Tower of Terror effects status watch

[Rodj]

An update with Foxtrot,
SOME of the VVC speakers are working again(replaced?), not all 6 though. With profile 4(I nickname it the "Big Drops" profile), I can tell it is the speakers that play the BGM and the scream(plays as soon as the cable snapping sound plays) with some SFX, however the other VVC speakers that play mostly SFX and the "machinery" sound entering the drop shaft are still broken. Its really hard to describe it, because they all play a different variation of the sound effect for a "main" sound effect. One could be with reverb and the other speaker would play it without a reverb.
One other thing I noticed from the video I watched that was taken yesterday, even though they were pointing the camera at themselves, is that I saw a strobe flash before the drop cameras would flash, Could the sign strobes(or at least one of them) be working again?

 

[Rodj]

A good update:
Foxtrot is no longer profile locked! Alpha and Bravo finally have the bell and door close SFX no longer mixed up(This happened in mid 2016 and was corrected on Charlie and Delta in July 2018). Though unfortunately Echo's 7th floor Horton doors are no longer opening again and Echo's left side starfield door fiber optics are messed up again(center part not lit).

 

[Rodj]

Ok so I want to add on to my previous post now that I have seen a video of both Alpha and Bravo...
They manage to un-mix one thing and now another thing is mixed now. Alpha is now playing Bravo's pacing of Mark Silverman's narration lines(IE there is a longer gap between "about to ascend" and "into your very own" on the Bravo/Charlie pacing while there is no/little gap on the Alpha/Delta pacing). Bravo is still normal, it's like 2009(or 2011 with Alpha) all over again.

The 5th dimension speakers between the starfield doors and drop shaft doors are drunk right now. When coming up to the 5th dimension, it starts playing the BGM of when you are entering the drop shaft and then during the drop sequence, it starts playing the Mark Silverman narration of entering the drop shaft("You are about to discover"...). It is heard at about 1:59 in the first video.
Here are two videos for reference:

 

[Tom Morrow]

It's mind boggling that they can't get the audio right and haven't been able to get it right since literally 2008 when they replaced the original analog audio equipment.

 

[SoFloMagic]

I rode today (foxtrot) and could have sworn I heard music I'd never heard before in the drop shaft. It was the profile I call "fake out" where they take you to the bottom like it's over, the window breaks, then you go back up. Is that what was missing from Echo for so long? To clarify, I'm not taking about the glass break sound or any effects, I mean like PUMPING music. I only remember hearing it for a few seconds, but it was jarring.

 

[Rodj]

I rode today (foxtrot) and could have sworn I heard music I'd never heard before in the drop shaft.

Was this what you were hearing? This is the window projection profile: and

I also want to give an update with Echo, the 8th floor Horton doors are now broken as well as the 7th floor doors.

 

[Tom Morrow]

Ride is still in complete shambles, an absolute embarrassment. I can't believe people care about the yeti over this... and they probably wouldn't if this thread was stickied too.

 

[SoFloMagic]

Was this what you were hearing? This is the window projection profile: and

I also want to give an update with Echo, the 8th floor Horton doors are now broken as well as the 7th floor doors.

Oh man I don't know that I've ever heard that much (first video). What I heard/noticed was right after the window projection and you start to go up - that music (same as the video). It was loud. I think I've been on this drop profile like 10 times or so in the past year or two (I feel like one of the sides was locked to it for a while?) and I don't remember ever hearing music - it was shocking.
I also could be crazy.

 

[Model3 McQueen]

Ride is still in complete shambles, an absolute embarrassment. I can't believe people care about the yeti over this... and they probably wouldn't if this thread was stickied too.

I wonder if any of the suits are stickin' it to TDO for not approving mission cheapout?

On second thought, several attractions need TLC that they're just not getting.

 

[Rod Serling]

An update I would like to make. Sometime last week or over the weekend, Echo finally has its VVC speakers working again!

Foxtrot is currently unknown. Now if they could only get Echo's shaft speakers loud again, at least loud enough like Foxtrot's are, because now it is sounding like how it did from Mid September 2018 to August of this year where the VVC speakers were loud but the shaft speakers are barely audible.
I am a little skeptic that programming also played a role in this, because during the same time frame(September-August), the "machinery" sound entering the drop shaft was MIA, but as soon as the VVC speakers went out, the sound effect returned(but quiet, as it played from the shaft speakers), and now after the VVC speakers are working again, the sound effect is MIA again.
@Rod Serling any info about this?

The audio issues are unfortunately more than just speaker issues. There are some wide-scale audio programming issues that they're trying to work out. As soon as the VVC speakers were fixed on Echo, library Echo started only playing the thunder about 50% of the time and would sometimes have no audio at all. And then on top of that, the audio at unload echo would be completely out of synch, sometimes not playing at all and sometimes starting once all the guests have already exited the AGV.

