Research your WDW soundtracks

[MonorailMan]

A friend of mine saw me looking at the Extinct Attractions web site and, without telling me, bought me the downloadable version of the Spaceship Earth soundtrack because he felt bad that I've been going through some rough times. (He's a good guy. )

I noticed a few things about the 14-track soundtrack that you might want to take into consideration.....

The site mentions that they got the direct reel-to-reel tracks for both the Jeremy Irons version as well as the Walter Cronkite version from Disney, and were digitally remastered for the CD or download you buy. They also stated that both versions of the "ride-throughs" were on the CD/downloads: One version with the narration, and one version without. However......
--The Walter Cronkite version sounds like someone held a tape recorder up to the speaker while they were riding the ride, which makes for a pretty bad, noisy audio recording where you can hear riders talking. It's the exact same track that I found online for free.
--There was no ride-through with just the music/without the Walter Cronkite narration, as they said there was.

Also.......

--I noticed the song "Tomorrow's Child" was in an "AIFF" format as opposed to the other 13 tracks, which were MP3s, which before listening to it, made me assume it was ripped directly off of a CD.....and it was. It's not the original version from the ride itself, but rather the version that was for sale in the late 80's on one of the WDW soundtrack tapes/CDs that was available in the parks, which I already have. (For those of you who are thinking I'm insane for knowing the difference between the two, think of it this way: You know when Disney records songs to use for a specific sequence in a movie.....but then records another version of that song that's slightly different for you to buy on CD? It's like that. For example, watch the "Whole New World" sequence in "Aladdin", and then listen to the CD version of the song. It's a different version altogether. The movie starts the song with a long flute and string statement which correlates with the magic carpet lifting off the ground, whereas the CD version starts with a short 4-measure piano statement. The same goes for "Tomorrow's Child". The two versions were slightly different....and I prefer the original to the one that was sold on CD.

Sorry......I just needed to get that off my chest. Music is about the only thing that's getting me through this hard time right now.

 

[DVCajun]

I can relate to your passion. I have an extensive collection of WDW park music that I've collected through the years -- throughout that time I've weeded through the very bad, hand-held microphone versions and ended up with a rather sweet, high quality collection. It's always a work in progress, and I hardly consider my collection to be complete, but I sure enjoy listening to the sounds of WDW while I'm at work! My faves are the Innoventions and the International Gateway area loops.

Are you a fan of mousebits.com? They don't have any commercially available stuff there.

 

[Tony-NJ]

I checked out mousebits - how does one listen to a torrent file?? I'm very challenged

 

[MonorailMan]

I can relate to your passion. I have an extensive collection of WDW park music that I've collected through the years -- throughout that time I've weeded through the very bad, hand-held microphone versions and ended up with a rather sweet, high quality collection. It's always a work in progress, and I hardly consider my collection to be complete, but I sure enjoy listening to the sounds of WDW while I'm at work! My faves are the Innoventions and the International Gateway area loops.

Are you a fan of mousebits.com? They don't have any commercially available stuff there.

As Tony said, I too am pretty clueless when it comes to torrents. I've tried on numerous occasions, but have never gotten them to work.

 

[NikkiPants]

That's disappointing for you
I'm sorry you are having such a tough time with things lately.
Hang in there

 

[Saxton]

To download a torrent you'll need a P2P client (peer to peer) such as Azureus (it's a free download). You should be aware of a couple things - first security is a big concern, you're opening up a path to your computer and you should really understand how it works before you continue. And second - a lot of the stuff that's available as bit torrents is copyrighted, you're basically grabbing something (a movie or music) off someone else's hard drive and they don't legally have the right to share it with you. But aside from those issues once you download the torrent you'll have the complete album or movie.

 

[MonorailMan]

That's disappointing for you
I'm sorry you are having such a tough time with things lately.
Hang in there

Thank you, Nikki. I appreciate it.

To download a torrent you'll need a P2P client (peer to peer) such as Azureus (it's a free download). You should be aware of a couple things - first security is a big concern, you're opening up a path to your computer and you should really understand how it works before you continue. And second - a lot of the stuff that's available as bit torrents is copyrighted, you're basically grabbing something (a movie or music) off someone else's hard drive and they don't legally have the right to share it with you. But aside from those issues once you download the torrent you'll have the complete album or movie.

The first thing I did when I first used Limewire was go into the privacy settings so no one could download anything from my computer. I'm not sure Azureus is the same, but I'd think it would be. (By the way.....I've only downloaded old Nintendo games that are no longer sold. You see.....I am a good boy. )

 

[MonorailMan]

I should've added this in my initial post, but I forgot:

Two more things that kind of annoyed me......

