I think of it. I have a Darth Vader mask that reproduces your voice into three different robotic voice outputs.

People frequently try to replicate Vader using pitch shifting, but I don't think that's what Lucas did. James Earl Jones voiced him in all 3 episodes of the Holy Trilogy, and he has a very deep voice. I think the bulk of the effect is a very short reverb: short delay, almost 0 decay time.

As to the "SSB" effects in BSG: It makes total sense that the (new) BSG universe and the Star Wars universe would use SSB for voice comms. If you recall, the Galactica is a 50 year old ship, and her technology is very similar to our technology from the 1980's or 1990's. The computers aren't networked, the phones are all wired, and voice-grade digital communication would be quirky and unreliable.

SSB is more efficient: more power, longer range, and fewer interference problems. (And signals don't mask each other when doubling.) The equipment needed to receive an analog transmission is also much simpler and less prone to failure. The only down side is that you don't get fancy things like encryption, but secure messages could be passed via secure low-bandwidth digital modes. There's evidence that (in BSG), ships carried ID beacons, so I assume that they had digital capability; they just didn't use it for routine voice comms.

[rcg6028]

Originally Posted by KI6ABZ

People frequently try to replicate Vader using pitch shifting, but I don't think that's what Lucas did. James Earl Jones voiced him in all 3 episodes of the Holy Trilogy, and he has a very deep voice. I think the bulk of the effect is a very short reverb: short delay, almost 0 decay time.

As to the "SSB" effects in BSG: It makes total sense that the (new) BSG universe and the Star Wars universe would use SSB for voice comms. If you recall, the Galactica is a 50 year old ship, and her technology is very similar to our technology from the 1980's or 1990's. The computers aren't networked, the phones are all wired, and voice-grade digital communication would be quirky and unreliable.

SSB is more efficient: more power, longer range, and fewer interference problems. (And signals don't mask each other when doubling.) The equipment needed to receive an analog transmission is also much simpler and less prone to failure. The only down side is that you don't get fancy things like encryption, but secure messages could be passed via secure low-bandwidth digital modes. There's evidence that (in BSG), ships carried ID beacons, so I assume that they had digital capability; they just didn't use it for routine voice comms.

Somehow I highly doubt the writers went into that much detail over the communications effects they use... I think your reading way to far into it.

[poltergeisty]

Originally Posted by KI6ABZ

People frequently try to replicate Vader using pitch shifting, but I don't think that's what Lucas did. James Earl Jones voiced him in all 3 episodes of the Holy Trilogy, and he has a very deep voice. I think the bulk of the effect is a very short reverb: short delay, almost 0 decay time.

Yes, that's probably what ILM did.