Shopping Creature from the Black Lagoon, Part 4: Sound System

Upgrading the Creature's Sound and Understanding Files and Folders

One of the most desired mods that I wanted for Creature was to upgrade the sound in the machine. The speech and cheesy midi tunes sound terrible - no, that's probably too strong of an adjective - maybe "budget-quality" is more like it. I had some great sounding stereo equipment back in the 90's when Creature came out, but that kind of quality was far too large and too expensive to put in a pinball machine, so the sound quality in the game was really a victim of cost and scale. It's amazing what the pinball companies were able to engineer in order to squeeze the most out of their limited budgets and small space.

I also found the midi tunes to be very repetitive in listening to them over and over, since there are only 5 of them: Rock Around the Clock, Hand Jive, Get a Job, Summertime Blues, Red River Rock. There's reportedly an original composition that plays at the end of the game, but it sounds like Earth Angel to me. I had purchased an original PinSound board several years ago. and later purchased a new and improved PinSound+ board for a different game. The first PinSound board had been intended to go in Creature, so I stuck with that plan. Installing a PinSound board is pretty straightforward, at least the physical part is. You simply pull out the old sound board from the game and install the new PinSound board in its place, making sure all the ribbon cables are connected properly. The software and execution was (for me) a little more difficult to navigate.

I used PinSound's website to obtain the original sound files as well as the community remix by Wool. The remix by Wool is pretty amazing, as he reproduced or re-recorded many of the sounds from the game in high quality... the only thing I didn't like was the "Move Your Car!" sequence which felt a bit subdued, so I kept the original version. I used Pinsound Studio to copy over all files from the new mix. However, I wanted to add lots of songs that I owned that were faithful to the period when the Creature film would have been playing in the late 50's and early 60's, so I created my own mix. I have a huge library of songs I've purchased over the years and there are many that are ideal for the game.

My mix is a combination of Doo Wop, Bubble Gum Rock, and Cruisin' style music. The Creature from the Black Lagoon movie was released in 1954. The music of the time would have been early to mid 1950's; however, the movie continued to play in drive-ins for several years afterwards. Therefore, I choose songs all the way to 1963 that fit that same style of music. After that period, The Beatles and the British Invasion started to change the sound of the music, and songs from that era don't really fit the Creature's style. There are some popular songs I didn't use simply because I didn't care for the songs or artists, like Big Bopper and Jerry Lee Lewis. I did keep a few of Wool's songs that I liked.

One thing you'll want to keep in mind - at least this is the way it was on my game, I don't know if it's true for every game - is that under Wool's mix you actually hear only a small sample of songs (which tend to repeat), while others are seldom (or never) heard. What I discovered - by listening to the original mix, and writing down the songs that played during different points of the game - is that the game sends calls to a few main folders, and they aren't necessarily the ones that you would think they'd be based on the folder names. Here's the key folders (found in PinSound Studio) from the original game, and the default songs that play, along with my comments:

2025668699-end_of_game - custom

I don't know if it was intentional, but there is some strong irony here: even though this is called "end_of_game", anything in this folder will play when the start button is pressed (when the game begins, not ends). Hilarious. I put only about 6 songs here with really iconic intros, because as soon as the ball goes through the upper lanes or around the KISS lane and a switch is triggered, the song changes to something else. It will play the entire song if you don't plunge, but once you do plunge, the song only plays for a few seconds before a switch hit triggers a new song from one of the folders below.

2588749792-movie - Hand Jive

I put most of my favorite songs here because on ball 1 and ball 3 (and 4 and 5 and so on if you set your game to that many), this is the folder that plays when the song changes after the end_of_game folder above. You will hear these songs more than any others.

3566672457-main_theme - Summertime Blues

I call this folder "ball 2" because when you are on ball 2, the game will call these songs after the switch trigger described in the "end_of_game" folder above, but only when playing ball 2. I put the rest of my favorite songs here.

