Joyful Tunes And Background Music. Experience: Sound.

Good day,

Joyful tunes at Magic Kingdom.

    Yesterday, I started my first official full lenght post of a series about the Sight experience. It is in fact our most sollicitated sense as around 70% of the data we collect during the course of our lives goes through our eyes. I will have plenty of opportunities to share more about it later on.

    But today, I want to open a second series: the Sound experience.

    Sounds and music takes a very important part in our lives. Even, if compared to sight, it's amount of data is less important, this particular sense has it's own way to help us validate and enhance what we see. Sitting on a wood bench in the middle of a park, hearing the whistling of birds will always feel nicer than a similar bench without any birds around.

    Sometimes, this sense can affect your mood (or experience) subtly enough that you can't even notice it. But more often than other, we are fully aware and appreciate the enhancement that music provides. Again, once the Guest have crossed the entrance sign of Walt Disney World Resort, he is more often than other immerged in various musical ambiances.

Magic Kingdom's train station.

    For those of you who have already visited Magic Kingdom at least once, I would bet my bottom Dollar that you can clearly remember what it sounds like to hear Walt Disney World Railroad's steam train whistle and the distinct ring of the bell as it arrives at the station. Those sounds are associated with experiences that we live and are very powerful. I bet that if I could listen to a playback of that wonderful steam train, close my eyes and think about it hard enough, I could feel like I am standing at the station.

Rockin' in Hollywood Studios.

    The sound as a ''setting'' is also used as a way to create a separation between two distinct areas inside the parks. As Guests progress inside any of Disney's theme parks, they go through different themed sections that are associated with various sound settings. When leaving an area and entering another, a different sound ambiance or distinct music gives a hint to the Guests that they enter into a new world, that a new experience is ahead of them.

    The result is pretty impressive. Disney's engineers (or Imagineers as they call themselves) understood the power of sound and made sure that the proper sound setting immerges the Guests. This is applied virtually everywhere, even where it is not expected by the Guests. I remember walking around the huge pond at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort, taking pictures, when I suddenly entered in a wonderful area filled with a soothing south american style music background. With just a few tiny speakers hidden here and there in bushes and trees, the whole area suddenly became a lot more memorable.

    Sounds and music are very powerful when used properly. Disney's Imagineers managed to use music and technology to it's potential on a very large scale. For example, during the parades, the Imagineers placed mobile devices on the parade trolleys so that the computer can track the vehicle and play the proper music or sound effect in the speakers, following the progression of the vehicle in the streets. As a Guest, you can't even notice it as your attention is drawn towards the parade itself. 

    This concludes this first overview about the Sound experience at Walt Disney World Resort. I will add more content and more details on this subject in a couple of days.

    Have a magical day,

               Frank.