DisneyLeo18
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Space Mountain Audio
- Thread starter PatNSCT
- Start date
I had the chance to ride Space Mountain on Monday (9 times, in fact), and was happy with the new audio enhancements. I've always found WDW's silent SM to be far superior to the boring DL-style version, and I would have been perfectly happy had the WDW Mountain never gotten a soundtrack -- so I was a bit apprehensive about whether the addition of a soundtrack and sound effects would ruin the ride.
I was pleasantly surprised. As others have commented, the soundtrack and sound effects really work well together to enhance the experience. It's hard to get a true feeling for the enhancement just by watching (listening to) a video -- when I listened to a couple of recordings of the ride-through, it sounded like the music and effects were fading in and out abruptly and awkwardly.
When you're actually on the ride itself, though, the change in intensity of the music works much more effectively. You can hear music everywhere around you once you've peaked the lift hill, which gives a great feeling of expansiveness -- but changes in the loudness of the soundtrack as you hurtle down the track are smoothly handled. You don't get the exaggerated "Doppler effect" in person as you do from audio recordings of the experience, as most recording devices have a hard time perfectly capturing the effect of the ambient background music overlapping the music emanating from the speakers that the vehicles are passing directly.
My main complaint would be that the music and effects clearly weren't working perfectly on either of the tracks. The music on Omega was somewhat less loud, and the very effective sound effects for the final helix were missing. In contrast, the music on Alpha was at a perfect volume, but many of the sound effects for the drops and pre-helix turns were missing. I suspect that many people who ride one side or the other, but not both, would come away feeling that the audio additions aren't effective. In reality, somebody just needs to fix all the speakers so that both tracks get the optimal effect -- right now, there's one perfectly operating set of soundtrack + sound effects that happens to be split between the two tracks. (And, as others have noted, the lift hills are still too noisy -- they largely obscure the first part of the soundtrack. One hopes that this will be rectified someday.)
The enhancements are unique and particularly beneficial for people who are just a bit taller or shorter than the norm. I usually have a hard time hearing the soundtrack on DL's Space Mountain (not to mention other attractions with built-in speakers, like Spaceship Earth) unless I force myself to slouch down uncomfortably into the seat. (On the other hand, I have shorter friends who are just the "right" height for built-in speakers -- but complain that the music is way too loud.) The new off-board speakers fix that problem, as the music and effects are equally audible for all riders.
I was pleasantly surprised. As others have commented, the soundtrack and sound effects really work well together to enhance the experience. It's hard to get a true feeling for the enhancement just by watching (listening to) a video -- when I listened to a couple of recordings of the ride-through, it sounded like the music and effects were fading in and out abruptly and awkwardly.
When you're actually on the ride itself, though, the change in intensity of the music works much more effectively. You can hear music everywhere around you once you've peaked the lift hill, which gives a great feeling of expansiveness -- but changes in the loudness of the soundtrack as you hurtle down the track are smoothly handled. You don't get the exaggerated "Doppler effect" in person as you do from audio recordings of the experience, as most recording devices have a hard time perfectly capturing the effect of the ambient background music overlapping the music emanating from the speakers that the vehicles are passing directly.
My main complaint would be that the music and effects clearly weren't working perfectly on either of the tracks. The music on Omega was somewhat less loud, and the very effective sound effects for the final helix were missing. In contrast, the music on Alpha was at a perfect volume, but many of the sound effects for the drops and pre-helix turns were missing. I suspect that many people who ride one side or the other, but not both, would come away feeling that the audio additions aren't effective. In reality, somebody just needs to fix all the speakers so that both tracks get the optimal effect -- right now, there's one perfectly operating set of soundtrack + sound effects that happens to be split between the two tracks. (And, as others have noted, the lift hills are still too noisy -- they largely obscure the first part of the soundtrack. One hopes that this will be rectified someday.)
The enhancements are unique and particularly beneficial for people who are just a bit taller or shorter than the norm. I usually have a hard time hearing the soundtrack on DL's Space Mountain (not to mention other attractions with built-in speakers, like Spaceship Earth) unless I force myself to slouch down uncomfortably into the seat. (On the other hand, I have shorter friends who are just the "right" height for built-in speakers -- but complain that the music is way too loud.) The new off-board speakers fix that problem, as the music and effects are equally audible for all riders.
Space Mountain
Well-Known Member
Bravo 229
Member
I rode it Monday and have mixed feelings about it. On one hand, I'm glad the audio is unique to the MK SpaceMtn, though I would've liked something in the style of SpaceMtn: Mission 2. But in my opinion, it sounded like I was in a night club on the Jersey Shore that lost power with random explosions thrown in. At some points, the audio seemed non-existent (in a few sections) and I could barely hear it over the chains on the lifthill. Even though I found it to be odd, it adds to SpaceMtn and is better than no music at all!