--At the beginning of one of the tracks there is a 7-second "ad" for the site where it was purchased. If you've paid for a soundtrack, should ads even be present? *inhales* Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

--About 3 or 4 of the tracks could've really been omitted due to the fact that they repeat several of the portions of the ride you've heard on other tracks. (For example, one of the tracks repeats the music from the "Rotating-backwards-and-seeing-Earth" segment of the ride which is heard in 4 of the other tracks. Why did they add this? Who knows.) Basically, this soundtrack is extremely repetitive, unlike most of their other soundtracks that they sell online.

I'm not ridiculously upset. (I can't be--I wasn't the one who paid for it. ) I'm just trying to give you a heads-up if you decide to buy this soundtrack.

 

[LA1984]

I can relate to the trouble you're having. I've tried for years with P2P clients like Limewire - and more recently with BitTorrent clients like Azureus Vuze - to find quality WDW music. You are very lucky to find one that is CD quality. Every now and then I'll find a track or two off of Pirate Bay. The real trouble is finding seeders from which to download.

My all-time favorite find is the Epcot Concourse theme from way back in the 80s, and yet I STILL have not found a full version of it ANYWHERE. But it's so cool. It has synth and orchestral music all tied together in this magical Epcot medley.

However, I've found more recently that I don't necessarily have to download that much anymore. There are a few great WDW streaming radio sites out there. I visit Subsonic Radio (which is @ subsonicradio.com).

 

[Saxton]

The first thing I did when I first used Limewire was go into the privacy settings so no one could download anything from my computer. I'm not sure Azureus is the same, but I'd think it would be. (By the way.....I've only downloaded old Nintendo games that are no longer sold. You see.....I am a good boy. )

Limewire is terrible! I work on a lot of friends and coworker's computers and I never seen any system that used Limewire that wasn't infected with viruses and worms. I head up an IT department and one of the employees decided to install Limewire on his work laptop (goverment issued I might add!) and it was so infected that we just wiped the whole system and reinstalled everything - and we've got top notch anti-virus software installed but it was still infected. Make sure you scan your system on a regular basis for viruses and keep your anti-virus software updated. But MM - you've got a Mac if I remember so you're probably ok.

 

[DVCajun]

I have a mac also, so I don't have the same concerns re: viruses that I did as a PC user.

Re: torrent files, I learned about them *because* of mousebits.com!! And boy, was it worth the effort!! The torrent file itself does not contain anything you can listen to. That file is basically a "map" for the peer to peer client (i.e. Vuze) to follow to find the file you want to download. So you download Vuze (google it) and then when you download a torrent file and open it, Vuze will take over from there. You'll be able to follow the progress in the download section of the Vuze program, and after it's done, you'll find the file in your Vuze Downloads folder on your desktop (that's where I put all mine, for easy reference).

As far as legal concerns, mousebits.com is very careful not to put anything that's commercially available on their site. Everything they put up is also very high quality.

Our conversation isn't about pirating, but since someone brought up that topic, I thought this article would be an interesting addition to our discussion: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122966038836021137.html

Depending on the agreement, the ISP will either forward the note to customers, or alert customers that they appear to be uploading music illegally, and ask them to stop. If the customers continue the file-sharing, they will get one or two more emails, perhaps accompanied by slower service from the provider. Finally, the ISP may cut off their access altogether.

No more lawsuits against individuals, apparently. The RIAA has suffered some serious PR damage over the past decade in the way they've handled the various lawsuits against individuals, some of whom were deceased, some of whom were little girls.

Anyhoo.

If anyone needs a little help with the torrent thing, I'd be happy to help. Just PM me.

 

[TuckandStuiesMom]

Sorry to hear about your tough times MM and thanks for the heads-up on the music files.

 

[MonorailMan]

......My all-time favorite find is the Epcot Concourse theme from way back in the 80s, and yet I STILL have not found a full version of it ANYWHERE. But it's so cool. It has synth and orchestral music all tied together in this magical Epcot medley.

However, I've found more recently that I don't necessarily have to download that much anymore. There are a few great WDW streaming radio sites out there. I visit Subsonic Radio (which is @ subsonicradio.com).

Try taking a look at this CD. There's a bunch of older Epcot songs on here that played at the entrance and that was piped in through the speakers around the park (mostly Future World). Lemme know if it has what you're looking for.

