Midway music is still a little broken

This didn't seem worth writing about in my trip report, but I noticed that the midway music installation is still a little broken in places. Specifically:

• It's too loud. I don't mean that as an old person, it's just too loud. If you have to shout over it, that's broken. In the renovated areas, it at least appears that there are enough speakers to cover the area, so if coverage is the reason for the volume, it isn't the right reason.
• Ditto around the beach.
• There are still places where music is coming out of horns, and it sounds terrible. The upgrade to "real" speakers I'm sure is continuing.
• Riddle me this: As you're going up the Skyride ramp (at the Corkscrew end), there is a small speaker at the top pointing down at the ramp, while a larger one is pointed down at the midway. Both are playing different things. I'm trying to understand how that happens.

On the whole, they're getting it right, and I'm thankful that they're playing non-ancient, well chosen music. I just think they need to think a little more critically about how they're handling it right now in terms of volume and the strange mix of different things from different speakers located next to each other.

I totally agree. Music is good for setting up the park atmosphere, but when we couldn't have a conversation in the midway it was too loud. My son was holding his ears.

Rougarou has some neat sound effect music to it, unfortunately we could barely hear it during the day, we noticed it after the park closed during PP ride night.

The consistency is really bad, both in queues and around the midways. You'll be somewhere that the music is so loud it's deafening, move ten, twenty feet, and now you can't even hear it.

Then there's the area out by Top Thrill Dragster where they put in a new speaker.. right behind a bench. And it's on a short post, so it's aimed right at the back of the bench.

They're work on it, indeed, but it's been a long time coming.

Am I the only one who actually misses the older retro music?

I liked love shack, the beach boys, and madonna! lol

chris9ty said:

Rougarou has some neat sound effect music to it, unfortunately we could barely hear it during the day, we noticed it after the park closed during PP ride night.

It does?

In three days at the park last week I never heard a thing.

I liked the older retro or traditional music (whatever you want to call it) better as well. The music played in the last few years gives the park a somewhat edgy atmosphere that I find can get annoying after awhile. At least mix it up with sets of some older stuff in addition to the newer stuff.

What Pete said!

I just spoke my thoughts about music on the Boneville thread.

I think some of the music being played is too rough on the ears in the midways for a day in the park. It's not a dance floor nor a rock-out, it's an amusement park, lots of families. I think teens can adapt to some calmer music, believe it or not, I did when I was one. And I didn't make fun of it either, gee, what a concept.

And please, a lot of the FunTV music last year was,,, not fun, some of it was actually depressing with depressing visuals in the videos. Please, make it peppy and lighter mood. If they're catering to a certain element they're actually enabling, make then snap out of their emo crap while waiting to ride MF.

I would never have expected Cedar Point to play Head like a Hole back in the day, why are they playing stuff like this now?

Jeff, i did notice that there is a spot for a "Fun Tv" with just the speaker in place as of now, playing whatever audio is live for the tv's at the moment, at that Sky Ride location. Top part of the ramp where you would wait to load, pointing down the ramp.

Kevinj- Yes! The sound clips had a serene section with birds chirping, then grasses rustling and then the howl. We could hear the occasional howl when we were eating lunch at the Dragon's Inn, but not the rest of it until the park was empty.

CPboy77 said:
Am I the only one who actually misses the older retro music?

I liked love shack, the beach boys, and madonna! lol

Personally, I like and can appreciate all genres of music. However, during the end of the Kinzel era, the music loop was waaayy outdated, and time for a modern change. I really enjoy the midway music now.

During the 2010 operating season, I remember going to Dorney and hearing modern music and songs around the park and wondered why CP never offered that. Quite frankly, I can't hate on the updated soundtrack around the park.

In terms of volume, I think the park needs to focus on the "happy-medium". For example, FunTV is hard to listen to while in line for Gatekeeper, but the midway (as some have just reported), is too loud in certain areas. Maybe remove or relocate some speakers here and there.

A mix of both eras and genres of music would be a huge "vote up" in my book! But the old constant looping midway music (and especially the old God Bless America), is not welcome IMO.

Last weekend, I was at the park with my friend, and we were in line for the sky ride (going towards the main gate), and I noticed while we were in line talking, that the music being played there was SUPER loud, to the point where we had to talk louder to hear one another! I didn't like that. Something's gotta change there.

The biggest volume issue I have are the ride operator spiels being blasted through horns on certain rides (like Power Tower if I remember correctly). The sound is so piercing that I proactively cover my ears to avoid damage. I get that they're trying to blast the volume to overpower loud rides, but it should never be done to the point of pain/discomfort.

Ooh, I'm so glad you posted this. I love talking about this stuff.

IMO, the music is totally blaring in a lot of places, and that's OK at certain times. I like when the end of the night is approaching, and they turn on the lights and crank out the tunes as a fun, party vibe, but when you walk past some of the midway speakers, it seems they are aiming to blast your ear drums right out. I also noticed on the Sky Ride building, they were blasting music from a horn, when right next to it, there was a brand new speaker just hanging. I'm wondering if they might have just added that and haven't switched?

