The KLIA Chime

OK ... useless post ahead ... I'm kinda weird like that.

Few weeks back I was stuck at KLIA airport for nearly two hours waiting for pickup. End result? The KLIA chime got stuck in my head ... which led me to wonder about annoucement chimes. Searching around, it seems most locations (i.e. airports, train stations, shopping malls) use a basic root chord like C-E-G-C or portions of it as shown in this Youtube video below.


So the KLIA chime certainly stands out amongst the rest with a chord progression ... I kinda liked it after a while and figured it would be a great alert tone. Searching Google only came up with audio recordings which wouldn't work on my current lau-yar Nokia plus the quality was so-so. Next best thing was to figure out the note progression and make a MIDI tone of it. The chime moves from a base chord of Bmin to Cmaj as shown below - split into two staves for the chord and moving arpeggio. These notes are played by a vibraphone at a 120bpm tempo, doubled up with a glock to highlight the downbeat notes ... with the following result below(not taking into account the acoustical delay and reverb of the paneled KLIA ceilings)

P/S: Doesn't the Aena Spanish Airport 2 chime at 1:14 in the Youtube video sound like the one on the Putra LRT?

12 comments:

  1. KLIA airport chime better than other country punya... hehe.....:p

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  2. great work! :D
    KLIA chime is indeed one of the best.
    would you be so kind so as to email me the MIDI file you made?

    majestic.hg@gmail.com

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  3. GREAT!!! but i cant download the MIDI version.. would you be so kind to email me the file??

    ay_eesha@yahoo.com

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  4. MIDI link updated 19th Sept 2011.

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  5. OH COOOOOOL
    I also have thought it was cool as hell, so I downloaded a youtube video (the audio) of it to use on my mobile as a SMS alert. It was fuzzy, so I will use yours now! Thanks thanks thanks!
    MANY THANKS!
    非常謝謝你!

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  6. At last found it..KLIA chime

    Thanks!

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  7. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  8. I just can't get it to sound right (https://soundcloud.com/user420885393/klia).

    When compared to the original (https://youtube.com/watch?v=bHSZZEUY94Y), could it be that it's missing some notes in the beginning? Plus that final C3 feels kinda out of place.

    Please let me know.

    Thanks!

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    Replies
    1. The C3 is added because I duplicated the track and lowered it an octave for tubular bells ... but then its possible the instrument timbre can make it sound different

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  9. Just arrived klia. Great chime. Previous one drove me nuts. A softer more melodic Malaysia perhaps. It's great.

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  10. I tried the Midi but it didn't take me anywhere, can you kindly share it again?
    My email is wahabroid@gmail.com.

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