Randy Thornton
Member
The Why Series
Episode II:
ATTACK OF THE VOCALS
As I mentioned in Episode I, when you?re on the attraction and your ride vehicle moves you through the scenes, your movement acts like a natural crossfade ? as you move away from one, it fades away and while you move to the next it fades in.
GHOSTS AND PIRATES
In situations like ?Yo Ho? and ?Grim Grinning Ghosts?, your movement not only transitions you from scene to scene, but character by character. What Imagineering does here (in these specific attractions) is loop the main music bed and broadcast it through the ride vehicle and/or into the room itself (when applicable) while all the character vocals are separated on individual tracks and piped to the various regions within each scene to the appropriate characters or effects ? which could be upwards of 7 to 70+ tracks wide. You, as the rider, never hear them all at once because you are moving through them ? you hear the Singing Busts in the graveyard, but as you pass them, they begin to fade away as the other Happy Haunts begin their own ?soli? as you pass by them. All this ? 70+ characters and effects, music bed, music overdubs (the Ghost Band) and The Ghost Host are happening simultaneously and in sync with one another.
When I first got the opportunity to build the musical ride-thrus for ?Grim Grinning Ghosts? and ?Yo Ho? back in 1997, my first instinct was to make it sound like you were on the ride ? even to the point of making sure that I had the correct characters on the correct side of the audio image. This was where I made my first attempts at re-creating the ride experience. But I quickly realized that fading from the Singing Busts, or from one Pirate to another, made no sense outside of the attraction itself. It also doesn?t help that not all of the characters sing the entire song (and in the case of ?Yo Ho?, they?re all voiced by the same 5 or 6 vocalists).
So, I decided to focus on creating a listenable track as if the attraction vehicle slows down allowing you to hear the entire loop. For ?Yo Ho?, once I transitioned from the ?Pirate Overture? and ?Scare Me? cues, I began with the Pirate Chorus. Instead of just hearing that group over and over, I just decided to keep layering more and more pirates as ?the party? rages on for the three loops I used. For the end of the track, I brought in the music only bed and used these unintelligible vocal tracks of character reactions and mumblings (instead of the clear song vocals), as we drift away from the drunken sots and the track ends. For ?Grim Grinning Ghosts?, I was going to use the same concept. But it didn?t work as well. So I decided that I would start with the Singing Busts, and in the second loop use the only other vocals that clearly and understandably sing the entire song ? the Tea Party Duet. Then, in the third loop, bring back all the Happy Haunts as a grand finale. I kept the Singing Busts (but at a lower level) because by not including them in that third loop, the track sounded incomplete. Even as you ride the attraction, they may not be noticeable, but they?re still part of ?the sound?. To end the track we transition to the unload chorus and Little Leota. It?s in cases like these that I?ll include a piece of iconic dialog ? The Ghost Host parlor speech, Little Leota, ?Dead Men Tell No Tales? just for that extra touch. Though I focus on the music, those iconic dialog bits are, to me, just as much a part of the audio as the lyrics are to the songs. As I mentioned before, I completely rebuilt ?Grim Grinning Ghosts? in 2005 with the (recently discovered) original stereo recordings as I was building the Disneyland Box. So, from 2005 ?Grim Grinning Ghosts? is a new stereo track.
SEE YA LATER, GATOR! ANOTHER TIME, PORCUPINE!
I bring all this up, because by the time I got to do the ?Grand-Daddy? of all Audio-Animatronic Musical Attractions, I was faced with similar and yet totally different set of issues. I did have the separate characters that you travel past, but they were all singing clearly, and some even had different lyrics pertaining to the story or their character. If the character is singing an alternate lyric to the lead, that would mean that either I drop the alternate or carry out another full loop of the song so it can be heard (thus doubling the loop). Playing these alternate tracks in sync just confused the lyric and made it difficult to listen to. I did actually do that for Brer Rabbit?s vocals. He sings ?I? while the chorus sings ?He?. Can?t work around that ? it?s Brer Rabbit, kinda the star of the show. Again, Brer Rabbit is placed in the attraction that when you pass by him, you hear his vocal ?upfront?, while the chorus you?ve passed has faded to ?background?.
Another factor was that I had more than one song to showcase. So I looked at each song as a separate item. I sync?d all the vocals and began to mix the track to what I recall as my first impressions of the attraction ? essentially who goes first. There were some instances where vocals that were meant to be heard later in the sequence (as you passed by them), were now all part of the track. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it was distracting, and in a few instances they were singing alternate lyrics. So I made the decision to create a track that best represents the overall musical direction of the cue. For example: This group of characters is the main body of the vocals, while this ancillary vocal is a gag and, has an alternate lyric, or such a characteristic vocal to distract from the whole (remember: though they actually sing in unison, their not necessarily meant to be heard in unison). In that kind of situation, I felt I had to be faithful to the music more than the attraction. I also knew that I wasn?t going to have time on the disc for a 25 minute track. So that?s why a vocal my not be included.
In all honesty, I cannot remember the specifics of Brer Gator, or Brer Porcupine ? or whether one appears at Disneyland or The Magic Kingdom or both. I just mixed the tracks to the way the music directed me. Just as I?m sure if any of you would have mixed this track according to your own perception, I used my best judgment at the time with the goal of making a musically pleasing representation of the attraction(s). So that?s more than likely why Brer Gator and Brer Porcupine got sent down the flume into the Briar Patch.
It?s quite an amazing and technically complicated feat the Imagineers achieve in their productions. Next, I?ll attempt to explain (from my experiences) some of the technical aspects and the kind of multi-dimensional thinking required to create these great attraction soundtracks in ? The WHY Series Episode III: REVENGE OF THE WEDI.