Environmental music is supposed to be just that. It's supposed to create ambiance, and enhance your surroundings - it shouldn't overcome them. It needs to be turned down to a level that you can appreciate that it's there, but you don't have to shout over it. Again, I'm totally cool with it turning up at the end of the night when all the lights come on. That's the atmosphere they're going for, and it's kind of like a last hurrah for the day and it leaves you feeling good and energized about the time you just spent.

The new One Systems stuff sounds pretty amazing, and I'm impressed with it, though the Gemini midway seems to be mostly mid range and is lacking a little punch, it seems better this year than it was last. I need to bring up the fiberglass Community loudspeakers from the Dragster era, though. Those things are god awful. I haven't paid much attention to them in recent years, but we were at Soak City the other day, and they use those to disperse sound over the wave pool and other areas - talk about muddy sound. I thought I was listening to Beats by Dr. Dre :) - Sure, they're loud, and they provide massive coverage, but I think those are better suited to voices and announcements than anything else. I don't understand, either, because the rest of the Community line is pretty impressive.

I know, I'm kind of a nerd about this stuff, but I can pick up differences in sound profiles between different brands of speakers, usually. The ones that get it right are the ones that sound good no matter what. IMO, Kings Island does environmental sound the best right now, specifically on International Street. They have a nice Bose Professional setup that provides an excellent sound presence, without being overly loud or harsh.

Ffej said:
The biggest volume issue I have are the ride operator spiels being blasted through horns on certain rides...

This is a big pet peeve of mine when it comes to the smaller rides. Something like Scrambler for example will have one horn for the entire ride/queue area. Instead of this they need to add actual speakers evenly around the ride envelope to spread the sound. I'm sure they are slowing removing the old horn speakers but if they don't replace single horn locations with multiple new speakers, its still going to sound bad.

Jeff said:

• It's too loud.

Yep. And I don't for the life of me understand why anyone thinks it's OK for it to be that loud. It seems borderline dangerously loud in some spots.

It's not a requirement that music be heard on every square inch of midway. If you can't get music to every nook and cranny without blasting music to uncomfortable levels near the speakers, then you just don't have music in every nook and cranny.

While we're on the topic of unnecessarily loud music, I went to the Bandstand USA show last weekend and the accompaniment track was deafeningly loud. So much so that I could barely hear the singers at all. I was thankful for the few moments of a cappella. Whenever there was a featured singer in a number, the soloist's balance was fine, and I could tell they have a fantastic cast. But whenever it was the full ensemble, they were totally lost in the mix.

I did email the park afterward (Noggin should be especially pleased by that ;) ) and I got a response saying they'd forward my comment to the audio engineer. I know it was only the third day of shows, but I'm still surprised whoever was working the sound didn't pick up on it.

CPboy77 said:

Am I the only one who actually misses the older retro music?

I liked love shack, the beach boys, and madonna! lol

Oh dear lord, I never want to hear another note of love shack or beach boys again! also not that Train song "calling all angels" ever again. Good riddance. It gets stuck in my head for 3 weeks. I do love the newer music selections better, but I agree in some midways the volume is too loud. I like most of Madonna's songs though.

birdman said:

While we're on the topic of unnecessarily loud music, I went to the Bandstand USA show last weekend and the accompaniment track was deafeningly loud.

Yes. I was going to mention this. The volume level was so painful on my ears that I didn't enjoy the show, even though there was some great talent. It was embarrassing because I kept covering my ears when they were singing, and it felt like I was insulting them, even though it was nothing to do with their singing. Next time I'll remember to bring a pair of earplugs.

I think most of the sound engineers in the park must be almost deaf.

During CoasterMania I took in the All Wheels show, and the music on that one was way too loud. Not just too loud in terms of being uncomfortably loud (which it was) but empirically Too Loud.

So far as I am concerned, I'm 45 years old, so I expect that I am going to find things to be subjectively too loud. "Turn that damn music down, and get off my lawn" and all that. That's subjective, and I can expect and accept that.

But I am also an audio-visual engineer, and I have a very simple objective measure for when the music is Too Loud. Quite simply, when there is audible distortion caused by overloading some stage of the process, it is Too Loud. Maybe it's because someone is shouting into a microphone and bottoming out the diaphragm. Maybe it is because a preamp is turned up too loud and it is clipping. Or a power amp is clipping. Or a digital recording is clipped. Or a speaker is overloaded. If the audio isn't clean, it is probably too loud.

Let me also give a shout-out to the Corkscrew boarding platform, where two horn speakers of the type normally used in stadiums (stadia?) are mounted sideways, perpendicular to the throw pattern they are designed for, and turned up past the point of extreme clipping. Feed those with a preamp turned well past the point of audible distortion, and provide a signal from a microphone which is being swallowed by a ride operator who is shouting at the top of her lungs. The result is not merely painful, it is totally unintelligible. I so want to take a pair of wire cutters and put those horns out of my misery.

Incidentally, if you have that "Rollercoaster" score album that came out a few years ago...that was recorded Too Loud. As was just about any hit record by the Moody Blues.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.