How the Star Wars: The Force Awakens Sound Team Made Kylo Ren and BB-8’s Voices

The success of Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a result of the labor of love and expertise of several professionals in the industry. They include the work of supervising sound editors Matthew Wood and David Acord, re-recording mixers Andy Nelson and Christopher Scarabosio, and production sound mixer Stuart Wilson, whose craft landed the film several Oscar nominations.

These people didn't only bring back a score of classic sounds from the old films, but they also introduced audiences to a cacophony of new ones.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, The Force Awakens sound crew explained how they crafted new sound from scratch, including the voices of new characters Kylo Ren and the droid BB-8.

Apparently, the sound team built a receiver and speaker system into 5 set varieties in order for the actors to interact with BB-8.

Wilson said:

This allowed J.J. to trigger audio from a tablet or a live microphone depending on the situation.

Meanwhile, the original sound made by BB-8 had only been completed during post production, which Abrams tasked on Wood and Acord. The director apparently had a special liking towards the droid's voice.

Wood said:

He wanted it to sound distinct enough so if it was outside the doorway, and you couldn't see it, you'd still know it was him. We set J.J. up with a tactical interface so he could be more hands-on in the creative process and have points to touch on a synthesizer, controlling timbre and pitch. We then brought actors in to guide an emotional beat and refined BB-8 until we found its final audio palette.

As for Kylo Ren's (Adam Driver) mask voice, there was a microphone used inside the mask and on Driver's chest.

Wood explained:

Adam has a great voice, and by placing two mics and combining them in phase, it gave it this larger-than-life quality with a lot of bass and presence.

The mask's final post processing was where Driver's additional dialogue had been recorded. Nelson made it possible to make the dialogue audible.

The sound mixer said:

We don't normally do that kind of thing live with an actor, but it allowed Adam to get more into the character and play with it as an acting tool.

There's a tendency when you hear a line of dialogue a few times that it becomes clearer in your head even if the audience can't. So I became the gatekeeper and stepped in when we needed to lighten up so the audience wouldn't be left saying, 'What did he say?'

They had to take Kylo Ren's temperament into consideration too.

Acord said:

Kylo is very raw with his power and not a very refined person. He's a little hot-tempered and we wanted to reflect that aurally. At the very root level of Ren's Force we used the purr of a cat ... slowed way down to a low rumble.

The team also told LA Times how they mixed the voices of Finn and Rey, of which included Finn's intro into the film and Rey's discovery of her powers.

Clearly, the film wouldn't had been as great without the skill of these sound connoisseurs. Knowing how they crafted the sound of Star Wars: The Force Awakens just made me appreciate the film even more.

Check out the entire interview here.