2004年03月04日 木曜日

Train Tone Super-懐かしい

by Justin Hall

Music

Living as a long-term traveller in Tokyo, I developed a great fondness for the train chimes. Many stations would have their own melodies, and as I wandered around the Yamanote, I relished the minor treble concerts that accompanied each landing point.

I always wanted to find a CD of the train chimes. I did some preliminary searching while I was in Japan, but didn't have any luck. I heard a September 2003 National Public Radio report on the train chimes, from Andy Raskin; here's a direct link to a Real audio version. That confirmed my fondness for the merry melodies, and gave me some historical context.

But it didn't bring me any closer to having them. Then finally, I saw these links on BoingBoing: two sites that have MIDI files of Japanese train station songs: Musical Boxes in the Train and Railway Melodies or Chimes.

Fantastic! 懐かしい! And because they are in MIDI form, these chimes work with many of the modern mobile phones. Finally I might be able to make my Treo 600 sing the Harajuku station tone with an incoming call!

Posted by Justin Hall at 2004年03月04日 15:57

Comments
1- スコスコ

Does the Treo 600 import MIDI? ;-) Being able to import one of these might actually be the feature that puts me over the edge to buy the treo. lol

/スコ

2- Rash

I love these sounds myself -- even made some field recordings in 1999. Glad I did, too; because they've updated my favorite, for some reason -- on the Yamanote, at Shibuya.

Be advised that you can find MP3s of that original music, plus many, many others, at
http://melody.pos.to --
"The Sound of Station in Japan."
Enjoy!

3- Shinji

hey if your looking for Train Tone heres a site with departures and arivals melody.

site: http://melody.pos.to/



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火, 3 9, 2004, @ 13:27
Train Melodies
› from Muninn

Chanpon has a little article talking about Japanese train melodies - the sounds that Japanese trains play to warn of the trains imminent departure. I was really set on collecting some of these sounds myself and post the recordings but it looks like the... More »

火, 3 9, 2004, @ 22:00
what free time does to a person
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This month I did intensive research into Nintendo's wireless strategy; some glimpse of that is available here: the Moment for More »

火, 3 9, 2004, @ 22:08
what free time does to a person
› from Justin's Links

This month I did intensive research into Nintendo's wireless strategy; some glimpse of that is available here: the Moment for More »

水, 3 10, 2004, @ 1:35
Train Melodies
› from Muninn

Chanpon has a little article talking about Japanese train melodies - the sounds that Japanese trains play to warn of the trains imminent departure. I was really set on collecting some of these sounds myself and post the recordings but it looks like the... More »