Sound of a Phaser Bolt

Zapping, hissing, buzzing and cracking could all work for me. What do you want them to sound like?
 
Doesn't this depend on what kind of phaser it is and
  • whether the beam itself creates a noise when it travels through air;
  • whether the weapon generating the beam makes a sound;
  • whether the target makes a sound when hit (and I don't mean, "Ouch!");
  • whether those who've designed the weapon believe its natural silience isn't scary enough, so they've added a sound (as happens on some performance cars whose engines don't naturally emit the kind of noise that requires Jeremy Clarkson to change his underwear, and so must generate the noise electronically)?
 
What kind of sounds do other weapons in your universe make? There's a pulp feel to the weapon, and so you won't (one assumes) be held back by a wish for hyper-realistic weapons and their effects. If your lasers crackle, your force fields sizzle, your phasers might as well zap!
 
What Ursa said.

It's your madey-up weapon, so it can make whatever sound you want, depending on the intended effect. I like the sound of Fzzzt.
 
i have always thought the ones on startrek made a sort of churring noise, a high pitched sussuration...
 
Ha ha ha, thanks everyone, i knew I could rely on you!

Here's the context. It has to be a stand alone sound.

"Drop the Bosun,” growled Gruilash, waving his gun at Tarquin from across the billiard table. “Put the amulet on the table and slide it to me."

Tarquin obeyed. The yellow light from the crystal chandelier made Gruilash’s shiny, green, reptilian skin look a putrid, sickly yellow.

(Phaser bolts here} - Thwish, thud, thud. Gruilash’s bodyguards fell to the floor.

Startled, Gruilash’s inner eyelid flashed across his eyes and he blinked. Tarquin watched as two tall, ghostly white humanoids dressed in black and purple leather frock coats sashayed into the room from an adjoining corridor with their guns pointing at Gruilash.

TBO
 
There are a number of possibilities, depending on which model of phaser you're talking about (handheld, the model mounted on a mobile platform or vehicle, the fixed mount versions used in starships, the really big planetary defence models), whether it delivers a phaser beam or a phaser bolt (continuous, interrupted or one-shot models).

The environment in which it used is important, too; in space battles it will be………, because in space nobody can here you phase (though the lack of a transmission medium might not prevent the sound of its operation being detected, if it were powerful enough; we used to pick up Radio London on tooth fillings and a washing machine, and electromagnetic radiation is not stopped by vacuum. In atmosphere does it create a light track behind it? Then it will possibly create a crackly, fizzy sound of ionised air, unless it's high power, in which case it will approximate a thunderclap as ionised air rushes out, and fresh air moves in to fill the localised vacuum. If it's a space distortion type weapon (which it well could be with a name like that) you're going to get a crack a bit like high explosives, blended with the sound of rending matter – stone, concrete, steel, flesh, the sound will change appreciably with the object hit. With a traditional firearm the majority of the sound comes from the explosion within the weapon itself, and a single pulse type weapon is likely to produce something similar; it's just not easy to discharge large quantities of energy without some inefficiencies arriving as vibration, either low frequency as audible sound, or higher as heat. Even a rail gun, purely electromagnetic, produces a shock wave in the frame, some of which transforms into noise. A continuous beam unit would more likely make a sort of electronic noise, as energy is transformed into the mode required -like an electronic flash charging up, but continuous.

Of course, the lack of atmosphere would not prevent there being sound generated in the structure of the warship firing it, waste energy leaking into structural members and plating, or the target.
 
Don Martin would probably call it "Zorch," or Kazzang" or maybe "Blizzitt."


But seriously, speaking strictly as a reader; I find cartoonish sound imitations jarring in prose.

I'm with Tyburn. A description reads smoother than an attempt to spell a sound effect.
 
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Lasers, i think were always something of a "Vap" (or Vwap) noise. Careful not to use "Fap" though :)

But if its a long drawn out sound like the phasers in later star trek's them im not sure you can really do that in words. But I think the noises they make in star trek and star wars etc are somewhat unlikely. I think you are more likely to get clunking from the equipment turning itself on and off and possibly snapping from the air instantly superheating (like lighting does).
 
