Why California's musical road sounds terrible

In Lancaster, California, there's a musical road. When you drive over it, it plays the William Tell Overture. Unfortunately, it's out of tune. Here's why.

(you can find contact details and social links there too)

[ayebing]

If it gets a pothole, does the bass drop?

[alineuni]

Imagine not knowing about musical road and passing there at night. It would be creepy.

[razorstatus]

Imagine driving down this road at night and you hear this demonic song

[anybody]

Having studied architecture at university, this stuff sometimes happens.
It's like playing "telephone."
Information gets lost between the exchange & transfer of ideas between the designer, the engineer, the contractor, & even the construction crew. That's why it's essential to tour the building site and build mock ups to scale and smaller models so that everyone is clear on what is going on.

[atlys]

Ahh yes, I love the old adage:
*"Measure twice, cut once, build it wrong twice."*

[apexition-apexlegendshighl]

if I heard this randomly i would be scared shitless

[ryanside]

"Aww darn the road is out of tune."

"I have an idea, let's just rebuild it *the same way we did last time."*

[Kuromi_Smiles]

0:14 that still sound cool (but scary)

[illuminatefox]

I honestly want someone to redo the road so it actually sounds good, because I want to hear what a properly done musical road would sound like.

[mickflo]

My brothers and I were surprised when we drove over that at night time when we were visiting. Ironically it happened right in the middle of an intense conversation when terrible marching band music began playing from the ground. By far the most confusing seconds of my life

[blubblab]

I mean it’s still cool, sounds like a depressed trumpet player who doesn’t care anymore.

[cwabcnissan]

I know I'm late here. Just found this. I appreciate the explanation here. You see I drive down this road a dozen times a week sometimes. I have driven it at every speed imaginable trying to find the right speed to make it sound right. Now I know why my attempts were futile.

[GaussianEntity]

What we want: William Tell

What we got: The copyright free version of Imperial March

[LewysC]

Imagine if you drove over this without realising it was there 😂

[cerulityk]

I want to see this built CORRECTLY. I want to see how accurate it is to the original song, and I think it would sound really cool.

[jlangevin]

If the specifications said, "four inches apart, ' then you can't blame the crew; they built it exactly as specified. The plan should have said, "four inches on center."

[uwuuwu]

It’s almost sounds like a bunch of people singing under the road and playing the trumpet

[alexnasiadka]

It’s year 2020

Every quarter mile there is a strip of road that plays despacito



You always hear the song



It’s everywhere


There is no escape

[lukasartinger]

Imagine getting caught speeding there: "Sir, you've been going a minor third too fast..."

[DarkScorch]

I used to live in Lancaster, and I loved that road when I was a kid. But now listening to it many years later it’s just sad, but also quite charming in it’s own depressing way.