Han Carbonite Sound

clmayfield

Member
Hey guys. I've been building an ESB Han in Carbonite for a while. My thread progress is on the The Dented Helmet Forum here:

https://www.thedentedhelmet.com/forums/threads/clmayfield-making-my-hic.31013/

I have a bunch of tweaks just to make it cooler. One of them is to give the illusion of a hovering box, which is a pretty big undertaking, but at least I know where to start. I also wanted to create the sound effect that you hear in the background when they are marching the box through the Halls of Bespin:


I have searched around and could not find any sound files of this, but admittedly, I barely know where to search. Does anyone have any ideas of how to either find this or do it myself? Thanks!
 
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Sound file sounds good there just strip the footsteps from the track and then loop it.but back to the important stuff[emoji848][emoji848][emoji848] what are you using to make the transport float??

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The floating box is relatively simple, though I think I will be overbuilding it just to be on the safe side as I don't know how to perform the calculations for a minimalist structure.

I plan to support the box with a 1.5" steel rod that is offset to one of the corners of the box. I have Boba Fett on a Mannequin, who will be standing next to the box and obscuring the 1.5" rod from view. This is common in magician levitating tricks. See here:
https://io9.gizmodo.com/how-is-it-possible-that-this-street-performer-can-float-1627390526

Here is my design:
HiC Stand Design.jpg

The key is to extend the platform well beyond the center of gravity for the thing you are supporting. This design should be pretty stable apart from the incredible amount of torque it will create on the lower support ring.
 
Something that people seem to miss regarding the carbonite block’s sound effects is the inclusion of what sounds like the swish-swish-swish​ of a fetal heart monitor, which makes sense, given the fact that the control panels monitored Solo’s vital signs while in hibernation. The sound can also be heard getting louder and louder as the defrosting sequence in JEDI starts up.
 
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Good point. I had a difficult time isolating and looping that sound. I will try again. You hear it a lot more when he first gets frozen and in ROTJ.
 
Here it is with the swish swish. Do you think the swish-swish is too forward in the mix?

Thanks!

 
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Maybe just a bit. Other than that, it sounds pretty good to me, although the swishing is a little fast. And, of course, you can still hear Fett’s boot spurs!
 
Hey clmayfield ! I don't know why but, the main sound I have in my head when I read "Han Carbonite Sound" is the sound of the frozen block crashing to the ground.

I just now envisioned a HIC Refrigerator with a motion switch on the door that made the crash sound when the door closed, and popped in here to see what you were up to.

It may not be the HIC I was imagining, but you're HIC floating box is pretty cool too! Looking forward to seeing it finished.
 
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I just finished coming up with a new mix with the "swish" gain turned down and slowed down and listened to it on my wife's computer and couldn't hear the "swish" at all. I need to figure out which speaker I am going to use before I go any further as my ultimate goal is to make the prop sound right, not to have a file sound right when it plays back on my computer. My wife's computer has a better speaker system. I think it has more bass and might have native noise reduction, which would reduce the swishing noise.

Hey @clmayfield ! I don't know why but, the main sound I have in my head when I read "Han Carbonite Sound" is the sound of the frozen block crashing to the ground.

I just now envisioned a HIC Refrigerator with a motion switch on the door that made the crash sound when the door closed, and popped in here to see what you were up to.

It may not be the HIC I was imagining, but you're HIC floating box is pretty cool too! Looking forward to seeing it finished.

It is funny, I always thought that the sound that I replicated was from the carbonite hovering, but when I go back and listen to other scenes, the sound is present even when the carbonite is not hovering. The sound does seem to be brought forward in the mix in the "hover" scene in Bespin. Sadly, there is a complete set of sounds from the carbonite freezing chamber available, but not the sound of the carbonite I am recreating.

If there is a version of the movie somewhere with the music stripped out, I would love to find it. My main problem with this mixing project is getting rid of the music. That orchestra has tones that appear across the audio spectrum.

I should also note that it is not Boba Fett's "spur" sounds you can hear, but actually the footsteps of the Bespin guard. I can get rid of mose of the sound, but you can still hear artifacts from it. This is a very difficult process, especially for a novice such as myself.
 
No, I can definitely hear the Fett spurs in that last video. Just double-checked it with headphones. It’s the same sound that can be heard when he steps into view during the Cloud City dining room scene. The Foley footsteps are there, too, but the Fett spurs are very distinctive.

And, yeah, the basic block humming sound appears to be an ambient sound representing the life-sensor equipment (with the swish-swish heartbeat sound laid atop it), since it can be heard when the block is on the carbon-freezing chamber floor and again when it’s up on Jabba’s wall.

As an aside, I’d say that EMPIRE is my favorite sound-designed movie of all time. Just genius work from Ben Burtt and crew. They took all of the audio groundwork laid down in the first film and created a truly immersive experience to match the film’s gorgeous and moody cinematography.
 
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I have his kit also and I'm trying to add it to it. The module is good the only problem is The sound is my issue now. I cant get a clear sound . I've tried cleaning up the sound from esb but still alittle off.

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I have his kit also and I'm trying to add it to it. The module is good the only problem is The sound is my issue now. I cant get a clear sound . I've tried cleaning up the sound from esb but still alittle off.

Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk

If you can clean up the sound better than I have done, please post it up on Youtube or something. I would gladly rip it out... I am new to this sound editing thing and doing a passable but not a great job. So much of Star Wars effects are in the sound and the music. I can create things that are visually appealing, but without the sound, it doesn't "feel" right.
 
I have used the DFPlayer (mini) and Arduino for many projects now......

So if anyone needs help with Arduino/DFPlayer for blinkies and audio.. let me know!

I wont be able to help with any of the audio engineering however.. only as good as the .wav files used.

Tip:
Zero crossfade on looped files
.wav format
No metadata left in audio clips.

For the DFPlayer.. make sure you use 1k resistors on the RX/TX lines to help with the audio noise.
Depending on what library you use (if one at all).. the default DFRobot library has a bug in it where upon boot up the speaker makes a POP sound (and on power off).. during normal use it it fine.

There is a fix, that requires you to edit some lines out in the library files.




Update:
Be careful of buying clones of the DFPlayer.

Clones (so far) have had red leds (legit ones have had blue leds)
No silkscreen around each part on the PCB
The chip on the bottom is an YX5200 chipset.. (clones will have something else.. or more so.. the ground off.. with no marking on the chip)
 
I'm doing the DC as a stand alone. I wanted the arduino then realised that it would work better with fetts lights, as I can join it to the on /off switch and as I turn on the lights the player can play the loop. Would you use the resistor on a stand alone setup to stop the noise or just with audrino? And I'll try to format from mp3 to wav. And see if I can get a better result.

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If you are attempting to use it in standalone mode.. then you will not have any RX/TX lines connecting to the Arduino.. so you wont need any resistors.

Is the noise stemming from the player/hardware? Or the actual audio file itself?

ie: if you play in say Windows Media Player.. is it still 'noisey'?

If you want a nice seamless/gapless playback.. I would suggest using the .wav format.. and ensure there is NO META DATA in the beginning or end of the file...

Zero Crossfade matching/editing also helps for looping playback.

Are you using spkr 1 & 2 pins? (I have read where some to do this.. and some say dont, but to use spkr1 and gnd....but that never worked for me)..

Are you using the DFPlayer as is? Are trying to add in an AMP using the DAC pins?

I have felt the on-board amp is quite loud already...
 
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