Designing A Universe of Sound

I learned that Ben Burtt coined the term sound designer for his position in the film, some of the characters were developed entirely through sound, and the soundtrack was so complex that it fooled people into thinking it was more advanced than it was. Prior to the Star Wars films, the role of sound on a crew was broken up between a production mixer, who would record sound on set like dialogue, and a sound editor, who worked in post to modify the sound with the visuals. However, the film required an array of sounds to be created, and Burtt's involvement in this lead him to give himself the title of "sound designer". I also found it interesting that characters like R2-D2 were developed entirely through sound, and even the simplest of beeps could give insight into the character's emotion. In addition, it's interesting to consider that although Star Wars was revolutionary in the realm of sound, it was shown most of the time with a single channel monaural sound system, as theaters weren't equipped for anything more complex than that.