Park Music

[coaster38]

It seems Swarm Island's audio has finally come back to life recently, the original soundtrack can just about be heard from a few areas after months of silence, it's a shame it's so quiet though. The Bose system in that area really used to rock and the audio brought the area to life. Perhaps an amp died during last season or over closed season? Don't remember this area ever being so quiet.

[WWTPRadio]

1 hour ago, coaster38 said:

It seems Swarm Island's audio has finally come back to life recently, the original soundtrack can just about be heard from a few areas after months of silence, it's a shame it's so quiet though. The Bose system in that area really used to rock and the audio brought the area to life. Perhaps an amp died during last season or over closed season? Don't remember this area ever being so quiet.

Sometimes amps - sometimes local residents - sometimes a combination! 

[yeah]

18 hours ago, WWTPRadio said:

Aha yes there’s an audio player behind an ice cream rack which I’m sure nobody knows how to access anymore so the IMAScore reload was never moved in there! 

The other day it was playing the old station music, and it definitely wasn't before that.

[ConnorJ]

Not sure if this is an old change done, but I’ve started noticing some rides at the park now have a new announcement which is manually controlled by the staff, presumably through a new PA system for each attraction.
 
Just now, I saw a staff member from Detonator play a pre-recorded announcement which was along the lines of “We hope you’re having a great day at Thorpe Park Resort. Why not upgrade to a season pass?” with some guff that followed after.
 
This is the 3rd time I’ve noticed it now; once on Detonator, once on Ghost Train and another park-wide (I believe) within the last couple months.
 
It appears the park are now playing adverts intermittently over the individual ride PA systems by the staff members.
 
EDIT: Just heard it again today around Colossus’ cobra roll.

Ah that's what it is, I was on park the other day and heard these

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[UserLikeNoOther]

A bit random but on my last visit I noticed that the Nemesis Inferno station audio was playing in Inferno's Pizza and Pasta with around a 1 min long track playing continuously and felt quite out of place with the fast tone.

 

 

[coaster38]

May have already been mentioned but yesterday was the first time I noticed that SAW: TR has seen some vast improvements in its audio - the 802s in the plaza are much louder now and sound fantastic, the queue line audio has also had a volume boost, and inside the station the sound effects and announcements in the queue, loading area and from on the ride at dispatch are much louder and clearer. Really adds to the atmosphere of the whole ride experience, but of course then your head gets bashed about so much you forget all about it 😂

[coaster38]

The huge overhaul of the audio systems across the park seems to be continuing. Many new speakers that had been fitted over closed season have been connected and are working (for instance on the balcony overlooking the park when you come out of the dome, and there is now audio again on the climb up the volcano on Inferno, don't remember those speakers working for years prior).

 

Volume levels seem to be different in many areas every time I visit, showing they're experimenting a little to find the best levels in various places. For example the audio around Stealth's plaza and queue is so quiet at the moment it's pretty much inaudible, but Angry Birds Land and Storm Surge have had their annoying soundtracks cranked up.

 

Many areas (e.g. the entrance plaza, Colossus & Lost City, Swarm Island, Inferno & Jungle) that used to sound pretty meh now sound amazing.

[Marc]

Noticed inferno volcano last time lol too - that’s not had audio in a good 10 years maybe more.

 

Agree about stealth - the plaza area is OK but the queue line is very quiet.

 

Noticed colossus station has lost its automatic announcement when the train is ready to go - hopefully this can be fixed, it’s a shame that the station has lost a lot of the bass it used to have, same for Stealth but hopefully that can be fixed later on!

[coaster38]

2 minutes ago, Marc said:

Noticed inferno volcano last time lol too - that’s not had audio in a good 10 years maybe more.

And it actually sounds good! Nice to see little things like this getting attention.

 

3 minutes ago, Marc said:

Noticed Colossus station has lost its automatic announcement when the train is ready to go - hopefully this can be fixed, it’s a shame that the station has lost a lot of the bass it used to have, same for Stealth but hopefully that can be fixed later on!

It had one the other day, but it was a new version which just sounds like someone reading off a script. Not very thematic.

 

As far as I know Colossus has never had any subs for the bass, the 2 Bose speakers have just been swapped out with what are, ultimately, superior RCF speakers, so I would think they are completely capable of giving much more bass, the settings probably just need tweaking. For example, the bass has massively improved in Inferno's station since reopening, but I don't think it's the Bose cannons in the ceiling as they seem to be off, they must have just upped the bass in whatever software they use which is pumping the music through the new system in there.

 

Stealth's queue and station now have a ridiculous number of speakers, and they're all large, heavy-duty RCF models. If they wanted it to that whole area could seriously rock. If they cut down on the radio host segments and adverts a bit (seeing as the WWTP Radio truck is gone, so those bits don't make much sense anymore) and focused on the music it could be great.

[SteveJ]

22 hours ago, coaster38 said:

seeing as the WWTP Radio truck is gone, so those bits don't make much sense anymore

It took me years to even notice the van had that logo, I dont think it makes any difference, the main feature is the queue entertainment and jokes/characters in the soundtrack and it makes sense with the 50s theme fine.

