we're all probably familiar with how
important music and sound effects are in
film and theater these elements bring
more depth and emotion to storytelling
and the same holds true for what we do
at Imagineering sound design in our
parks presents some interesting and
unique challenges and opportunities
let's hear from the experts so you build
this land and it's got everything that
you dreamed of but it doesn't really
come to full life until you start to add
music and sound so when we first sit
down we create an audio centric version
of this story where we'll build off of
the backstory that's been created by our
show writer and we'll flesh that out
with audio details what are the types of
sounds you hear how do you hear them
does it sound different at night than at
day is this a scary place is this a
whimsical place what is the motivation
for everybody that may live in this
place there's so much to it there's not
only just like the musical theme or
underscore but there are sound effects
there are character voices there's a
couple of different ways in which you
experience music as you walk around
Disneyland there's a background music
track almost everywhere that you are and
a lot of times these are tracks that are
pulled from many different sources we
have music researchers that sit down
with the creative directors and they
come up with the feel the mood the
energy of what a space should be and
then they go off and they listens to
thousands and thousands of different
music cues and then they eventually come
down to fit the story to fit the mood
and to fit the emotion that we're trying
to impart on our guests when we're
looking at music for an attraction
oftentimes that starts from scratch
we'll go out and find a composer usually
one that had worked on a film property
or one that has created music that's
appropriate to this new experience we're
creating and we'll work closely with
them to design the music in a way that
can present well in a specific
attraction music this is so key to a
major attraction experience because it
lets you know how you're supposed to
feel it accentuates the sea
me too imagine imagine Pirates of the
Caribbean
without the theme song yo ho yo ho a
pirate's life for me imagine it's a
small world without the song it's the
heart of the attraction there are some
interesting practical considerations for
how to deliver these sonic elements
without taking guests out of the story
considerations such as where to place
the speakers what kinds of speakers to
use and how to keep the sound in one
area from being heard in other areas our
sound designers work very closely with
the people who design the sound systems
this is a singular effort because the
effect that you're trying to achieve is
very dependent on your choice of speaker
location your choice of speaker we look
very carefully at how all the speakers
are aimed and where the sound will
probably be perceived as you walk around
the park there are dozens of very small
speakers that are just a few feet away
from you but they're hidden by you know
all the devices we use plants hidden to
the design of the facilities we take
very special care of merge points areas
where two tracks could possibly collide
there are very very directional speakers
that will push sound only in a certain
direction and those are helpful in
keeping sound contained and then there
are materials that will absorb sound
very rapidly so it'll drop off quickly
and you kind of know that sometimes you
just need a boundary between space a and
space B to just stop the sound from
going and then of course there's volume
how loud is the sound knowing it has to
be loud enough to be heard over a big
bunch of people so it can be too quiet
and in the case of treasure Cove there
are beautiful soundscapes as you move
from the areas that are themed around
the Spanish theatrical building that you
have flamenco guitar in the background
and beautiful Spanish music the sounds
you hear coming from the jungle are
different there too when you approach
the Pirates Building you have that grand
score and that music that draws you to
that building and then you work around
the band you work into the more the
Caribbean area where the sound of
tropical birds just overwhelms you the
design of the sound and the music all
moves with you and doesn't bleed from
one place to the other so you have a
sense again of journey which was really
a key theme in our land in the case of
Pandora once again we want you to feel
completely enveloped in this imaginary
world some other planet this environment
of sound changes all day long from Sun
up to the closing of the part so it's
non-repeating like a natural world the
sounds that you hear in the morning are
totally different than the sounds you
hear in the middle of the day and the
sounds you hear at the end of the day
and the sounds you hear at night and
then secondarily there are little
stories in those sounds so if you listen
carefully you can hear mating calls and
mating calls don't sound like alarm
calls and you can hear alarm calls
territorial calls you can hear little
dramas taking place in the forest around
you and when that all comes together
it's like a wall of sound that you walk
into when you walk into this world that
surrounds you and helps you to believe
that the place is real the audio team
that put together the sound of the world
as you walk around Pandora built this
wonderful living breathing organism of a
land but we wanted to create the
attraction experience as something
different so at the start of the Q line
you still hear some of these natural
worlds but as you get closer and closer
to the moment we're actually going to
get on the ride we start to strip these
sounds away and you find yourself in
almost a sterile lab environment with
hospital like sounds and then as you get
closer
to the experience that physical spaces
around you start to contract and they
get smaller and they get smaller and we
start to build in this throbbing tone
that was comprised of a bunch of
recordings I did at a power plant you
can almost feel that air is energized
with suspense and it culminates in
you're sitting in this very confined
space on this link chair that has this
futuristic driving tone that plays off
of that energy and then when you go
through this leap moment all the sudden
all of those natural sounds come rushing
back at you a hit you like a wall of
bricks you just overcome by it because
we've stripped that all away we created
a synthetic environment and then we
blast you back into the natural world
and it really takes your breath away so
what will your land sound like what
music will you choose to support your
story and theme will it be slow and
moody or fast and exciting address these
questions and more in the next exercise