Sound Design: The Six Million Dollar Man Bionic Sound

[u b k]

i can't tell you how many times i've recalled that sound in my imagination, and wondered exactly how it *really* sounds, and whether i could recreate it.

is there a sample out there somewhere?


gregoire
del ubik

[ImJohn]

Originally Posted by u b i k

i can't tell you how many times i've recalled that sound in my imagination, and wondered exactly how it *really* sounds, and whether i could recreate it.

is there a sample out there somewhere?


gregoire
del ubik

They are all over the place! Do a Google search on "six million dollar man sound effects"

Here's one :
http://www.moviewavs.com/cgi-bin/tvm...Man=smbion.mp3

[James Guitar]

that's great that there are samples of that bit out there but i too would love to know how that sound was made. sounds like some GREAT tape echo on it but beyond that i'm stymied, and i collect vintage synths!
the person that created that sound back in '74 or whenever should get a prize, IMHO.
-J

[jebjerome]

Not exactly how I remembered it, but still not sure how to get that sound.

[C Heat]

sounds like some kind of metal clanking repeated

[jdg]

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.m...42614466aa7d9a

[jdg]

and more of a loller:
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.m...b6645e6cac2165

[zimv20]

Originally Posted by ImJohn

Here's one :
http://www.moviewavs.com/cgi-bin/tvm...Man=smbion.mp3

i hear two basic things going.

the first is that rapidly repeating bit that sounds like something set up on a patchable synth like the korg ms-20: patch the mod gen square wave out to the VCO in, tweak a few knobs, and you get that repeat. it also sounds like either the filter or pulse width is being modulated by an LFO.

the second sound is that tone behind it going up and down. that sounds like it's being played with a quick portamento. it sounds to me as though the filter is tracking the keyboard, opening up a little with the higher note. there's a noise component, too, though that could be the reproduction, i suppose.

i'm thinking like a keyboardist, i should say. it's entirely possible the sounds were sourced with a microphone.

[stevep]

Originally Posted by C Heat

sounds like some kind of metal clanking repeated

Like cymbals, through a delay ... hit the hold , or repeat.

they probably came up with the sound at the last minuet .
and thought no one would like it




I used to love that show........

Steve Austin !!!!

He had it all....


what ever happened to Lee Majors ? is he still alive......



man that was a long time ago



.........

[stevep]

First, they had this big fat guy sit on a Hammond B3 with all the drawbars
pulled. Then, they ran the B3's output through some sort of voltage
controlled amplifier connected to an envelope generator with a fast decay
and rapid trigger. Finally, a hint of spring-reverb for ambiance.


mabe ...........




.................................................................

[TEMAS]

I don't think there's any delay fx.

I haven't heard it for a few years at least - but from memory, my guess is that it was a METAL RULER that was TWANGED against a table top (like you used to do when you were at school) and then slowed down to a quarter of its original pitch - which is why it sounds like slow motion.

[stevep]

Originally Posted by TEMAS

I don't think there's any delay fx.

I haven't heard it for a few years at least - but from memory, my guess is that it was a METAL RULER that was TWANGED against a table top (like you used to do when you were at school) and then slowed down to a quarter of its original pitch - which is why it sounds like slow motion.

Nice !!!

The foley guys have all the fun...

[C Heat]

I woulda love to have got a few sounds OUT of SuperWoman




As you were...

[TEMAS]

Originally Posted by stevep

The foley guys have all the fun...

Its not all footsteps, and door-slams!!



It could be a 'gated' effect on a slowed down sample of a metalic hit.

Or, I've made stuttering metalic sounds like that using the ring modulators on my Nord Modular. I'll try and root out an example and post it. Not today tho, its my birthday.

[TEMAS]

Cor, that's wierd. Lets try that again - Made stuttering metalic sounds.

[TEMAS]

For f"*K's sake - making me look like a fool!!! 'st uttering' - There yer go - I said it!!!

[jmiller]

Originally Posted by TEMAS

For f"*K's sake - making me look like a fool!!! 'st uttering' - There yer go - I said it!!!

Happy birthday.

I prefer recreating the sound effect with my mouth.

