Mono/Stereo


Club 33

Playlist Author
This has certainly become a fascinating topic! It is always a pleasure to have the folks that actually work on the music we enjoy in the parks and on CD here to join in our discussions.

Those are some great loops you worked on- the HISTK Movie Set loop is a particular favorite, and I found myself standing around that playset for an hour this summer just to determine the order the tracks played in. Luckily no one thought I was a pedophile. At least Disney actually provided some useful information on that one. I am curious as to one thing however- according to my recording the loop is only about 44 minutes long even though all the tracks together total about 52 minutes. Since there are certainly loops that play longer than 52 minutes, why shorten it?

The point you bring up as to playing speed is a good one- I often find that given whatever combination of playing speed and recording speed that the original tracks do not line up with my recording without slight tempo alterations. I know it will frustrate Jay that I go to such lengths to exactly match the playing of the loops. :p

It is indeed frustrating that Disney isn't able to provide loop information most of the time, seeing as this information obviously exists. WDW has at least had some information available- at Disneyland they not only have no information to offer but actually pointed me to the fan-created (and often incomplete, not to mention it hasn't been updated since 2007) musicloops site ironically suggesting that it is indeed the job of the fans to figure it out. Hopefully they don't start pointing people to Brigante's site. Hey, Jay- maybe once we finally get the loop listing section up we can get them to point to us!
 

SeaCastle

Playlist Author
I tip my hat to you, sir. Do you know how many tracks were scored at these sessions?
After some digging I don't have the number of tracks yet but I can tell you that there was at least 5hrs 36 mins of material recorded for the Splash BGM tracks including outakes and rehearsals. There may be more but I need to keep digging.

5 hours and 36 minutes of Splash Mountain music? I can totally dig that. :)
 

ebbelein

New Member
[Merged topic "BGM - Does It Exist in Stereo?" starts here. —Admin]

I was wondering if the tracks Disney recorded especially for the old area bgms were originally produced in stereo... The tracks from the old Main Street loop ("Flitterin´ for example) did appear on severalofficial albums only in mono... Were there no stereo versions or didn´t the album producers just take a stereo source?

Same thing for PotC - the instrumental tracks appear on all albums (including the new mixes on the "musical history" 6-CD-set) only in mono... while the music tracks created for the World´s Fair 3 years earlier are in stereo! Does somebody know how they were originally recorded and what does still exist?

ebbelein
 

eyore

DLRP explorer
Playlist Author
[topic=4329]Mono/Stereo[/topic]

Some interesting bits in this thread if you missed it.
I've asked the same question (more or less) in a different thread. Would they have bothered as the speakers were mono?
Did the World's Fair have stereo speakers? Did Disney take a stereo source and then convert to mono so the two channels played as one for the parks?
Looks like the masters for those that appear on the albums are mono or surely they would have used the stereo version?
Something I have wondered about for some time.
Mono was far more common at the time of the World's fair (stereo equipment was expensive back then, I remember wishing for a stereo player but they were nearly all pieces of furniture and several feet long). It was early 70's by the time they were small enough for me to afford. Maybe they made a big effort with those to be "up to date"?
I'll watch this thread with interest.
 

The Trout

Member
It varies wildly, as far as I can tell. Though they only end up in the parks as mono, there were stereo masters of many BGM tracks on the Forever kiosks.
 

eyore

DLRP explorer
Playlist Author
I suppose that makes sense. At the time they were made, not every album was made in stereo (mono was the big seller due to equipment cost and size - still valves back then). I suppose they used what was to hand. I wonder about the Disney recorded stuff? Did they make the effort to record in stereo or just use the old standard microphone in a studio and use "as is".
maybe we should offer a prize for the earliest BGM track in stereo ;)
 

gmeader

Member
A lot of the early BGM (late 50's early 60's) was recorded to 35mag. My best educated guess (since I wasn't there) is that the original recordings were done as a multi-track (6 stripe mag) recording and then mixed down to mono. Of course they may have also just mixed it live in mono (to save mag cost) and been done with it too.

What I can say (since I was there) is that all the BGM original recordings (late 80's - mid 90's) that I worked on were recorded in stereo. All the bluegrass style BGM used at WDW Splash, TDL Splash and various other locations was all recorded in stereo. As I answered on another thread many times we would record the music in multiple stereo pairs in order to have some options when it came time to dumb it down to mono.

When mastering the BGM we would always listen through an inexpensive overhead speaker mounted in the ceiling with the appropriate level of crowd SPL fed into the surrounds. This allowed for a close approxiamtion of the actual enviromnment the music was going to be heard in.
 

ebbelein

New Member
Interesting insights, Soundman, thanks a lot!

concerning the potc stuff i think chances are good that they were recorded already in stereo - take for example the early "yoho demo song" track on the first potc anniversary cd: even this was recorded stereo (or multitrack)... whether the music finally gets a stereo release on the official albums seems to be question of how deep the producer digs into WDI archive... and of course if the original multitrack tapes weren´t dumped...

i like eyore´s idea of the "find the earliest stereo bgm" price ;)
 
When mastering the BGM we would always listen through an inexpensive overhead speaker mounted in the ceiling with the appropriate level of crowd SPL fed into the surrounds. This allowed for a close approxiamtion of the actual enviromnment the music was going to be heard in.

This does explain a heck of a lot, though... why certain edits on tracks end up being "good enough" for in-park use... when they sound pretty jarring when listened to outside of context.
 

eyore

DLRP explorer
Playlist Author
It is an interesting insight. "Let's make the BGM sound good under XYZ circumstances". I've always said I preferred the actual park music to any reconstruction - now I know why. Its those tweaks that make it "park music" (I usually try and listen to some in my garden with the speaker a little distance away). Not only need the edits be less smooth but quiet bits can be edited out (as they wouldn't be heard) or increased in volume - the possibilities are endless. I'll look at the loops and edits in a different light now. Thank you.
 

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