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Re: Yamaha Music Sirens

Mon Feb 21, 2022 2:24 pm

I was scrolling through twitter, and a specific tweet caught my eye.
https://twitter.com/toyu04_LUGERP08/sta ... 5594339328
The Tenrikyo music sirens, some information on them.
The larger 2nd generation music siren was installed in 1988(?), and the slimmer music siren installed in 1990(??). If these claims are true, it would prove that Kishiwada's music siren was installed in 1985.
But, most importantly and most shockingly, they installed a 1st generation music siren in 1957.

Also, check this out:
On many of the 2nd generation music sirens, some fins are mounted on the back of the chopper assemblies.
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Re: Yamaha Music Sirens

Thu Mar 03, 2022 1:37 pm

During the small stretch of inactivity on this topic, I was able to discover some new locations.
Due to all of the 2nd generation music sirens having been found, we're now only searching for the 1st generation.
I was sent an image of the music siren locations, 50 locations. Unfortunately, the text runs vertically, so translation of the image is nearly impossible.

Daiwa Department Store
The Daiwa Department Store company installed 2 music sirens in May 1955. The two were located on their Daiwa stores in Toyama and Kanazawa cities. The Kanazawa location seems to have been removed in 1986, and the Toyama location supposedly have been removed in 2014.
The sirens would play songs on this schedule:
"Morning" at 7AM, "Shoes Ring" at 9AM, "Merry Widow" at 12PM, "Akatonbo" at 3PM, "Home Sweet Home" at 6PM, and "Annie Laurie" at 9PM. Additionally, the music siren also played "Silent Night" on Christmas eve, "Firefly Light" on New Years Eve, and "Kimigayo" on New Years Day.
However, in 1972, the schedule of songs for the Kanazawa location was updated to:
"Cuckoo Waltz" at 7AM, "Hama Chidori" at 9AM, "Troimerai" at 12PM, "This Road" at 3PM, "Home Road" at 6PM, and "Itsuki's Lullaby" at 9PM.
No images were obtained during the sirens' lifetimes.

Matsuyama City Hall
Unfortunately, I couldn't actually find any evidence that the city hall had a music siren. The only thing hinting that Matsuyama had a music siren was this image sent to me. When you try to search up the location, all that appears are the other two music sirens in Ehime.

Izutsuya Department Store Kokura Branch
While searching for music sirens in the city of Kitakyushu, I stumbled upon an article, mentioning a location atop "Izutsu". I had no idea what this was, but when I searched it up, I found this department store. Given its close proximity to the city hall and the castle itself, it seems like a plausible location.

Michinoku Bank Odate Branch.
This location was discovered by a user on twitter. In 1955, the city of Odate received a music siren, and it was instsalled atop the Michinoku Bank. There's a large compartment on the roof of the building, which stores the music siren. Only two songs play, "Spring Stream", and "Shoes Ring". The time in which those songs play is unknown.
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Re: Yamaha Music Sirens

Mon Mar 07, 2022 11:40 pm

Years ago, there was a post about these here, with four photos of the Yamaha factory units and one video. It was said that these were on the Marumitsu store, nothing was known about the difference in the seeming two different units pictured, and it was said "the sound of Sendai" was gone forever. I was fascinated. This is a hundred times that level of cool!

I have a couple of questions and etc. First, the Yamaha Gen. 1 siren seems to show *seven* actuator boxes. Did it have fourteen notes, not twelve? Second, there are Gen. 2s with twelve notes and sixteen notes. With TWO having twenty-four, is it possible that that was an available option? And none of these ever got purchased outside Asia? Last, were there other electromechanical musical sirens made by some other company/companies, that are known so far at least?

A performance art group from France, known as Mecanique Vivante, produced a musical siren system some time in the past20 years. Theirs had four sirens, each on a pole, covered with a white mesh covering with a circular ring of bright orange plastic horns, some of which contained lights. They controlled these live, using two unusual devices, one playing a single siren (melody) and the other playing three (accompaniment). These consisted of a ribbon controller on a vertical stick, played like a fretboard on an acoustic string bass. Their website used to have a video showing the three sirens attached across a bridge over a river, on which stood viewers; as the melody began, the 4th siren came sailing up the river towards the bridge, attached to the mast of a ship. I have an mp3 copy of the song used for that event, called "Tango de Bal." It's much darker, almost spooky, in comparison to the Yamaha's haunting sound.

Thank you for all the research you both did!