Many thanks,
Randy Thornton
Episode II:
ATTACK OF THE VOCALS
As I mentioned in Episode I, when you?re on the attraction and your ride vehicle moves you through the scenes, your movement acts like a natural crossfade ? as you move away from one, it fades away and while you move to the next it fades in.
GHOSTS AND PIRATES
In situations like ?Yo Ho? and ?Grim Grinning Ghosts?, your movement not only transitions you from scene to scene, but character by character. What Imagineering does here (in these specific attractions) is loop the main music bed and broadcast it through the ride vehicle and/or into the room itself (when applicable) while all the character vocals are separated on individual tracks and piped to the various regions within each scene to the appropriate characters or effects ? which could be upwards of 7 to 70+ tracks wide. You, as the rider, never hear them all at once because you are moving through them ? you hear the Singing Busts in the graveyard, but as you pass them, they begin to fade away as the other Happy Haunts begin their own ?soli? as you pass by them. All this ? 70+ characters and effects, music bed, music overdubs (the Ghost Band) and The Ghost Host are happening simultaneously and in sync with one another.
When I first got the opportunity to build the musical ride-thrus for ?Grim Grinning Ghosts? and ?Yo Ho? back in 1997, my first instinct was to make it sound like you were on the ride ? even to the point of making sure that I had the correct characters on the correct side of the audio image. This was where I made my first attempts at re-creating the ride experience. But I quickly realized that fading from the Singing Busts, or from one Pirate to another, made no sense outside of the attraction itself. It also doesn?t help that not all of the characters sing the entire song (and in the case of ?Yo Ho?, they?re all voiced by the same 5 or 6 vocalists).
So, I decided to focus on creating a listenable track as if the attraction vehicle slows down allowing you to hear the entire loop. For ?Yo Ho?, once I transitioned from the ?Pirate Overture? and ?Scare Me? cues, I began with the Pirate Chorus. Instead of just hearing that group over and over, I just decided to keep layering more and more pirates as ?the party? rages on for the three loops I used. For the end of the track, I brought in the music only bed and used these unintelligible vocal tracks of character reactions and mumblings (instead of the clear song vocals), as we drift away from the drunken sots and the track ends. For ?Grim Grinning Ghosts?, I was going to use the same concept. But it didn?t work as well. So I decided that I would start with the Singing Busts, and in the second loop use the only other vocals that clearly and understandably sing the entire song ? the Tea Party Duet. Then, in the third loop, bring back all the Happy Haunts as a grand finale. I kept the Singing Busts (but at a lower level) because by not including them in that third loop, the track sounded incomplete. Even as you ride the attraction, they may not be noticeable, but they?re still part of ?the sound?. To end the track we transition to the unload chorus and Little Leota. It?s in cases like these that I?ll include a piece of iconic dialog ? The Ghost Host parlor speech, Little Leota, ?Dead Men Tell No Tales? just for that extra touch. Though I focus on the music, those iconic dialog bits are, to me, just as much a part of the audio as the lyrics are to the songs. As I mentioned before, I completely rebuilt ?Grim Grinning Ghosts? in 2005 with the (recently discovered) original stereo recordings as I was building the Disneyland Box. So, from 2005 ?Grim Grinning Ghosts? is a new stereo track.
SEE YA LATER, GATOR! ANOTHER TIME, PORCUPINE!
I bring all this up, because by the time I got to do the ?Grand-Daddy? of all Audio-Animatronic Musical Attractions, I was faced with similar and yet totally different set of issues. I did have the separate characters that you travel past, but they were all singing clearly, and some even had different lyrics pertaining to the story or their character. If the character is singing an alternate lyric to the lead, that would mean that either I drop the alternate or carry out another full loop of the song so it can be heard (thus doubling the loop). Playing these alternate tracks in sync just confused the lyric and made it difficult to listen to. I did actually do that for Brer Rabbit?s vocals. He sings ?I? while the chorus sings ?He?. Can?t work around that ? it?s Brer Rabbit, kinda the star of the show. Again, Brer Rabbit is placed in the attraction that when you pass by him, you hear his vocal ?upfront?, while the chorus you?ve passed has faded to ?background?.
Another factor was that I had more than one song to showcase. So I looked at each song as a separate item. I sync?d all the vocals and began to mix the track to what I recall as my first impressions of the attraction ? essentially who goes first. There were some instances where vocals that were meant to be heard later in the sequence (as you passed by them), were now all part of the track. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it was distracting, and in a few instances they were singing alternate lyrics. So I made the decision to create a track that best represents the overall musical direction of the cue. For example: This group of characters is the main body of the vocals, while this ancillary vocal is a gag and, has an alternate lyric, or such a characteristic vocal to distract from the whole (remember: though they actually sing in unison, their not necessarily meant to be heard in unison). In that kind of situation, I felt I had to be faithful to the music more than the attraction. I also knew that I wasn?t going to have time on the disc for a 25 minute track. So that?s why a vocal my not be included.
In all honesty, I cannot remember the specifics of Brer Gator, or Brer Porcupine ? or whether one appears at Disneyland or The Magic Kingdom or both. I just mixed the tracks to the way the music directed me. Just as I?m sure if any of you would have mixed this track according to your own perception, I used my best judgment at the time with the goal of making a musically pleasing representation of the attraction(s). So that?s more than likely why Brer Gator and Brer Porcupine got sent down the flume into the Briar Patch.
It?s quite an amazing and technically complicated feat the Imagineers achieve in their productions. Next, I?ll attempt to explain (from my experiences) some of the technical aspects and the kind of multi-dimensional thinking required to create these great attraction soundtracks in ? The WHY Series Episode III: REVENGE OF THE WEDI.
Many thanks,
Randy Thornton
