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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.

Sorry lads, I was struck down in my prime by a nasty cold and didn't want to taint this trip report with my cold medicine infused delusions. Day 12 After actually seeing the typhoon first hand and hearing all hell going on during the night, I was sure I was going to open my curtains today to see Japan in a post Godzilla state, but nope all still standing and better yet the weather looked lovely. After checking the Disney site to make sure they were unaffected, I hastily jotted down the attractions that tickled my fancy (thankfully more than DisneySea...), then we headed out to... Tokyo Disneyland - https://rcdb.com/4959.htm Now while I 100% stand by my comments about DisneySea being slightly disappointing, I do feel bad for having to report that, so you'll be glad to hear that whilst I still absolutely prefer Disneyland Paris, Tokyo Disney park had a much better showing than it's resort counterpart. In order to get to the entrance for Tokyo Disneyland you have to walk on an overpass over the coach park, well now they are just rubbing salt in the wounds... Once in, things felt much more "Disney" than they ever did at DisneySea. There was a proper atmosphere in the air and while it never reached that of Disneyland Paris, it was great to feel that "magic" again. Tokyo's castle looks so beautiful. We first headed to Adventureland to ride Splash Mountain and Big Thunder. It turns out that you can't just trust where you think attractions will be located because neither of these rides were in Adventureland, never mind... Correcting our mistake we made our way through Adventureland and over to Critter Country to experience Splash Mountain. That looks awesome. Splash Mountain For years of following Disney parks online I'd been really interested to try Splash Mountain and it didn't disappoint me for one second. Incredibly detailed theming, an adorable story (this time featuring a defined ending), a nice long ride time and a surprisingly thrilling final "splash", to coin a phrase, this thing was fab. Owing to it's location in relation to Critter Country, we next headed over to ride... Haunted Mansion Phantom Manor is one of my favourite dark rides and is joint first in regards to my favourite attractions at Disneyland Paris. It's a stunning attraction that has stuck with me since I first rode it all the way back in 2005. Because of this, I was so excited to try out the alternative mansion, but there was a problem... For reasons only known to the insane, Tokyo Disneyland had their Haunted Mansion in Holiday Nightmare flavour in EARLY SEPTEMBER! So instead of getting to experience the legendary Haunted Mansion, I got some emo Christmas bulls**t featuring A Nightmare Before Christmas. For principle I'm not even going to give an opinion of Holiday Nightmare and I guess I'm going to have to wait till I go to the US to finally get to ride the Haunted Mansion... Following this crippling disappointment we finally made our way over to Big Thunder Mountain. Big Thunder Mountain - https://rcdb.com/1183.htm Sorry to keep mentioning Disneyland Paris, but I'd rank their Big Thunder with the list of coasters that sit just below the top 10. The theming, the dive under the water to start the coaster, the truly out of control feeling it creates and the insane ending, I absolutely love it. During this trip, me and friend kept saying to each other, it almost feels like every ride here is a far tamer version of their great other halves. The more I think about it now, the more I agree with that statement. For reasons unknown, the country that's home to Flying Dinosaur, Eejanaika, Arashi and Pyrenees (4 of the most intense roller coasters ever made), seems to also be home to the Disneyland with tamed down rides. Big Thunder Japan was no different. While the theming as expected is outstanding, the coaster itself rides much more like a Vekoma Junior than the out of control French version and the ending is much much more lacklustre. It's still a great ride but when you've done other Big Thunders it doesn't quite live up. Making our way back to Adventureland, it was time for me to experience my first Jungle Cruise. Jungle Cruise After almost doing Hong Kong Disney before, I had seen on their website that their Jungle Cruise contains pyros and all sort of madness kicking off, so this probably didn't help in regards to forming my opinion of Japan's version. While Jungle Cruise was a lovely little sit down and bless the poor skipper girl who really was giving it all she had. Sadly due to stupid Hong Kong I was destined to come off disappointed, when the ride just ended without any major pay off. Star Tours Much like the French one, to a man who hasn't seen Star Wars, this was just a rock dodging simulator. It's good but it ain't no John Cleese dark ride... Space Mountain - https://rcdb.com/1185.htm Next up was Space Mountain, another attraction I'd be longing to experience for a long time and sadly another attraction that led to some disappointment. Now this time, the disappointment doesn't stem from the Paris one being better, probably because I haven't ridden the Paris one... This time it comes down to the experience as a whole falling far short of what I was promised. The coaster itself is super super tame, which would have been fine if there was anything decent to look at but there wasn't. So after the interesting lift hill section, you just end up mincing around in the dark while space sound effects play quietly on the on board audio. I'm sure the American Space Mountains feature a score that causes instant orgasm among Disney fanboys, so why doesn't Tokyo have that? It's not all doom and gloom though because on the first dispatch our train got