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The Alton Towers Music, Video and Other Multimedia Thread

Am I the only one that would love to see Towers start using synthesizers for music? I know people love their orchestral, but it'd be nice to hear something more simple and charming in the park, of that's rides, or areas.
 
s_g_k said:
Have you not heard the soundtracks of Galactica, Oblivion or The Smiler?
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I never really saw them as pure synthesizer music. They use the elements of one, definitely, that can't be ignored, but I feel here just a bit too dramatic and heavy in background music to be proper synthesizer music. I was thinking of music more on the line of Graham Smart and Ian Habgoods music.
 
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I think what made the Graham Smart era music great was more the kinds of offbeat or unexpected sense of fun and creative arrangements. Maybe that's perhaps missing now from many UK soundtracks. A lot of it is like trailer music now, high production but risking being generic or not especially memorable.

The production methods are a lot more advanced now to be able to create almost anything you want
 
Trooper Looper said:
I never really saw them as pure synthesizer music. They use the elements of one, definitely, that can't be ignored, but I feel here just a bit too dramatic and heavy in background music to be proper synthesizer music. I was thinking of music more on the line of Graham Smart and Ian Habgoods music.
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You aren't talking about instrumentation then, rather the feel or style of the music. Furthermore, much of Graham Smart's stuff was in an orchestral style but was composed with the significantly inferior orchestral samples/synths available in the 80s and 90s in comparison with the very realistic ones of today. I severely doubt the park would ever want to return to that sound because it very much evokes that period and not the 2020's!
 
BritishThemeParkArchive said:
I think what made the Graham Smart era music great was more the kinds of offbeat or unexpected sense of fun and creative arrangements. Maybe that's perhaps missing now from many UK soundtracks. A lot of it is like trailer music now, high production but risking being generic or not especially memorable.

The production methods are a lot more advanced now to be able to create almost anything you want
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That last sentence pretty summed up the problems with current music being made for AT. There aren't any limits that force the mucisians or composer to think outside the box to create unique music. Sure they can have all of this new technology and countless musicians, but all their music sound almost the same.

Graham used actual sounds for his rides, like a scene in Toyland tours involved just the sound of machinery and object that are supposedly originating from the rides characters and props to create a very fluid piece of music while being very unique and fun.
 
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I think IMAscore have done a good job over the years and have created some great tracks. The Smiler and Wicker Man being pretty memorable. Unfortunately, I find Simon Allen's work rather generic and forgettable, I did like The Welcoming music however.
 
In my opinion, the Graham Smart tracks are/were very good tracks, but very much sound like products of their time. A lot of them have a very distinct 1990s feel to them, and I’m not sure that tracks produced using those same methods would really work today.

As for who I’d like to do soundtracks for Towers; I’m very happy with Merlin’s current partnership with IMAScore, as I think their work is stunning!
 
I think one of the biggest issues with music at towers is the crap speakers or systems in place. Take Galactica it has a good soundtrack, but most of the speakers around the ride and queue are broken/off. There’s one old Bose speaker half way through the queue which works for the whole queue line, which is so loud you can hear it from the car parks. Half the time the audio in the station is off, and even those new speakers they added around the ride area when it became galactica often don’t work properly.

You have other areas the same, you’ll often find the speakers outside the Welcom-inn off, making that area silent. So I don’t know if that’s just it being turned off, either too quiet or just broken.

So there’s no point spending 1000s on top audio when you have awful cheap speakers.

Towers/ents answer now is to just fill a are with as many speakers as possible, Mutiny Bay now probably contains 30+ speakers all blasting their music out, which is great, but I’m not sure how much thought is actually put in to these speakers and the locations, rather than just putting them all over an area to fill the area with music, rather than directing the speakers in to the right areas of the park. This then often leads to sound clashes, X sector is the best example, stand near the bottom and you’ll get a mixture of the Smiler blasting out with the speakers near the shop, Oblivion blasting out around the drop and then Spinjam blasting pop music out. Last season was worse when you add Enterprise in to the mix.
 
