Signals

I am always intrigued by the sounds I hear when I have had the opportunity to travel to foreign places. And by foreign, I mean outside the U.S. The first memory I really have of this in recent time was a trip to Hong Kong. The public transportation systems in large cities, both foreign and domestic, too have their sounds, and I'm always intrigued by sounds of subways, in airports, etc. In Hong Kong, the sound that sticks is the one for crossing the streets. The signals are audible for those who have difficulty with sight. It's a UD principal that (universal design), upon coming back here to the U.S., I didn't understand why it wasn't more wide-spread. Upon returning, some months later, I listened to audio in Hong Kong from another American blogger. He'd captured the sound on his MP3 player, and instantly, that sound brought back vivid memories of my recent trip. I found this experience fascinating. My most recent trip was to Paris, and immediately after arriving in the Charles DeGaulle airport, I was reminded of the sound that had enchanted me the last time I visited. It was some kind of signal they played to announce the announcements. It was akin to the bell tones my school would play in the 6th grade before announcing what was for lunch. The same tone would be used for lunch; other combinations of bells would be used for other types of announcements. I never bothered to ask where this bell type system had come from, but in hindsight, it was very civilized, and even sensical, without it having to be explained. (When I say bells, think of the ones for the NBC jingle.) This time, I also noticed the SNCF people in France have their own signals too, and research online has revealed these kinds of signals or "chimes" go under different names. One source indicated the one I was fond of was called the "ADP Indicatif," but I have no clue what ADP stands for. It evidently went into service sometime in 2005, but it is not the exclusive chime at the CDG airport. I've been on the look-out for it, because I thought it would make an interesting ring tone for my phone. It really grabs your attention, because from out of no where, you hear this kind of chanting voice that morphs away as a little piano rif trails off. I'd already spent time collecting signal chimes from Japanese subways, after hearing examples in the Adium application, an instant messaging client for the Mac. I use some for various signals in my version of iChat to alert me when folks need my attention. Adapting these took some time and work; I had to take raw files, from a web page in a language I don't understand, clean up the quality digitally, then parse the section I wanted. It wasn't a fun use of time for a 2-3 second "beep". For one, this page had a lot of information and a few good links on Trip Advisor. It provides a link to the signals (and the complete song) for the French trains. After several failed searches for "the" chime I had remembered at the CDG, today, the last day of 2010, I found what I was after, in a YouTube clip. This is the haunting little signal I had been after. The quality, you'll note, isn't great. But as I listened to it multiple times, I realized the music wasn't too complex. I went to my piano, and my hand landed on the right first note... and I figured it out. It was a fun exercise putting the right timbres to the chime, using GarageBand. I now have my own clean version. I've made two alternate versions, changing the notes, but keeping with the CDG chime style. CDG Alternate Chime 1 and CDG Alternate Chime 2.