hand pushed into a maintenance bay and we got evaced, the aforementioned fanboys wouldn't of been able to keep it in their pants, I just laughed. Though if I ever get a VALHALLA evac I'm sure I'll be in the same boat... It turns out I didn't take any pictures of Space Mountain, but you all know what it looks like. After this we had lunch at the pizza place in Tomorrowland, after the pizza place in Fantasyland refused to take the pineapple off the pizza for me, fools... Pirates Of The Caribbean Exactly the same as I remember the Paris one but this time featuring really lifelike looking Jack Sparrow animatronics, it's really good, though nothing new. Western River Railroad After using the statement, "might as well do the train", we were certainly glad we did because it was great. A nice sit down, with fantastic views of the area and even some surprise sections out of nowhere. Gadget Go Coaster - https://rcdb.com/1184.htm While they have certainly done a lovely job of fitting this Vekoma Junior in, it still doesn't really excuse that Disneyland has a Vekoma Junior to start with. Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin I still can't believe that Roger Rabbit has a ride at all at a Disney park, so for that alone, I love it. Monsters Inc Ride & Go Seek Even though I had no idea how to make this interactive ride work properly, I absolutely loved it. Monsters Inc is one of my favourite Pixar movies and this ride did the source material justice and then some. With everything we wanted to do (and some extras) knocked off, we took things easy for the next few hours and hit up various other attractions that sounded worth our time. PhilharMagic This 3D theatre based musical adventure was fantastic, easily the best surprise at the park. Next up we did the essential photos infront of the castle. Yeah, still beautiful... Pooh's Hunny Hunt To say anything other than it's amazing, you NEED to try it, will completely ruin this awesome trackless dark ride. Hilarious to the point of tears and a technical marvel, essential. Pinocchio's Daring Journey Exactly the same as the Paris one but still a great little ride. Small World I'm not sure if it's a Tokyo exclusive, but this variation featured Disney Princesses within the attraction and that added an extra element of enjoyment to the ride. We had a couple of rerides and then got ourselves in position for the nighttime castle show. Now for the last few hours I had really started to get into the Disney Magic and as the sun went down, I didn't feel a million miles away from the feelings I felt while walking through the Paris park. Unfortunately, things were going to turn sour to cap the day off... Disney Dreams at Disneyland Paris moved me in ways I rarely feel like expressing and with my friend who's done all the Disney's except the US ones telling me that ALL the Disney castle shows are near enough as good as Dreams, I was unbelievably excited to see how the Tokyo one was going to play out. Well... Instead of the show being featured around Disney movies, tied together with a magical story, this time the show was based around the park itself. This meant instead of seeing Rapunzel swinging from the turrets or hearing Elsa singing Let It Go, you were treated to crudely animated recreations of the park's attractions, while each ride theme played. Tied together by an out of tune overly pretentious song about how great the park is. The 2 most insulting parts were, the Haunted Mansion section, when you can't even ride the proper ride at the moment and an extended part about a paddle steamer... Worst of all though, no fireworks at all, only a few flame throwers that went off every once in a while. I could literally feel the magic being sucked out of me every second this waste of time continued. Disney Dreams in person > watching Disney Dreams on YouTube > thinking about Disney Dreams > going back to the hotel > Tokyo Disney's current castle show Thank you for reading, next time, our last day in Japan, featuring, Thunder Dolphin and Kawasemi.

Went here yesterday. I'll do a report thing in a few days, but let's talk Hyperion. Rode it three times (first train of the day, back row, once in row 2 and another ride in back row). And it's a great coaster once it warms up. First ride was alright, 'fun' at best, but nothing special. But in the afternoon, it's a different beast. The airtime really chucks you round and makes you thankful that Polish staff are taught to really staple you into your seats. It whips round the turns really quickly. It's just, generally, very good. However, the back is quite rattly and vibratey, especially in the second half, which takes away from things a bit. The park are onto a winner with this. It's the headliner the park needs right now. It looks intimidating, packs a punch and is great fun all round. One thing to note though - the batching process is weird. There's 4 batching rows, confusingly labelled 1, 2, 3, 3. These lead to doors which open to the station area. Row 1 lets 4 people in at a time and is for front row. Row 2 is for 'individuals' and lets in 8 at a time. The two row 3s let in 8 at a time each. When waiting at the doors, Doors 1 and 3 open, so people find their rows. Once everyone has found a seat, Door 2 opens and the 8 people fill up the gaps. Very weird system, poorly explained (the explanation is at the front of the batching area, which can't be seen when there's people there!), yet was sorta working? I don't like it though. Also, on my first ride, I got SOAKED by the splash. I was literally the only person to get wet, but I got properly drenched. My other rides were fine and I never saw anyone get as wet as me, so I dunno if it was just an unlucky go or what. Anyways, tl;dr - Hyperion is great. Reckon most will enjoy it. Go ride it if you can.