Matt N said:
In my opinion, the Graham Smart tracks are/were very good tracks, but very much sound like products of their time. A lot of them have a very distinct 1990s feel to them, and I’m not sure that tracks produced using those same methods would really work today.

As for who I’d like to do soundtracks for Towers; I’m very happy with Merlin’s current partnership with IMAScore, as I think their work is stunning!
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Funny, I never came across it thinking it had a 90s feel to it, though that's maybe because I was raised with a lot of old media and don't find it outdated.

I think Ian Habgoods music is a perfect example on how theme Park Music should sound nowadays to coexist with all of the heavy Orchestral music going on currently at parks around the world.

I still think simple synthesizers can still work, as I just found this a couple days back on the Internet. It's the Wallace and Gromit theme, but done in synthesizers, its great! It's definitely feels very 90s, but In a good way that it doesn't sound outdated.

Credit goes to S.A's Music Studio


I'm not saying that parks should just 100% back to music like this, but I think they need to take a lot of notes from it. Make more simple and fun music using more old technology to create sounds you wouldn't hear in modern music or Orchestrals.
 
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Does anyone have the ghost screams from Duel? The original ones that had been in use since 1992. I have an audio tour with them in that I downloaded a few years ago but now there's no evidence the files I have even existed on the Internet. They've just simply disappeared. Problem is they're too mixed in to the track I have.
 
Simon Nemeth said:
Does anyone have the ghost screams from Duel? The original ones that had been in use since 1992. I have an audio tour with them in that I downloaded a few years ago but now there's no evidence the files I have even existed on the Internet. They've just simply disappeared. Problem is they're too mixed in to the track I have.
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The 2003 SFXs do exist. I can't believe you has the original sound effects though, that's brilliant!!! Really do hope you can find them. Unfortunately, there isn't anything on the Internet of The Haunted Houses 1992 audios outside of the music sorry I believe. The only person I believe to have them is British Theme Park Archive, now named Euro Theme Park Archive. He used the sound effects in his Haunted House POV on YouTube. You can tell the Ghost screams and separate from the footage.
 
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Trooper Looper said:
The 2003 SFXs do exist. I can't believe you has the original sound effects though, that's brilliant!!! Really do hope you can find them. Unfortunately, there isn't anything on the Internet of The Haunted Houses 1992 audios outside of the music sorry I believe. The only person I believe to have them is British Theme Park Archive, now named Euro Theme Park Archive. He used the sound effects in his Haunted House POV on YouTube. You can tell the Ghost screams and separate from the footage.
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I found a project under the title 'Dark Rides Project', I believe on DailyMotion a few years back that has since been deleted. On that channel there were 2 audio tours for Hex, the very original style and the current much darker style and also an audio tour of The Haunted House that somehow contains quite a few uncirculated sound effects. There was also the very original Hex cinema video with the annoying balding old guy, which I also have.
 
Wasn’t sure where to put this, so sorry if it’s in the wrong place, but Attraction Source have uploaded a POV of two of the Rollercoaster Restaurant tracks from the food’s point of view:

It’s certainly interesting to see just how much force the food has exerted upon it in places, particularly on the looping track!
 
Skyscraper said:
Hopefully it's just a coincidence and for Halloween! I fully expect Sub Terra to be themed to match Nemesis being re-tracked.
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Possibly, buy why when there is no reference to P42 in Scarefest and hasn't been for years? The virus in P42 was B10NST, a reference obviously to the building it was taking place in. I'm sure it is just coincidence, and if Sub Terra opens it probably will have its original storyline - but maybe they'll interweave some of P42 into it? Just find it curious.
 
Trooper Looper said:
Terror Tomb, also 1994 (but not the Gutair solo, that was done by a different individual, I can't remember his name sadly.)
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I thought that Graham Smart composed Juke Box Jewel? He included it on his Bandcamp.
 
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