Land Music

[Acolli18]

How in the world do they create the natural flow of the park music? I'm watching a park walkthrough, and as soon as they walk into the next land, you can no longer hear the previous lands music. Just curious how it is done so well, even without an echo or anything of sorts.

 

[ctechbob]

Highly directional speakers and low levels would be my guess.

 

[neoshinok]

How in the world do they create the natural flow of the park music? I'm watching a park walkthrough, and as soon as they walk into the next land, you can no longer hear the previous lands music. Just curious how it is done so well, even without an echo or anything of sorts.

These little beauties

http://www.ticcorp.com/omni_speaker_gs3.htm

 

[AntiHero]

You might find this to be an interesting read!

http://www.dustincurtis.com/how-mr-q-manufactured-emotion.html

 

[Neo222]

As neoshinok pointed out, each park utilizes the Omni Speakers seen there. They tend to set it up in the garden beds a good distance from each other, each set at a certain volume so that way it all blends in. That way when your walking to another place, you can hear the previous music fade away as you arrive in the new land.

I actually have those Omni Speakers at my shore house here, and they work just as they would in the parks. The only problem though would be the amp, which doesn't really have that defined volume control since the thing is old. The speakers however still work as they do. I walk away from the speakers, they fade out until I get to a certain spot. Then again, Disney has multiple amps for this thing...

 

[cspencer96]

I read an article once about WED doing research in the 80s with algorithms and audio control. Can't find it now, but apparently they created an algorithm that adjusts audio frequency levels and volume based on the distance between two audio emitters to trick your brain into not noticing the transition. This would all be impossible if it weren't for those Omni speakers, though.

 

[Bairstow]

You might find this to be an interesting read!

http://www.dustincurtis.com/how-mr-q-manufactured-emotion.html

The article suggests that the speakers change the volume dynamically based on the listener's location, but as I understand it it's more about very carefully calculating the appropriate preset volume for each speaker, the mix of different tracks for individual speaker arrays, and speaker placement itself.

The "Starryophonic Sound" system in place at the WDW version of Space Mountain actually does respond dynamically to listener, or rather, ride vehicle position, and the end result is roundly inferior to the onboard audio used at the Disneyland version of the ride.

 

[Rob562]

I'm not sure if the system is still active, but when we took the Keys to the Kingdom tour back in '98 or '99, our Tour Guide demonstrated the dynamic background music system for us. Apparently the system "listens" to the ambient noise levels of an area, and then adjusts the background music volume so that the music is always just in the background. But there's a built-in delay to account for short-duration loud noises, like a large tour group walking by or other loud-but-short sounds.

We were walking along the path near the wishing well by the Castle, and he started talking to us very loudly for about 30 seconds, and then stopped silent. Sure enough, the background music that had just been barely audible before was noticeably louder.

-Rob