Epcot background music

Limewire is terrible! I work on a lot of friends and coworker's computers and I never seen any system that used Limewire that wasn't infected with viruses and worms. I head up an IT department and one of the employees decided to install Limewire on his work laptop (goverment issued I might add!) and it was so infected that we just wiped the whole system and reinstalled everything - and we've got top notch anti-virus software installed but it was still infected. Make sure you scan your system on a regular basis for viruses and keep your anti-virus software updated. But MM - you've got a Mac if I remember so you're probably ok.

I haven't used it in a while, but it's actually on my "ancient" PC.....which wouldn't surprise me if it happened to be infected. I bought it in 1998 and pretty much all it does well is play old Nintendo games, and MP3s. I haven't tried to salvage it because it's so old and it basically does what I need it to do. Luckily I've managed to clear any important files off of it several years ago.

......As far as legal concerns, mousebits.com is very careful not to put anything that's commercially available on their site. Everything they put up is also very high quality.

Our conversation isn't about pirating, but since someone brought up that topic, I thought this article would be an interesting addition to our discussion: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122966038836021137.html



No more lawsuits against individuals, apparently. The RIAA has suffered some serious PR damage over the past decade in the way they've handled the various lawsuits against individuals, some of whom were deceased, some of whom were little girls.

Anyhoo.

If anyone needs a little help with the torrent thing, I'd be happy to help. Just PM me.

I bet Mousebits would be surprised what's actually for sale on the internet. The site I've gotten a couple WDW soundtracks from (including the one I mentioned above) has some pretty obscure music that I'd never think would be available to the public. Some of which includes Monorail audio....music you hear on Main Street......music/narration from the original People Mover........and even music you hear in Club 33 at Disneyland. The thing I haven't been able to figure out yet is who/how many people own the copyrights to these pieces of audio since they've been handed over to a third party for release.

Sorry to hear about your tough times MM and thanks for the heads-up on the music files.

Thank you very much. It wasn't a problem.

 

[LA1984]

Try taking a look at this CD.

Thanks for the link! I just might purchase this CD.

 

[DVCajun]

The thing I haven't been able to figure out yet is who/how many people own the copyrights to these pieces of audio since they've been handed over to a third party for release.

I'm a bit confused as well.

I checked the CD you linked and I have to admit my jaw hit the floor when i heard the innoventions music start playing. I didn't know that was for sale ANYWHERE, and in fact I always used to wonder where the internet radio guys got their pristine copies. I now have my own pristine copies, but that's only through years of luck in collecting.

This Extinct Attractions website -- do they own those copyrights? I'm so confused.

Did you check out mousebits?

 

[MonorailMan]

I'm a bit confused as well.

I checked the CD you linked and I have to admit my jaw hit the floor when i heard the innoventions music start playing. I didn't know that was for sale ANYWHERE, and in fact I always used to wonder where the internet radio guys got their pristine copies. I now have my own pristine copies, but that's only through years of luck in collecting.

This Extinct Attractions website -- do they own those copyrights? I'm so confused.

Did you check out mousebits?

A few of those pages on the EA site had me giggling like a school girl when the music loaded. It was so refreshing to hear that music after all these years.

I've tried Mousebits several months ago, but didn't have much luck with it. But it's okay. I think EA has most of the tracks I want/ed, so I should be okay. (The only one I was a bit disappointed in was the Spaceship Earth soundtrack.)

I just went on Amazon.com and was trying to find a CD that I have in cassette-form when it was originally released in the 80's (and then re-released on CD several months later). It was called "The Music of Disneyland, Walt Disney World & Epcot Center". Seriously......this tape/CD was amazing--It had just about every main theme from every MK and Epcot attraction in the 80's you could think of. (It even had "Kitchen Kabaret" from The Land.) All the MK music came from the Disneyland versions, but it was still cool. (Yes, people.....there's a difference between the DL and WDW versions of Splash Mountain. ) Anyhoo......for a new copy of the CD Amazon wants about $155!!!!!! I think it'd be cheaper to have my tape transfered over to digital MP3 files. The used copies were starting at around $60. Yikes! I think I bought my copy for about $9.99 in 1988.

 

[I<3EvilQueen]

You see.....I am a good boy. )

or good at being bad?

 

[DVCajun]

(Yes, people.....there's a difference between the DL and WDW versions of Splash Mountain. )

Tell me. I'm a die-hard WDW fan, so the DL versions of rides kind of irritate me. I downloaded a huge lot of DL stuff a while back and, while I'm keeping the files, I'm weeding them out of my ipod selection because the differences stand out like a sore thumb to me!

mousebits.com has a lot of cool stuff, but most of what I have I got elsewhere. I've enjoyed the ride-throughs and the "tribute" videos very much, however. And so have my sons! It's a good way to get a quick fix.