3596862542-attraction_theme - Earth Angel

Again, another dose of heavy irony. Creature does not play music in attract mode; however, anything in this "attraction_theme" folder will play after the match sequence at the end of the game. At first I had a few funny songs here to taunt the players like "See You Later, Alligator" and "Ain't that a Shame", but I expanded the number of songs because you will hear this folder's songs after every game and I wanted a bit more variety. It doesn't play the full song; instead, the song fades out a little over a minute into playing it.

0569568847-main_theme - Get a Job

I put about 5 songs here because this folder doesn't get called very often, so you rarely hear these songs. I haven't figured out what triggers calls to this folder yet.

2558191281-main_theme - Red River Valley

I don't know the trigger for calling this folder either, but I do hear these songs more frequently than the previous folder ("Get a Job"), so I put about 15 songs here.

Other notes

I have no songs in the rest of the folders except I left Wool's song choice of Herman Stein - Main Title (from the movie soundtrack) in the multiball folder because it's pretty cool - I love that original movie score! At the end of this post is the complete list of songs I added to the game. On very rare occasions I'll hear one of the original midi songs, but since I have no idea which folder is being accessed (or why), I've simply chosen to roll with it and let it be, since it only happens once every 50 or 60 games.

Speaker Upgrade & Installation 

Since I was adding higher quality music and sounds through PinSound, I was going to need some new speakers as well. I could have gone with PinSound or PinballPro kits, but these seemed a bit overpriced for someone who's willing to put in a little work and time into a DIY solution. I've been reading good things about Pyle speakers on Pinside for years. While they aren't audiophile level, I don't think they need to be for pinball. Catching them on sale and with the intention of upgrading multiple games, I bought 4 pairs (8 speakers) of Pyle PL42BL Blue Label 4" coaxial speakers, 4 Pyle 5.25” Blue Poly PL53BL speakers, and 4 Pyle PLPW6D Power 6-1/2" 600 Watt DVC Subwoofers. I had installed 2 of the 4" speakers for my virtual pinball machine, and installed a 4" and 5.25" in White Water during my shop job on that machine. Creature was a different beast, however.

The problem came into play thanks to the custom Jeff Thompson lighted speaker panel I talked about in my post "Shopping Creature Part 3". The panel connector was placed right next to the speaker. This is fine for the stock speaker but the 4" Pyle was larger and covered that section, making it impossible to plug in the connector. To overcome this, I grabbed a couple of black stand-off posts and a speaker adapter plate. I don't recall where I bought the adapter plate but it worked great for this application. I used the stand-off posts to create space between the speaker panel and the adapter plate. I then mounted the speaker to the adapter plate. A quick check to make sure the speaker would not hit the driver board behind it, some soldering to install the speaker wire to the speaker terminals, and I was ready to fire it up and test things out.

When I turned the game on, the PinSound "welcome" sound rang out loud and clear. But when I inserted the USB stick to download my custom Creature mix to the PinSound board, it would hang. I tried a variety of USB sticks to no avail. In frustration I looked over at my workbench and saw the PinSound+ board that I had purchased for Bram Stoker's Dracula but had not yet installed. I decided to pull the PinSound board out of Creature and installed the PinSound+ board instead. I inserted the USB stick. Everything went smoothly and soon my custom mix was playing through some great sounding speakers. It was incredible! I know there are purists who believe that the game should run on those old, original midi files and I can respect that position. But people who come to visit are floored by the quality of the sound, as well as the variety of period songs, belting out of this old machine. The great thing is this is mostly reversible by pulling the PinSound+ card and putting the old sound card back in. Pulling the Pyle speakers out is a bit more involved but is really a quick job to unsolder the speaker wire, unscrew the speaker, remove the adapter plate and stand-off posts, and re-install the old speaker. I'm not sure what I'll do with the PinSound board that gave me problems - maybe it will be fine for Dracula.