Great that the park are getting the sound systems back working and sounding good again

[atlasking]

Looks like the parks speaker system has had yet another overhaul! Swarm island and saws speakers have all been replaced with rcf p series and monitor Q series which sound amazing apart from saws station which has no bass but I think its due to saws speaker system still not being finnished leaving some areas without audio (by the way hello zepp it now played on dispatch!) and that they have left the old bose subs remianing making me think they are still keeping them but they have not be turned on yet.

Infernos old soundtrack is back with them new rcf subs that are pumping out the sountracks low frequency beat and lost citys speakers are sounding amazing with that great imascore sountrack. The parks amtmospere has changed alot with the new speakers giving it a refreshed feel, its looking like its going to be a great season!

[Marc]

10 hours ago, Bayorame said:

Looks like the parks speaker system has had yet another overhaul! Swarm island and saws speakers have all been replaced with rcf p series and monitor Q series which sound amazing apart from saws station which has no bass but I think its due to saws speaker system still not being finnished leaving some areas without audio (by the way hello zepp it now played on dispatch!) and that they have left the old bose subs remianing making me think they are still keeping them but they have not be turned on yet.

Infernos old soundtrack is back with them new rcf subs that are pumping out the sountracks low frequency beat and lost citys speakers are sounding amazing with that great imascore sountrack. The parks amtmospere has changed alot with the new speakers giving it a refreshed feel, its looking like its going to be a great season!

Agreed it is sounding a lot better , although as you say don’t think it’s completely finished. Also noticed saws station lacked bass, and only the bathroom sound effect had any sound, hopefully the billy speachs and the offload announcement can be fixed soon.

 

The Swarm area was very very quiet ok open day - also none of triggered effects were working either but as above I’m sure it’s not 100% finished. Overall though good improvements!

[Matt A]

19 hours ago, Bayorame said:

Looks like the parks speaker system has had yet another overhaul! Swarm island and saws speakers have all been replaced with rcf p series and monitor Q series which sound amazing apart from saws station which has no bass but I think its due to saws speaker system still not being finnished leaving some areas without audio (by the way hello zepp it now played on dispatch!) and that they have left the old bose subs remianing making me think they are still keeping them but they have not be turned on yet.

Infernos old soundtrack is back with them new rcf subs that are pumping out the sountracks low frequency beat and lost citys speakers are sounding amazing with that great imascore sountrack. The parks amtmospere has changed alot with the new speakers giving it a refreshed feel, its looking like its going to be a great season!

 

Thanks for the update, interesting to hear the changes, you seem to be the first to notice! I'm glad to hear (pardon the pun) they're making improvements still, music and sounds really complete any area in a theme park and it had been lacking in Thorpe until last year. Although it does surprise me that Saw and Swarm was done, I hadn't noticed any broken speakers in those areas (if anything Saw was louder than before in recent years). Glad to hear they've kept Hello Zepp though, really love that soundtrack, and it's very synonymous with Saw.

 

I wonder if Inferno's old soundtrack returning is going to be short lived like Colossus's was a few years ago...

[LukeP_8]

1 hour ago, EpicSmatty said:

I wonder if Inferno's old soundtrack returning is going to be short lived like Colossus's was a few years ago...

I noticed Infernos old soundtrack when I went yesterday. Honestly loved hearing it again, both Colossus and Inferno's soundtracks lost any sense of individuality when they both got remixed to feature that same bloody island tune a few years ago. I just want to hear Colossus's old theme back aswell to give the 2 coasters some unique soundtracks again. 

[Ali G]

Yes, the sound yesterday was noticably better! Walking up to Colossus was epic!

[coaster38]

On 4/15/2021 at 12:41 AM, Bayorame said:

Infernos old soundtrack is back with them new rcf subs that are pumping out the sountracks low frequency beat

Have the Bose cannons been replaced with these? Noticed new speakers in there last season but the cannons were still in place.

 

20 hours ago, EpicSmatty said:

Although it does surprise me that Saw and Swarm was done, I hadn't noticed any broken speakers in those areas (if anything Saw was louder than before in recent years).

I agree aside from Swarm's extended queue where the audio was either extremely quiet or didn't work at all last season, maybe there was an issue and they decided to replace the whole lot to bring it in line with the rest of the park? Or could have just been that it's zoned and someone had messed with the levels.

 

As Marc said, Swarm is currently very quiet so they must still be making adjustments. There'd be no point investing in all that new equipment for it to not be used properly.

 

They must have got a bargain from RCF as they've bought literally hundreds of speakers from them over the past 2 seasons. They sound a lot better than the mix of models and brands that were across the park before.

 

Having decent audio during normal operation is enough of a reason really, but I wonder if part of the reason for this huge rolling overhaul is to ensure that there is enough capability with parkwide audio for events/corporate buyouts. Most areas now have RCF line array style speakers which are capable of both background audio and nightclub level volume and everything in-between.