 

[Model3 McQueen]

The audio issues are unfortunately more than just speaker issues. There are some wide-scale audio programming issues that they're trying to work out. As soon as the VVC speakers were fixed on Echo, library Echo started only playing the thunder about 50% of the time and would sometimes have no audio at all. And then on top of that, the audio at unload echo would be completely out of synch, sometimes not playing at all and sometimes starting once all the guests have already exited the AGV.

So do they need to initiate a complete renovation of their audio system? It sounds like too many clips are tied to each other in some way.

 

[Rodj]

I want to bring this topic back up again. Nothing really seems to have been done since last month. It seemed that in some of the corridor scenes, the ghost projection was not clearly reflecting onto the floor anymore, but now it is again. Echo's left starfield door in the 5th dimension was working properly for a short bit of time but then the center fiber optics stopped working again. One of Foxtrot's VVC speakers is messed up and has a "tremolo" effect to it(constantly raising and lowering in volume very quickly). I will sometime soon make a new thread talking about the history with ToT's speakers, but all I wish for now is for Tower to be loud again(All speakers fixed, tuned up in volume). #MakeTowerofTerrorLoudAgain
Here is a video of Foxtrot showing what I am talking about:
@Rod Serling I just want some kind of confirmation that Tower will get its needed fixes done.

 

[Tom Morrow]

I appreciate your efforts in this thread. Tower of Terror has the worst, or among the worst show quality of all WDW attractions and its downright embarrassing and depressing. Unfortunately, little tweaks and fixes here and there that you've been monitoring aren't going to cut it. The attraction needs a top to bottom overhaul of the show system at this point with a team that genuinely cares about doing it right. Any minor improvements that seem to pop up randomly can now be assumed to be flukes because they either get changed back or something else gets worse.

 

[AnimeDude892]

I want to bring this topic back up again. Nothing really seems to have been done since last month. It seemed that in some of the corridor scenes, the ghost projection was not clearly reflecting onto the floor anymore, but now it is again. Echo's left starfield door in the 5th dimension was working properly for a short bit of time but then the center fiber optics stopped working again. One of Foxtrot's VVC speakers is messed up and has a "tremolo" effect to it(constantly raising and lowering in volume very quickly). I will sometime soon make a new thread talking about the history with ToT's speakers, but all I wish for now is for Tower to be loud again(All speakers fixed, tuned up in volume). #MakeTowerofTerrorLoudAgain
Here is a video of Foxtrot showing what I am talking about:

More like #MakeTowerOfTerrorGreatAgain

 

[Model3 McQueen]

This guy did a terrible job recording, but man just feel the environment and listen to this recording. Opening year was amazing.

 

[Thelazer]

This guy did a terrible job recording, but man just feel the environment and listen to this recording. Opening year was amazing.

Actually, so listing to it, I can find some issues. Some points in the narration I can't hear it over the backing string hits, etc..
Perhaps in the later years, an attempt was made to clean up the volume and postion the naration more "front and center"?

Also from the 94 video, the narration in the drop shaft "You are about to discover" is from what I can tell nearly identical to current placement in some of the drop profiles, not sure I see the timing concern there.

 

[Tom Morrow]

As of last week, to no surprise, audio still awful, quiet, missing entirely in some places, and several seconds out of sync during the drop sequence.

Library pre-show almost inaudible. BGM almost inaudible throughout. Audio on ride itself quieter than someone coughing. The drop sequences used to at least be Dinosaur-levels but now they too are quiet.

Corridor scenes still look horribly beat up and uncalibrated.

All drop shaft effects broken/missing.

The only thing that looks and sounds okay is the lobby and boiler room.

Disney, this is shameful.

 

[Rodj]

I have something to report from a livestream from today, it isn't big or anything, but I still want to mention it. Finally after so many years of not working, the floor strobe lights in the VVC in Foxtrot are working again! I do not know yet if it was fixed in Echo yet but hey, they actually fixed another long broken effect.
The VVC speakers are still horrendous in terms of volume and fluctuating in Foxtrot, though the shaft speakers at the top do seem like they have gotten a little louder to what they have sounded like before late Spring of 2019. The VVC volume is so low that when the window shatter sound plays out of the unload floor speakers next to the drop shaft or in the drop shaft, it sounds about 3 times as loud.
Videos for reference:



EDIT: A new video came up that shows the strobes working in Echo now as well.

 

[Rodj]

An exciting update just two days later, the "secondary" sign strobes on Foxtrot are now fully working again, plus more of the lightning strobes in the drop shaft seem to be working now! This could be a redemption arc. Whoever fixed it, Disney should give them a raise.
Video:

 

[Rod Serling]

Some exciting news: WDI and operations finally got a budget approved to fix some of Tower's show effects.

We should see a full replacement of VVC speakers, which has begun already, they've been slowly fixing the strobe effects, the steam in the boiler room is green-lit to be turned on again provided that WDI can provide a steam-like substance that isn't water based, and the radios in the boiler room will turn on again and will be playing this loop