The expert is here.

Although, I think Chrispy has covered it well. In air, the noise would be from superheated air, anything from a fizz to a thunder bolt sound. A bit of ozone for good measure, depending on the weapon, hearing and smell mixed for better affect. The weapon may power up with a nice little whining sound or clunk, as the next power slug falls into the chamber, all depends on weapon choice my good, sir. Most fire beams invisible to the human eye, x-ray, death ray, that type of thing - but - you can have a laser beam for aiming, it helps get your eye in, if you know what I mean. Most weapons create some smoke and vaporised matter in air, not so much in the vacuum of space, but where's the fun in that I ask you? Nothing better than the smell of roasted flesh to know your enemy has punched his ticket, even better with a little salt and a good glass of red.

So....

Bowler1 clicks his fingers and Matrix style racks of beam weapons slide into place.
'Time we went down the shooting range and had some fun!'
 
I would go with whatever you imagine it to sound like. Always better for the story when the author stays true to what they want things to be.
 
The Bloated One said:
Here's the context. It has to be a stand alone sound.

"Drop the Bosun,” growled Gruilash, waving his gun at Tarquin from across the billiard table. “Put the amulet on the table and slide it to me."

Tarquin obeyed. The yellow light from the crystal chandelier made Gruilash’s shiny, green, reptilian skin look a putrid, sickly yellow.

(Phaser bolts here} - Thwish, thud, thud. Gruilash’s bodyguards fell to the floor.

Startled, Gruilash’s inner eyelid flashed across his eyes and he blinked. Tarquin watched as two tall, ghostly white humanoids dressed in black and purple leather frock coats sashayed into the room from an adjoining corridor with their guns pointing at Gruilash.

TBO
Click to expand...

The Bloated One said:
Chris,

On earth, in a ballroom under a lake.... It would be phaser bolts.

TBO
Click to expand...
So, handheld (nobody wants to drive a tank under a lake, or across a ballroom, for that matter; can't quickstep) and in atmosphere, unless 'under a lake' means literally, and it's in water. A geometrically straight line of bubbles, and a shock wave through the water like being hit by a flying mattress, compressing the eardrums like a depth charge, with – no, Tarquin isn't amphibious, it's air.

It's a pity I don't know quite how a phaser operates (except on guitar, obviously. I've built one of those). A laser, I know, have babied one through a world tour, not a great antipersonnel weapon; burns a hole through anyone not wearing a mirror, but, if the someone turns out to be a berserk viking, it kills them but they don't have time to notice, so keep charging. If you wave it about too much it just burns the skin off, like stroking him with a soldering iron. No stopping power.

A maser is a cross between that and a microwave oven. If tuned for 'water', the first significant volume of liquid water it meets is vaporised instantaneously. If this water happens to be in the brain of a sentiet being the sound is similar to an exploding teakettle as the skull gives way.

Sure, and a squaser is obviously two diverging planes of force brought in from either side of your target and if he is insufficiently armoured against the force he is flattened and his innards squirt out of the top and bottom (sufficiently armoured and he's spat out like a pumpkin seed. Speciality models, the lemon squaser and the garlic squaser are used for zombies and vampires respectively.

If a phaser happens to use the same Beetonian technology as the time machine it might place their kidneys in the jurassic while leaving most of the rest of them here and now (if 'now' is something that interests these guys) – not a particularly interesting sound, but the sensation…

Of course, if it gives a visible manifestation we adjust the sound effect to match the colour, with a reddish beam producing a growlier, edgy sound while blue or white (to contrast with the chandelier) would be more sizzly, thinner (can our friend with the nictitating membranes see infra red? A lot of reptiles can. And, since nictation is blinking, is the travel of the third eyelid sufficient for a blink?) to fit the picture. Actually you're more likely to get a boring sound like a whip crack, as air tries to get out of the beam at supersonic speeds.
 
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