Leaderboard

Just seen this as the thread has been bumped but wow... how much nicer did Thorpe look and flow as a park without that awful plastic slide dumped in the middle of it?

Apologies for the long pedantic post, but to save misunderstanding, here's the full story behind Vampire's audio over the years! Obviously all the following is more technical info, no guests are gonna go in Vampire thinking 'hang on this is the wrong mix' – but the point is for the music to sound good and have good effect, and clearly this is not happening today. The ride currently sounds awful. Here is where it gets pretty complicated and you need to consider how technology has changed massively over time to get your head around it. Let's break it down to: Production tapes (pre dubbing, pre downsampling) 1990 Ride 'dual zoned' mix 1990 stereo cassette mix 2016 Smart mix The original music would have been produced from tapes as a high quality production master by the composer in 1990. A standard mix for listening would have been in stereo obviously, but for use in the ride it was mixed differently. Theme park audio is usually always in mono mix, or 'multi mono' if its a score for a whole ride that changes as you move through it. This is because a stereo image requires a left and a right speaker, but in an attraction you're constantly moving around space with usually multiple speakers playing the same track, so it makes more sense to have it in mono. Vampire actually had a 'dual' zoned effect where the same music played throughout the station, where the organ stage played the organ instrument, and the backing track played through the rest the station (guitar in both). This opened up the sound a bit more and gave the effect of the organ playing the actual organ part. To do this effect, a mix with split organ and backing was sent to Sparks (who produced the Vampire station), with one on the L channel and other on R. This wasn't a traditional stereo mix, it was more of an installation mix, so would sound great standing in the station, but would sound bizarre played on a home stereo. Sparks also dubbed it with the familiar screams and thunder sounds. This mix was unique to any other mixes, which is why all other versions sound slightly different. However, because of the technical limitations of the time, the ride track needed to be downsampled to play on solid state EPROM chips, which could only hold a certain amount of memory. The downsampling means it's lacking bass, but otherwise is good and wouldnt have been noticeable on the big station sound system – as anyone who went in Vampire in the 90s would remember it still sounded great! However, in mono, it wouldnt sound so good in isolation on a home stereo. This zoned effect was lost in Vampire around 2000 when the sound system was changed. From then on it played as one zone throughout the station, but was the same 'mix'. Then there was a souvenir cassette that was sold in the Chessington shop in the 90s, this was a very different mix to the ride version – and was in stereo (for listening). This is the one more commonly heard online. Although a more polished mix, the sound quality has always been dire, because the same warbly digital transfer has been passed around since forever (the original cassettes are hard to come by). Somehow this was the track that Chessington replaced the original with in 2014 when the sound system was changed to mp3 playback. What! It sounds awful due to the poor quality of the transfer from cassette and is not edited to loop correctly. Then a few years back the composer put up his own version (the Smart mix), from his own tapes, pre-downsampling... BUT it was actually yet another mix, half the 'cassette' version and half the 'original' version. This is the best quality version of the track available, but doesnt have the zoned effect or the 'rawer' guitar. After years of trying to find the original track, I first found just the backing part on its own, which only had the guitar and organ on it faintly. This is what's on Soundcloud, edited to sound less 'mono' and with the organ part turned up a bit. More recently I finally found the organ track to go with it, so will update the Soundcloud track soon. Have sent this to Chessington. These are the downsampled, dubbed tracks that played in the ride from 1990 to around 2000. So, not full listening quality and would sound weird played on a stereo, but would sound good restored in the dual zones in the station. Much better than the current dodgy mp3 being played. Ideally, a brand new mix should be struck from the original master tapes (if they still exist with the composer) to recreate the dual zoning and the more 'raw' original mix – but without the downsampling, since this is no longer necessary with today's playback technology. Combine this with a repaired sound system and it would sound amazing. However, the original composer seems to be completely uncontactable. So, there's the saga of Vampire's audio! Once sounded classic, now sounding very lame with the poor recording they're using at the moment. But, simply putting back the orginal mix on a broken, mono system probably wouldnt make much difference. What it needs is a new, overhauled sound system and a full quality zoned mix.

