Audiobooks, B&N Reads, Guest Post, Star Wars

Star Wars Audiobooks Sound Design: Going Beyond the Whoosh and the Buzz

By Nick Peck / September 27, 2024 at 1:14 am

Nick Peck is the Audio Director at Disney Publishing.

Most audiobooks rely solely on dialogue, where a talented narrator or a full cast breathes life into the author’s words, making the story leap off the page and into your ears. With a vivid imagination, listeners paint their own soundscapes, adding depth to the narrative.

But some audiobooks go beyond the ordinary by incorporating music and sound effects, transforming the experience into something akin to a film soundtrack—minus the concrete visuals. The author’s words and the narrator’s performance still take center stage, but the addition of music amplifies the drama, while sound effects anchor the story in a tangible world, creating rich immersive landscapes and emphasizing key moments.

My journey began as a video game sound designer at LucasArts Entertainment in 1998, where I first dove into the Star Wars galaxy. Since then, I’ve had the privilege of contributing to countless Star Wars audiobooks, infusing them with authenticity by incorporating iconic sound effects from the films. From the unmistakable hum of lightsabers to the pew-pew of blaster fire, from the whoosh of a ship entering hyperspace to the bustling ambience of the planet Coruscant, we meticulously weave these sounds into our stories.

When we need new sounds, we channel the spirit and techniques of the legendary Ben Burtt, the mastermind behind Star Wars sound design. For instance, when tasked with creating the voice of a new astromech droid for an audiobook, we didn’t just reuse R2-D2’s iconic beeps. Instead, we crafted an entirely new set of sounds using an ARP Odyssey synthesizer, echoing the methods Burtt used with the ARP 2600 for the original films. I recorded dozens of unique sounds, categorized them by emotional tone, and created a fresh library of astromech vocalizations, which have since become a staple in many Star Wars audiobooks.

The High Republic series introduces a chilling new enemy to the Jedi: a ferocious, wolf-like predator that paralyzes Force-sensitive beings before draining the Force from them, leaving behind only an ashen husk. These terrifying creatures, the Nameless, play a significant role in our latest audiobooks, Beware the Nameless and Tears of the Nameless. We’ve crafted a vast library of Nameless sounds—from eerie howls and guttural grunts to unsettling slurps and crackles, capturing the essence of the Force being sucked away. These sounds, derived from recordings of wolves, bears, and other predators, are distorted and blended to create something both disturbingly new and hauntingly familiar.

For every Star Wars audiobook, composer Billy Martin crafts new musical cues that are integral to the story, expanding our music library with each production. Given that audiobooks often span twelve hours or more, having an extensive collection of music and sound effects is crucial. These productions demand far more resources than typical dialogue-only audiobooks, but the result? An extraordinary and unique audio experience, which Star Wars fans have come to cherish.