[macr0w]

Believe it or not I have both the bionic man and the bionic woman albums. I'm talkin vinyl here people. I'll have to break them out and maybe sample the sound fx.

[AlphaDingo]

You are all wrong. It's not a special effect, they just recorded him running or jumping. That's the sound he makes because he's BIONIC! It looks slow on TV because they had to slow down the film otherwise it would have been a blur. I was over at Michael Knight's house last week for a barbecue and KITT told me. They have the same mechanic.

[James Guitar]

Originally Posted by TEMAS

For f"*K's sake - making me look like a fool!!! 'st uttering' - There yer go - I said it!!!

click on the button that says DISABLE SMILIES IN TEXT. it's under the post that you're writing... that will get rid of the guy tutting
-J

[Killahurts]

Originally Posted by AlphaDingo

It looks slow on TV because they had to slow down the film otherwise it would have been a blur.

There were very rare occasions where they would actually show Steve Austin running in "real time" (i.e. 70 mph), and then you realized why they usually showed that in slow motion - it looked unbelievably silly.

I think the sound effect was a large aluminum can filled with coins, in a really small but reflective room, heavily filtered.

One thing's for sure, the "boop boop boop" sound his bionic eyball made was patched through the exact same synthesizer LFO as the sound his arm/legs made.

I also find it interesting that they gave the bionic woman slightly different sounds, a little higher pitched and less harsh...ah, the 70's - you couldn't get away with that now...

[goobersezhey]

I'm willing to bet you it's nothing more than a crescent wrench on an aluminum pole, delayed to hell and back, and sped up.

[u b k]

whatever the source sound is, it's running thru a square wave lfo that's modulating the amp (volume) 100%; this sounds like a delay, but it's actually a continuous sound being switched from full on to full off, like the pick-up switch trick on les pauls.

there's also an envelope doing a slow rise on the pitch.

i'll be dissecting this further when i'm back in the studio, and i'll be reporting back... i intend to crack the nut on the source(s) --- it may be layered.

i, too, had the vinyl when i was young.


gregoire
del ubik

[James Guitar]

Originally Posted by u b i k

whatever the source sound is, it's running thru a square wave lfo that's modulating the amp (volume) 100%; this sounds like a delay, but it's actually a continuous sound being switched from full on to full off, like the pick-up switch trick on les pauls.

yes, right! or like the square-waved organ sound on "won't get fooled again" by the who. that's just straight-up organ chords with the square filter (and a couple others) running.
nice call, u b i k
you know, it could be the drawbars of an organ, utilizing the middle and high tones and not using the lower fundamentals.
-J

[sloanfiske]

this gets my vote for...

best childhood flashback thread.

by far my favorite show...followed by "emergency"

[allstar]

I used to have a Hammond T100 tonewheel organ. It had a feature on it called Reiterate.
This made the sound repeat at a speed set by a knob ( basically amplitude modulated by a variable square wave ).

If you pressed down most of the keys on one of the manuals using your arm with the reiterate on and the right settings on the drawbars themselves, the sound was very similar to the bionic man effect.

Seemed to work best with mostly the upper harmonics pulled out on the drawbars.

[James Guitar]

Originally Posted by allstar

Seemed to work best with mostly the upper harmonics pulled out on the drawbars.

yeah that's the kind of thing i'm referring to in my earlier post.
-J

[PhonoquO]

my take on it is a recording of of piano strings either being strummed (from the inside with dampers off), maybe pitched, then gated with a a square lfo, or maybe the piano raised slightly off the ground with dampers off and dropped, then the strings ringing recorded and gated with the square lfo. I'm almost positive i'm hearing those piano string harmonics in there. If anyone has access to an acoustic piano, please confirm my suspicions as i don't have one on hand at the moment.

Mark

Ps. now that i think of it, it could even be something as simple as one of the extreme upper or lower piano keys played and recorded and either slowed down or sped up correspondingly a substantial amount (those extreme notes seem to have alot of harmonic content)

-hmm, could be an organ like you said ^

[thethrillfactor]

Originally Posted by sloanfiske

by far my favorite show...

Welcome Back Kotter here!!!thumbsup