So after the disaster that was Fright Nights 2018 something really needs to be done for 2019. What I want them to do and what I think they'll do however are VERY different. What I want them to do Make it a separate ticketed event - I genuinely think this is one of the most crucial things Thorpe need to do to get Fright Nights up to the standard it should be at. First off, it would give them time to transform the park, it would also hopefully address some of the queue problems, then it would add an extra level of income from the tickets. Sure it's a risky move but I am sure it could pay off if done correctly. In my opinion the more Thorpe can do to emulate HHN the better. Cut the crap and put some budget behind the event - So Merlin's excuse for Big Top not returning is due to the cost of the tents? Yeah sorry not buying it. If Dr Frights a small independent event can build their entire event inside tents I refuse to believe Thorpe can't invest in just one. The simple answer is Merlin got lazy and thought they could get away with a skin and bones event. If they want it to grow into the successful event it should be (and has been in the past) they need to stop lying to us and put some budget in the event. Cut the number of outdoor mazes - Sure Thorpe is tight on space, but having 4 full on outdoors attractions with very little variety absolutely killed the event this year. It's hard to tell the difference between the four as there's very little theming in most of them (excluding Platform). Sure Do or Die had containers, but even they felt empty and pointless. It all felt like a very last minute event this year with the lack of effort that was put into the design of these attractions. Get rid of the IP's - All of the best mazes at Thorpe have been non-IP based. Big Top 2017 was an absolute blast, and I hear classics such as Experiment 10, Cursed and Seven were fantastic too. While the creative team behind all of these classics have gone, I think Thorpe needs to find some fresh young talent to reinvent the entire event and yes that does mean removing Saw Alive and both Walking Dead attractions. Get an external team to work on the event - Considering rumours state the creative team at Thorpe is a little bare bones at the moment wouldn't it be a good idea if Thorpe got in an external team to rework the event? There's quite a few teams who would be more than happy to work with Thorpe. AtmosFear and Tulleys seem like obvious choices, but my personal preference would be Unlocked Vision Entertainments the fab team behind FEAR Avon Valley and Tayto Park's Halloween event. They've worked with Thorpe before on the campfire stories show, so it seems like a perfect fit. Their mazes are unique and have some great intensity to them. I think they could deliver exactly what Thorpe need. What do I think will happen? Nothing - Call me pessimistic, but I doubt we're going to see some big reinvention of the event next year. If we're lucky Vulcan Peak won't return and Blair and Dead Creek might merge into one maze, but otherwise I can see very few changes coming. Shame really, I genuinely don't think I can be bothered to make the effort to visit next year if nothing major changes. Why put more effort into visiting than the creative team put into designing the mazes.

It was a cool themed part of the queue, under a canopy covered in ivy and fog. You'd walk between tombs and past grave plaques on the wall. It hid the ugly building from view as you walked in and made the space feel very different to the horrible concrete square. There used to be bat sounds from the rafters. Then you'd head into the dark tunnel with the flickering lanterns and windows, which used to have choir and tolling bells echoing inside. There was also a simple pepper's ghost effect in one of the windows which hasnt worked properly for years, and more detail/better lighting behind the windows. This was before they started batching before the station too, it was much creepier when you used to queue in it rather than breeze straight through. I remember it being a classic build up to the grand station, but declined massively over time (bad maintenance as usual). It just feels like walking into a tin box now, since like any ride the effect was all in the sound, lighting & scenery..

Figured I'd reignite this topic slightly and confirm something suspected for a while. Some may have noticed for a few years now that there is always a single entire row of empty seats on Quantum which are never used during operation and at first, I always believed they were broken restraints, but after the experience I had on 31st October, the staff operating it confirmed after I pointed it out they were closed off to allow themselves to cross from one side of the platform to the other. Since only two operate the either ride now instead of three usually, the batching area is left unmanned during the ride's operation, hence why they are never used anymore these days. Usually I've had no problem with this and realise of course more staff = more costs, but given it reeeeeeealy slowed everything down and there was so much faff involved that evening, it's times like that I wish the batching gates were used once again with an additional staff member to speed things up on both sides of the platform during loading/unloading. Once can hope it can be run like this once again!

Would have thought you of all people would have realised a sarcastic post when it's slapped across your face. Clearly not.