Talk:Musical road

asp(h)altophone

google hits:

aspaltophone- 3 (incl wiki page) asphaltophone- 277

the dutch word for asphalt is asfalt

the youtube video at youtube.com/watch?v=ou-Xy5OI1kc (which is the Danish news report) is titled Asphaltophone

I'm pretty sure it is "asphaltophone" (with the 'h') but I'll leave it to any Dutch natives, someone who has driven the road or talked to the creator of it.

134.115.228.172 (talk) 06:06, 29 October 2008 (UTC)

two things

1. wouldn't it wear out pretty quickly, within a year depending on weather?
2. the civic commercial's 'musical road' was pretty poorly done, the tune wasn't very close. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.73.70.113 (talk) 04:31, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

1. We're a desert city and don't get much rain or other wet weather. I can count the number of days it rained last year on one hand. It's possible that in time the road will need repairing; a lot of Lancaster roads are pretty poor because of cracks caused by subtle earth shifts, I guess, but I went out to it today and it looked fine.
2. The original road was okay. The one that Lancaster Public Works made is off a bit. Matthewedwards :  Chat  21:54, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

Which road was presented in the Honda Ad? I ask, because that one was not "okay" nor, in my opinion even "off a bit". It was completely the wrong notes. davidsd.org has a really good analysis of the goof, including a theory as to what went wrong. Spiel496 (talk) 00:15, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

When did Honda get involved?

I read this article before there was any mention of Honda's involvement. There is nothing surprising about roads being sponsored, were they involved in the beginning? PidGin128 (talk) 06:31, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

Honda were involved from the beginning for the one from Lancaster. They designed and engineered the first one, which was on Avenue K, and was specifically for a Civic commerical. The council decided to leave it after Honda were done, until nearby residents complained about the noise, and cars doing U-turns numerous times to drive up and down it, and cars driving the wrong way down the road to hear it play backwards. So three weeks after it was built, it was paved over. About a month later the City of Lancaster Public Works went to Avenue G, and in a remote part of the road cut the same grooves into the pavement. Matthewedwards :  Chat  21:50, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

How can Audio files be transferred into a musical road

I am looking for a software or at least an algorithm that can be used to transfer a short audio file (few seconds) into the information needed to produce such a musical road. I guess that the output should look like a series of lines that represent the grooves that have to be scraped into the road surface...like this maybe: ||| || ||| |||||| ||||| || | | . Thanks in advance --Blutgretchen (talk) 23:29, 17 March 2011 (UTC)

Speed

The section about melody roads in Japan claims the roads were designed so that the song is "heard correctly only when a car drove at a certain speed". I am not a music theory expert, but this sounds wrong. If you were to drive, say, 10% faster, the pitch and tempo would merely increase by the factor 1.10; it would still be the same melody, just faster and in a different key, right? According to Interval (music), what matters in a musical interval is the ratio of the two frequencies, which is preserved if you just speed up the playback of the sound. Spiel496 (talk) 22:28, 15 April 2014 (UTC)

Yes the pitch & tempo are increased, thus the songs is "wrong". To hear it "correctly", drive the speed limit. The notes/sequence are not changed (because they can't be unless you cut/cover the grooves). Chrisca123 01:58, 3 June 2014 (UTC)

You're implying that transposing a melody to another key creates a new melody. That's absurd. Spiel496 (talk) 01:05, 5 June 2014 (UTC)

Not at all. Looks like I misunderstood what you wrote previously. You meant the text "sounded" (was worded incorrectly) wrong, not that the song on the road sounded wrong... Chrisca123 16:25, 10 December 2014 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Chrisca123 (talk • contribs)

This issue has now come up in two places in the article. I'm going to edit as I see fit and restate my case. According to Melody, a melody is defined by "the intervals between pitches". And, according to Interval (music), "an interval is the ratio between two sonic frequencies". So it follows that as long as one preserves the ratios of the various frequencies in a series of tones, he hasn't changed the melody. Driving a car 1.1 times faster on this road will increase all the pitches by the same ratio, but the intervals, and therefore the melody, would be preserved. From personal experience, if a 33-1/3 RPM vinyl record is played at 45 RPM, the music sounds higher and faster, but it is still the same melody. Am I missing something? Does someone have a counterexample? Spiel496 (talk) 21:08, 2 October 2014 (UTC)

Melody Road in Futami

In Futami Okinawa on the 331 (close to the Expresswaybridge) there's also a Melodyroad. This one has an Okinawan Tune (二見情話 (Futami-Jouwa)) ingraved. 104.243.243.39 (talk) 17:38, 15 March 2015 (UTC)

Previous roads

The history of sound produced by wheels on grooved pavement covers automobile rumble strips in the 1950s but not other transportation such as the Walt Disney World Airport#"The Singing Airport". It played When You Wish Upon A Star from 1971 until 2008. (That article doesn't have much info such as who designed it or its inspiration.) 22yearswothanks (talk) 05:23, 27 May 2024 (UTC)