In Closing

That pretty much completes the shop job on the Creature. I'll have a couple of follow up posts - one on installing the "Move Your Snackbar" mod as well as the new "Open" sign from Swinks - and a second post with video and sound to show all the different features. This game has come a long, long way since I first acquired it, and I can't imagine getting rid of it after putting so much of my soul into its restoration...

List of Songs in Creature, Installed Using PinSound Studio

Angels, The - My Boyfriend's Back

Paul Anka - Diana

Bill Haley and the Comets - Rock Around the Clock

Bill Haley and the Comets - See You Later, Alligator

Bill Haley and the Comets - Shake, Rattle and Roll

Billy Bland - Let the Little Girl Dance

Bobby Day - Rockin' Robin

Bobby Day & The Satellites - Little Bitty Pretty One

Bobby Lewis - Tossin' And Turnin'

Buddy Holly - Oh, Boy!

Buddy Holly - That'll Be the Day

Buddy Knox - Party Doll

Capris, The - A Hum Diddly Do

Carlo - Ring A Ling

Chubby Checker - The Twist

Claudine Clark - Party Lights

Coasters, The - Poison Ivy

Coasters, The - Searchin'

Coasters, The - Yakety Yak

Connie Francis - Everybody's Somebody's Fool

Sam Cooke - Twistin' the Night Away

Crowns, The - Possibility

Crystals - He's a Rebel

Danny & The Juniors - At The Hop

Skeeter Davis - I Can't Stay Mad At You

Del Satins, The - Tear Drops Follow Me

Del Shannon - Runaway

Dell Vikings - Come Go With Me

Dell Vikings - Whispering Bells

Dion & The Belmonts - I Wonder Why

Dion & The Belmonts - Lovers Who Wander

Dion & The Belmonts - Run Around Sue

Carl Dobkins Jr. - My Heart Is An Open Book

Fats Domino - Ain't That a Shame

Edsels - Rama Lama Ding Dong

Elvis Presley - All Shook Up

Elvis Presley - Devil In Disguise

Elvis Presley - Teddy Bear

Betty Everett - The Shoop Shoop Song

Everly Brothers - Bird Dog

Everly Brothers - Bye Bye Love

Exciters, The - Say It With Love

Exciters, The - Tell Him

Fats Domino - Blueberry Hill

Gary US Bonds - Twist Twist Senora

Gene Chandler - Duke of Earl

Earl Grant - The End

Herman Stein - Main Title (This is the main theme music from the CFTBL movie)

Buddy Holly - Baby I Don't Care

Buddy Holly - Everyday

Hollywood Argyles, The - Alley-Oop

Isley Brothers - Shout

Isley Brothers - Twist and Shout

Lloyd Price - Personality

Lloyd Price - Stagger Lee

Lou Christie - The Gypsy Cried

Lou Christie - Two Faces Have I

Barry Mann - Who Put the Bomp (in the Bomp, Bomp, Bomp)

Marcels, The - Blue Moon

Marcels, The - Heartaches

Ernie Maresca - Shout, Shout Knock Yourself Out

Maurice Williams And The Zodiacs - Stay

McGuire Sisters, The - Sugartime

Clyde McPhatter - A Lover's Question

Clyde McPhatter - Lover Please

Neil Sedaka - Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

Randy & The Rainbows - Denise

Ricky Nelson - Stood Up

Ritchie Valens - La Bamba

Jimmy Rodgers - Honeycomb

Roy Orbison - Only the Lonely

David Seville - Witch Doctor

Shirelles, The - Mama Said

Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers  - Why Do Fools Fall In Love

Teresa Brewer - Ricochet

Champs, The - Tequila

Chordettes, The - Lollipop

Chords, The - Sh-Boom

Diamonds, The - Little Darlin'

Impalas, The - Sorry (I Ran All The Way Home)

Platters, The - Only You

Platters, The - The Great Pretender

Platters, The - Twilight Time

Searchers, The - Love Potion No. 9

Conway Twitty - It's Only Make Believe

Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons - Big Girls Don't Cry

Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons - Walk Like a Man