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Show HN: Yamanote.fun – A complete soundscape for Tokyo's Yamanote line

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Re: Show HN: Yamanote.fun – A complete soundscape for Tokyo's Yamanote line

#41

Post by AlexAplin »

Shank wrote: post #25
AlexAplin wrote: post #11

JR East is already in the process of eliminating departure melodies as they transition to one-man station operations, so these will unfortunately be gone sooner than later. The Nambu and Joban lines got rid of them last year and it looks like the Yamanote is scheduled for them to be gone by 2030 [1]. I'm sure they can figure out a way to trigger custom melodies with RFID or similar eventually. Keikyu figured out how…

The news articles are real, but the Nambu line brought their departure melodies back played from the cars themselves late in 2025.

I should have specified I meant the custom melodies. My understanding was that they're now all generic. https://sheets.works/the-bells-of-tokyo is a good reference for the transition.

Re: Show HN: Yamanote.fun – A complete soundscape for Tokyo's Yamanote line

#43

Post by thenthenthen »

stereo-highway wrote: post #24

Nice, I just visited Japan a couple of months ago. I wish this was binaural. I still vividly remember hearing this video[1] from the Verge published almost 11 years ago. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Gpl99s02Aw

I have a pair of binaural mics, would love to contribute to something like this… problem is, im in China :p Any requests are welcome

Re: Show HN: Yamanote.fun – A complete soundscape for Tokyo's Yamanote line

#45

Post by qiqitori »

bschwindHN wrote: post #17
AlexAplin wrote: post #11

JR East is already in the process of eliminating departure melodies as they transition to one-man station operations, so these will unfortunately be gone sooner than later. The Nambu and Joban lines got rid of them last year and it looks like the Yamanote is scheduled for them to be gone by 2030 [1]. I'm sure they can figure out a way to trigger custom melodies with RFID or similar eventually. Keikyu figured out how…

I hope they can find a way to keep them, it would certainly garner a lot of goodwill. Not like people will stop taking their trains because the melodies are gone, though... For the digital flipboard on the Keikyu line, it's nice they did it, but I wish they would add a bit more perspective to the flippy parts. Right now it looks like a horizontal scanline just moving down the signs to reveal the next station name und…

No, it is impossible to keep them. Computers are not that far advanced yet. The melodies can only be played by pressing a button located at the end of the train.

My line lost its departure melodies in March this year :/

Re: Show HN: Yamanote.fun – A complete soundscape for Tokyo's Yamanote line

#46

Post by thomashop »

I'm also a fan of the Yamanote Line. I made a psychedelic AI audio-visual collage inspired by it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwUSzUvShqcaa

I made field recordings during my last stay in Tokyo. From those, I made a song for each station of the Yamanote line, using the Jingle in the prompt. The visuals were made similarly.

Used mainly Suno, Udio, Runway and Ableton Live.

Re: Show HN: Yamanote.fun – A complete soundscape for Tokyo's Yamanote line

#47

Post by astrobe_ »

Hardcore fans may like the BVE train sim [1]. A lot of Japanese fan-made lines (add-ons) with custom sounds. Generally speaking, the game is far from AAA, but the "hand-made" feel makes up for that.

The downside is that sometimes it is difficult to install addons or to figure out their custom features because the instructions are often poorly translated from Japanese and websites often have no English translations at all. One should also note that some addons include and run "homemade" DLLs to implement custom features.

It seems that the community is on the decline though, because while searching around I have found a lot of dead links. One can try OpenBVE [2] (partially compatible with BVE), which is less Japan-centric but should have some Japanese lines.

[1] https://bvets.net/en/

[2] https://openbve-project.net/

Re: Show HN: Yamanote.fun – A complete soundscape for Tokyo's Yamanote line

#50

Post by carloseduardopx »

Man, this is great! Like you, when I travel to Japan I just love the Yamanote line too. Sometimes I use YouTube videos as white noise while working. I know it's strange, but it gives some kind of peace. This would be perfect for me if only the ambient length were longer.
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