The Spee-Lunker Cave Music & Sounds
Listen to the ride-through audio mp3 download! The mp3 link below is the most important content on this page. Skip it and you've missed everything! This page was created for and centers around this audio creation. Mixed in life-like stereo. Crank up your stereo speakers or headphones.
(Go to the original page to hear these amazing sounds)
But, wait! There's more! Much, much more below on this page. If you are a Spee-Luker Cave fan, this is the web-page you have dreamed of!
Did you ever ride "The Spee-Lunker Cave" at Six Flags Over Texas during the 1960's and 1970's? Remember that mysterious, mesmerizing music? Ever wish you could ride it again? Well, this page is about as close as you can get due to my exhaustive efforts at reconstructing my recollections of this ride.
As a youth in the 1960's, I memorized this ride including the music and sound effects. I have still retained much of that and decided to document as much as I could, while I could. I have done so in three or so different forms, one of them being a ride-through audio replication. It is like riding one of the little boats through the ride with a stereo recorder going. Like sending your ears back in time. It was not that simple for me though, since the ride and all records and plans of the original 1960's version have perished.
So, how did I do it?
The audio recording actually began many years ago as I discovered my music collection contained a couple of the pieces of music that were used in The Cave. Sometime during 2000, I was drawn into the idea of creating this audio project. Here and there I began collecting either identical or similar music and sounds of this ride. Toward the "end" of my collecting phase is where I struggled to learn to use an audio mixing and editing application. After I decided my collection was "complete", I began laying down tracks, looping, editing and mixing. Some of the individual tracks began as a separate multi-track project as I had to craft many of the sound effects and some of the music. I lost count of the total number of tracks I had to work with, but it is somewhere between thirty and forty. The total number of sound files I created toward the progress of this final track are 95! Some of those contain multiple tracks within. There could be hundreds of clips altogether!
The most critical music loops are identical to the original ride. I carefully auditioned substitutions for those where I could not obtain the originals. See the update box below for revisions and improvements. The result is a very close and convincing "feel" of the original ride in audio form. What I have provided in the link below is a MP3 file of my project. If you were a guest in this ride in the 1960's, you will be transported back in time! The ride-through (with new intro) is just under 6 minutes in length. I did take about 3 liberties adding sound clues to compensate for the absence of visual information: (1) I padded the entire ride-through with the gentle sound of rippling water to suggest we are riding on water, (2) At the lift and drop, I added a splashing sound, (3) During the thunderstorm, I added the sound of a Boatswain's Pipe to suggest the presence of a ship. Update: I have decided to remove the boatswain's pipe from the audio. Sorry to all of you who Googled boatswain's pipe. I guess I should remove the wording here, but then I want some history of this project to remain...
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