 

If a company wants loud music played park wide when they are renting the whole place out for a client/celebrity/launch event (think Boohoo Man event type of thing from pre-covid days) it's a bit embarrassing to let them find out that half the audio zones don't work properly or at all.

[Marc]

Saws indoor sections had its audio back yesterday sounding good although the station still sounds abit tinny, hopefully they can add a sub somewhere to improve that, think Stealth would also benefit as saw it’s Bose subs from under the station have been removed hopefully they plan to replace with new RCF ones.

 

Swarm island has also been turned up, although sound effects from the train under wing / tower still off but that could be related to the other water / fire effects currently being off.

[coaster38]

On 4/19/2021 at 10:09 AM, Marc said:

Swarm island has also been turned up, although sound effects from the train under wing / tower still off but that could be related to the other water / fire effects currently being off.

This may be due to the speakers used for the triggers being removed - there used to be what looked like a couple of Bose 402s stacked on top of each other sat under the plane wing which played the sound effect when triggered by the train passing.

 

These were removed over winter prior to (what we got of) the 2020 season. At the same time the new top of the fencing was added and a tall black pole type thing appeared near the wing, never been sure what that is, possibly a sensor to detect if there are people in the ride area who shouldn't be?

 

Looks like we won't get the audio triggers back until either that audio is worked into the rest of the system, I.e. two of the pole mounted RCF speakers nearest the plane wing are programmed to play the sound effect by linking with the track sensor somehow, OR the triggered speakers are put back, likely with new RCF models.

 

I'm not sure about the tower trigger as I was never really sure where it played from.

[Marc]

The tower speaker has been replaced with a large RCF one - you can see it if you look up as you go through the tower but it wasn’t working my last visit.

 

As for under the wing maybe there’s a new one there now just not working yet - noticed a new rock with holes like around stealth which seem to have speakers in but not certain!

[Coaster]

Why are they replacing the Bose speakers, out of interest?  Surely these are pretty expensive and therefore installed with longevity in mind?

[coaster38]

5 hours ago, Coaster said:

Why are they replacing the Bose speakers, out of interest?  Surely these are pretty expensive and therefore installed with longevity in mind?

They were pretty old, I would bet that some were still from the Tussaud's days. Because of this, a lot of them were either dead or dying quickly (e.g. areas such as Colossus with lots of rattling, broken speaker cones).

 

Yes Bose speakers do last a long time generally, and have done well at thorpe. They are more consumer level than they are "pro audio" though. RCF are heavy duty.

 

Saying that though, a lot of them were newer and still okay, such as Saw and Swarm's areas. So that leads me to think that they got a deal on bulk buying from RCF and decided to do the whole place in one go. It gives them a more consistent audio setup and it's better than having the new speakers waiting around until the existing systems die, which could cause problems mid-season.

 

As of this season it's only the new RCF speakers and some Electro-Voice EVID 3.2/4.2/6.2 models across the park now AFAIK. They began to rollout EVID speakers to many areas (e.g. they were fitted to newer areas such as Ghost Train from opening day, and were later added to areas such as the entrance bridge and Rumba Rapids) but they seem to have changed their minds, used up remaining EVID stock and bulk ordered from RCF for going forward with audio upgrades as of last year.

[Mattgwise]

I hadn't really heard of RCF but they produce some outstanding quality audio! And the bass in some areas is incredible! 

[LukeP_8]

2 minutes ago, Mattgwise said:

And the bass in some areas is incredible! 

I did kinda wonder why I could hear the pulsating bass on Inferno's soundtrack all the way from Jungle Escape... Seemed abnormally loud. Guess these new speakers were the reason, sounded great.

[Mattgwise]

1 hour ago, LukeP_8 said:

I did kinda wonder why I could hear the pulsating bass on Inferno's soundtrack all the way from Jungle Escape... Seemed abnormally loud. Guess these new speakers were the reason, sounded great.

Absolutely. Here's a very short clip... Look at it moving! This playing with the rumbling effect under the lift hill was incredible.

 

I'm very glad that the old Nemesis Inferno soundtrack is playing, but I do wonder if it is a mistake as we had the old colossus music return for two to three weeks in 2019 for it to be changed again to the Imascore stuff.

 

The ImaScore stuff on both Colossus and Nemesis Inferno just doesn't have the same atmosphere! Too slow and not upbeat enough!

 

 

 

 

[LukeP_8]

13 hours ago, Mattgwise said:

The ImaScore stuff on both Colossus and Nemesis Inferno just doesn't have the same atmosphere! Too slow and not upbeat enough!

Yup! Thats exactly what I could hear, that video shows perfectly how powerful those new speakers really are. Fastastic upgrade.

 

And ye, I really really don't like the new imascore music at all. So repetitive and all based on that same bloody island theme. Doesn't do anything at all. I dont mind the imascore music around the park, but really wish theyd leave the coaster music as it was. The 2 rides had perfectly unique and great soundtracks.