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Re: Yamaha Music Sirens

Tue Mar 08, 2022 4:06 am

Jonas Clark wrote:
Mon Mar 07, 2022 11:40 pm
I have a couple of questions and etc. First, the Yamaha Gen. 1 siren seems to show *seven* actuator boxes. Did it have fourteen notes, not twelve?
The maximum notes ever found on the 1st generation models was 12 notes, followed by 10, 8, and 4 notes. We've never seen a 14 note 1st generation music siren before. Relating to electrical equipment, you'll have to talk to Evan about that, as I'm unfortunately not that educated in electrical devices.
Jonas Clark wrote:
Mon Mar 07, 2022 11:40 pm
Second, there are Gen. 2s with twelve notes and sixteen notes. With TWO having twenty-four, is it possible that that was an available option?
No one actually knows, but I would assume everyone thinks an option was provided.
Jonas Clark wrote:
Mon Mar 07, 2022 11:40 pm
And none of these ever got purchased outside Asia?
Only 2 locations were confirmed from YAMAHA outside of the country; in Taiwan and the Philippines. No known music sirens made it to any other nation in the world.
Jonas Clark wrote:
Mon Mar 07, 2022 11:40 pm
Last, were there other electromechanical musical sirens made by some other company/companies, that are known so far at least?
These seem to be the only known mechanical music sirens in the world. Nowadays, if you sound a siren, even one that plays music, you're likely to receive complaints. No other company in the world seems to have manufactured musical sirens, unfortunately. However, there have been a few mentions of 3d printing a musical siren, and I actually got a 3d printer for Christmas. Maybe one day I'll work on it. Luckily, BSP on YouTube is already working on a 2nd generation music siren, albeit rather slowly. Evan was also making plans to create a music siren.
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Re: Yamaha Music Sirens

Tue Mar 08, 2022 4:00 pm

Here's why I say 14 notes for the 1st gen Yamaha building unit. The siren assemblies are in pairs, each pair being served by a single "box" (two electro-magnetic devices under a single cover). Hence the ten-note sirens being split 6/4 rather than an even 5/5. The '4 end' is on the left, the '6 end' on the right. As shown, sirens numbered in yellow, electro-magnet boxes in blue:

Image

Now, look at the Yamaha siren. Same color/number coding, and I've outlined the motor/drive box in green. Each of these two photos clearly shows one half of the machine. The motor/drive box divides it, albeit unevenly. If we assume every electro-magnet box operates two sirens, there are seven boxes. But furthermore, we can see, and count, all fourteen sirens. It is split 6/8. The '8 end' has four boxes, with a wider gap between the first two:

Image

And here, we see the box and three sirens of the '8 end' that are closest to the motor, and then three boxes and three pairs of sirens on the '6 end':

Image

Being more than one octave and less than two, fourteen notes doesn't make sense... unless Yamaha just wanted their own machine to be bigger and better.

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Re: Yamaha Music Sirens

Tue Mar 08, 2022 5:02 pm

Interesting, it indeed does have 14 notes. Likely yamaha just wanted theirs to be more capable.
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Re: Yamaha Music Sirens

Tue Mar 08, 2022 5:47 pm

That's the only guess I have. I would have thought the same about their 24-note Gen. 2, but it seems another of those existed. Do we know the note numbers for ALL the Gen. 2s? And by the way, how do we know they only sold twelve of them?

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Re: Yamaha Music Sirens

Wed Mar 09, 2022 5:50 pm

Being more than one octave and less than two, fourteen notes doesn't make sense... unless Yamaha just wanted their own machine to be bigger and better.
Good catch, I didn't even realize! Anyway, I'm quite sure that the 1st generation music siren played some songs that the 2nd generation did.
Do we know the note numbers for ALL the Gen. 2s?
If you're referring to how many notes they have, we've only confirmed the note count in 4 locations.
If you're referring to how many ports create a single note, we have no idea about that.
And by the way, how do we know they only sold twelve of them?
YAMAHA confirmed this in an interview in 2018. And, I don't doubt it. The low reputation of the 1st generation likely made many buyers hesitant. Also, it was only publicly listed on the market in 1991. The 2nd generation, before being put on the market, was sold in private inquiries.
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Re: Yamaha Music Sirens

Wed Mar 09, 2022 9:22 pm

I just read this whole thread! This is very interesting, but I have one question. Would it be possible to actually play the siren with that keyboard? Or is it just for composing? (I am a piano enthusiast and playing a siren sounds so cool!)
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Re: Yamaha Music Sirens

Fri Mar 11, 2022 4:10 pm

DangerousNoodle wrote:
Wed Mar 09, 2022 9:22 pm
I just read this whole thread! This is very interesting, but I have one question. Would it be possible to actually play the siren with that keyboard? Or is it just for composing? (I am a piano enthusiast and playing a siren sounds so cool!)
Image
If you're talking about this keyboard, yes. The keyboard was used to manually operate the dampers, live. This was especially used every day for the Marumitsu Department Store in downtown Sendai during the 9PM blast of 'This Road'.
Jonas Clark wrote:
Mon Mar 07, 2022 11:40 pm
It was said that these were on the Marumitsu store, nothing was known about the difference in the seeming two different units pictured, and it was said "the sound of Sendai" was gone forever.
The reference of "the sound of sendai" relates to the Marumitsu Department Store's music siren in downtown Sendai City in Miyagi prefecture. At some point, Marumitsu merged with some other stores and formed Sakurano department store. In 2017, the Sendai store was shut down due to low funds, but it still stands today.
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