Table of Contents

Music Chime Information Database

Overview

Documenting dedicated chime devices, primarily of Japanese manufacture.

Scope

Electronic only, no electromechanical. Currently limiting this to the sort of devices that are intended for permanent installation in a rack or similar. Not documenting things like door chimes at this time.

Oh no I got an electromechanical one

Sound Sources

Manufacturer Model No. Type Chime Types Synthesis Method Production Start Production End Audio Samples Notes
National/Panasonic WZ-245 Electronic Westminster Digital control of analog tone generation 1980s 2005/03/01 Reduced version of WZ-250. A few parts not populated, otherwise identical. Manual
National/Panasonic WZ-248 Electronic Westminster (2 variants), Memories, ding-dong (repeated 3x) PCM 1990s? 2006 Uses companded PCM. Main IC is gate array, not MCU? Spec sheet Manual
National/Panasonic WZ-250 Electronic Westminster (2 variants), Memories, ding-dong (repeated 3x) Digital control of analog tone generation Sequenced by bipolar PROM. Manual
National/Panasonic WZ-255 Electronic TODO grab from manual PCM/MIDI 2001 2005/03/01 MIDI input. Spec sheet Manual
National/Panasonic TD9102, TD9103 Electronic FM (YM64A0W [YMU251 series]) [src] Schedule on paper cards. TD9100,9101 have no chime, TD910x model differences here
CITIZEN TIC C-4100 Electronic Wavetable? Info scarce aside from this video, “C-4200-A” in video is a mistake, 4100 is correct. Letter suffix denotes tune config, eg C-4100-A
CITIZEN TIC C-4200 / CPE-4200 Electronic Wavetable? Letter suffix denotes tune config. CPE ver is panel mounted. info
Takacom PBS-102MD Electronic PCM Audio on MD
Takacom PBS-102ST Electronic? PCM? Built-in audio only?
Takacom PBS-D401 Electronic 4 factory, others user-recordable PCM Sound data on card, schedule on floppy. Selectable 16 or 32khz PCM. Flyer Supplemental material - office Supplemental material - school Software. Uses Takacom proprietary flash memory card, not CF!!!
Takacom PBS-D500 / PBS-D500II Electronic 15 factory, others user-recordable PCM Data on internal CF card. 16-bit PCM, optionally ulaw companded 8bit. SH3-DSP CPU. Software
Takacom PBS-D600 Electronic
TOA EC-012 Electronic 4-note
TOA KT-140 / KT-011 / KT-011N Electronic Westminster Digital control of analog tone generation Late 1970s Sequenced by discrete logic. Production order is 140 → 011 → 011N src. KT-011N spec sheet. KT-140 spec sheet. KT-140 manual. KT-011 spec sheet.
TOA ML-102 Electronic 2x Customer option Unknown 1ch?
TOA ML-202 / ML-202N Electronic 2x Customer option Unknown 2ch? MN6221 series melody IC, according to [src]. Although [src] claims different than early TT-021B models which are confirmed MN6221TA? Two UV EPROMs inside [src], why? Sometimes referred to as the Hasuda system - 蓮田系
TOA ML-301 / ML-301B Electronic Westminster, 4-note FM (YM2203) in early units, PCM in later units Reduced version of ML-304. Program shared with ML-304 MCU, selected by hardware. Newer production units use sampled audio (OKI MSM9810) and different CPU [src]
TOA ML-304 / ML-304B / ML-304BLK Electronic Determined by MELODIX CARD FM (YM2203) 1987 [src]
TOA ML-1000 Electronic Determined by MC CARD PCM via DSP
TOA TT-021/TT-021N Electronic Westminster Program timer with integrated sound source. sample
TOA TT-021B (early model) Electronic Westminster Melody IC (MN6221TA) sample. Z84C000 CPU. 256 kbit ROM, seems huge for a timer? Is this actually 021B and not 021/021N?
TOA TT-021B (later model) Electronic Westminster FM (YM2203) Program timer with integrated sound source (same sound as ML-30x series). sample
Toshiba ACH-100WA Electronic Westminster [src] Half-rack.
Toshiba ACH-101* Electronic Westminster, 4-note FM (YM3812) [src] *Rebadged UNI-PEX MZ-1201
Toshiba ACH-400WA Electronic Half-rack. TMS3615 octave synth. CPU-less, sequence data on UV EPROM. [src] Spec sheet Manual
Toshiba ACH-401 Electronic Westminster, Blue Sky, Memories, Joy FM (YMF262) 2006 [src] Z80 based [src]. Spec sheet Manual
Toshiba CH-4000W Electromechanical Westminster (switchable repeat) No model differentiation for 50/60 Hz. Recorded at 60 Hz. OEM is Koseisha
UNI-PEX MZ-101A Electronic Westminster Digital control of analog tone generation? [vdo]
UNI-PEX MZ-1141 Electronic Spec sheet Manual
UNI-PEX MZ-1142 Electronic MP3 SD card. Spec sheet Manual
UNI-PEX MZ-1143 Electronic MP3 SD card. Spec sheet Manual
UNI-PEX MZ-1201 Electronic Westminster, 4-note FM (YM3812) Spec sheet
UNI-PEX MZ-1202 Electronic Westminster, 4-note ADPCM (OKI MSM6650) Not sure what it samples, but it's not MZ-1201… Spec sheet Manual
UNI-PEX MZ-1203 Electronic Westminster (3 variants), 1/2/4-note chime, radio calisthenics MP3 128kbps MP3 on internal memory. Spec sheet Manual
Victor DM-53 Electronic Westminster, Joy, Blue Sky, ding-dong (repeated 3x) Digital control of analog tone generation
Victor PA-DT600 Electronic Customer options (default: Westminster, Joy, Blue Sky, radio calisthenics) PCM Sequencer 44100Hz 16-bit mono, 22050Hz 16-bit stereo/mono. 46 chimes/music available. [src] Software
Victor PA-DT600(B) Electronic Same as PA-DT600 PCM Sequencer Updated version of PA-DT600. Unknown differences. B version has LED “Chime/BGM” instead of just “Chime”. Requires different PC software. Software
Victor PA-DA700 Electronic Same as PA-DT600 PCM Sequencer
Victor PA-T30 Electronic FM (YM2413) Same as PA-T130 in different form factor. Manual
Victor PA-T130 Electronic Westminster, Joy, Blue Sky, ding-dong 3x, one custom programmable FM (YM2413) Schedule is on paper cards. Spec sheet, Manual
Victor PA-W53 Electronic Westminster, Joy, Blue Sky, ding-dong (repeated 3x) Digital control of analog tone generation Main PCB identical to DM-53 [src], PROM replaced with EPROM on bodge board. Spec sheet, Manual

Card Types

Manufacturer Type Name Notes
Takacom Flash Memory Card (BFC-30M, BFC-60M) Proprietary, as far as I can tell. Looks like CF but fewer pins and physically larger, inside is simple NAND flash
TOA MELODIX CARD Fujisoku B-series physical standard
TOA MC CARD CompactFlash physical standard

Notes

TODO