Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/08/28/vintage-japanese-landline-phon.html
…
A nice ring is an awesome life hack. Feng shui mastery.
That is a nice ring.
Should be easy enough to make a mobile phone ringtone out of it. Anything to make the world a more pleasant place.
My apartment in Kamakura came with phone service and two antique black rotary phones (one upstairs, one downstairs). My landlady apologized for them, but I loved them. They had the ring you hear here and very long cables so I could carry them anywhere in the small apartment. Good memories.
Why have such a pleasant noise when you could have Tom from the Tom and Jerry cartoons screaming?
Well, here it is as a file you can use as a ringtone…not a pristine recording, but good enough for my old ears.
If it’s not kosher to share this way, let me know and I’ll remove/change.
So, generalizing a bit here, but it seems to me that Japanese designers focus a lot on the little things that bring small pleasures. Little details that delight and are often very thoughtful solutions to common problems seem to occur at a higher rate in Japanese designed products. Just my observation, though.
Like a ringer is just to get your attention, but why not make it pleasant?
Love this!
I noticed that about life in Japan. Lots of little details and innovations “just because.”
The folks at Western Electric spent a good bit of effort making the bells on American phones sound pleasant, but also somewhat annoying, as an inducement to answer the damn thing instead of just admiring the tone.
Vintage Phone Ringtones
Lots of them.
https://www.beepzoid.com/old-phones/
This book has an excellent chapter on synthesizing old telephone bells by way of physical modelling in puredata.
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.