Station Sounds App

[JJ1892 formerly Abushoni]

Greetings,

 

One of the train related things I like the most visiting Japan are the sounds of the station (songs, station and train announcements etc.). I could not find any thread in the forum on this. 

 

I wonder if anyone knows of an app (could be paid) that has JR train related sounds I can play. I have the KATO sound box and would like to add to it additions sounds beyond the KATO plethora of cards.  

 

I though of ripping with permission some youtube videos who have library of sounds and then build some App to activate them. Before I do that I want to make sure it does not exist. Also, I am not sure if playing such sounds does not infringe a JR copyright. 

 

Any info will be appreciated.  

 

Thank you,

 

Abushoni

[MrLinderman]

You would only be infringing on copyright if you intend to promote, sell or gain a benefit from playing the recorded sound. If your developing an app for your own personal use then record or strip away, there are a few good chrome extensions that can download a raw YouTube video file and you can then strip the sound from it using media software.

 

Would be interested to know also if there is a depository of self recorded sounds for Japanese stations, I'm sure making a simple Arduino playback device would be doable, and could even link in with sensors on a layout if your using dcc, have it so when a train enters the station x sound plays 🙂

[bill937ca]

Tomix offers Platform Sound Effect units that work with Tomix track and controls.

 

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10442453

 

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10560440

 

 

[JJ1892 formerly Abushoni]

Ill see if I can hack the Platform Sound Effect to work with my KATO infrastructure. A lot looks like human activated and not automated so could be used with my layout. 

 

The Arduino project looks like a fun one.  From the search I did, there is wealth of clean sounds recorded in Youtube movies that could be ripped. 

 

Thank you for the tips,

 

Abushoni

[E231-500]

If you have a spare android phone or tablet laying around, you can download sound board software and assign your own sounds to each button on screen.

[cteno4]

A very simple and cheap audio file player is the little DFplayer modules. They are a bout a buck each [mirco sd card will cost you more to put the files on!], you can completely hard wire them if needed, and they can drive a small speaker pretty loudly if you put a small resonance chamber on it [like a cut off plastic bottle]. You can just fire them from a switch and even set up a matrix of momentary buttons with resistors to a single DFplayer modules. They also interface with arduino and libraries out there to control them. Ive used them in situations where you  just want to fire a single sound.

 

Jeff

[JJ1892 formerly Abushoni]

Thank you Jeff. A few days ago I started my Arduino journey so hopefully in a bit I'll be able to use stuff like that.

 

Thank you

 

JJ1892

[Doddy]

On 2/23/2025 at 7:50 PM, JJ1892 formerly Abushoni said:

Also, I am not sure if playing such sounds does not infringe a JR copyright.

Yes it would. All the various ex JR companies have copyright over all their graphical and aural content where you need to obtain rights from the respective train company.

 

There are also country specific IPR rules on copying, for instance the USA quotes "fair use of a copyrighted work" except for commercial use, and the UK has rules that state that the act of making a digital copy of somebody else's work on any type of storage is breaking the UK's IPR laws.

 

Given the prolific amount of Japanese videographers making videos of station sounds, I don't think the Japanese IPR rules are enforced much if at all. I have written to many of these myself and have also completed web searches in Kanji using Google translate which have come up with various web sites which have type of content you are looking for - even sorted by region, train service and train operator.

 

Personally, I use a MIDI encoder card to trigger the sounds from push buttons or train computer control and an audio storage card that takes the MIDI signal and plays the relevant track or sample.

[cteno4]

You can use the DFplayer without arduino control. You just wire up a few pins to trigger play from the card. Other pins you can do to set volume. Very simple and tiny and cheap! I’ve used them in stuffed toys to have them play sounds with just a few momentary push button inputs mounted in parts of the stuffed animal for activation. Im planning on putting some in ttrak modules so they just randomly play some background scene sounds now and then.

 

cheers

 

jeff