I am personally wondering how many people out there THAT USE sound really like it? I have used and do use some sound decoders but when running trains for some time I find them all very droning and irritating when trying to talk to others in the room. I think I may be the only one. I hear a lot of comments on some MRC not loud enough (true I might add) and a lot of talk about Tsunami being very good and loud (also true) but the Tsunami in my F59PHI is plain out of scale and bothersome. Is this all me ??? What do some of you think ? :tb-wacky:
I love the sound in my steam locomotives, but I turn the volume down quite a bit. The main thing the sound does in steam is make you aware of speed - particularly slower speed. When you hear the chuffs, it makes it much easier to do that switching move a 5 smph, or keep a mainline train at 50, instead of 100mph! On diesels - not so much. Unlike the steamers, I find sound in a diesel just annoying and adding very little to the operating experience (except, perhaps, for the bell and horn). I've only added sound to one diesel, and found that's enough (as compared to over two dozen steam locos). I do think that perhaps sound in a switcher, configured to use momentum and brake (see the latest MR), would add some realism to operations. But for mainline diesels . . . nah. John C.
The prime mover sound on my Athearn F45 does get annoying, although I like the bell and horn. A friend recently ran his Challenger on my layout, and we agreed that the sound was very good. I could happily listen to that one for hours. Have you tried using CV 128 to adjust the sound volume on the F59PHI? You can also use CV's to adjust the volume of individual sounds.
I'm just the opposite, I don't care for steam, it gets boring real fast. I really like the sound of older diesel engines, the new stuff not so much. Love the sound of old GE U boats working a heavy train up horse shoe curve.
I "like" sound but maybe for 10-20 minutes... It really jabs me when you have multiple locos or steamers running at the same time. Somehow its not music to my ears and I have a fairly large layout and I don't have my sound turned up much. To me its still more of a novelty; to people visiting - they are really intrigued by it. Brian
I like having sound in my locomotives, but I don't think you can just install sound decoders in everything and run. First, lower the volume on each locomotive so you can't hear it when it's more then a few feet away. This way you hear the locomotive coming and going as it comes into range of your ears and then fades. Secondly, don't run a lot of sound equipped engines at once. Depending on the size of the layout keep the number of sound locomotives to a quantity were you only hear one or two at a time. If I have six sound equipped units on the layout, at least two or three have the sound off. Third, try to stick with better quality sound decoders. I find I keep the sound on in my Tsunami and Loksound decoders and have it off in the others I have. While the better decoders cost more I think you'll be happier with one or two better sounding decoders then poor sound in every locomotive.
I have sound in a few steamers and a couple of F45's with sound. I did just get a custom Kato F Unit with the Tsunami installed and it is loud enough for the whole ABBA consist. All I can say is that I really see sound working primarily with steam for the reasons posted above. You can tell by the chuff a lot of things. WIth the diesels it is a lot different. It is the drone of the exhaust that I can see getting tiring. I do see sound in the switching yard as was also posted. I am still waiting for the day I can pull the trigger and get the Soundtraxx under table system because it would just be too expensive to equip my whole fleet with sound decoders. I guess the best approach is to be selective in what gets converted to sound, use a good quality decoder and have that unit be the head unit or the second unit in a consist. While I have not tested this theory yet, I am going on the hypothesis that if one unit per consist at a reasonable volume can be tamed by the sound of the other locomotives and the sound of the cars, particularly with the metal wheels. I think that sound would blend in with the decoder's sound for a less droning experience.
i love sound in steam@diesel my challenger i love the sound and some old diesel but steam is the best sound
Alternative to sound in locos I have a fairly small layout and thanks to the non directional nature of low frequency sounds, I use background sound for my layout through a speaker under the layout. I do have a sound system to generate bell and horn sounds, but once again it's not in the loco, but under the layout. I like the background effect and it doesn't over power things.
I guess I just haven't run my sound-equipped locomotives enough to get annoyed by them yet. I was at an informal ops session last year where we had several sound-equipped locomotives, including my challenger. After several hours of operation, I wasn't annoyed by the sound. Then again, we all had the sound turned down pretty low. The sound didn't interfere with conversation, and I was surprised several times by the sound of a locomotive coming up behind me. I think that the volume is very important. It's just not realistic if you can hear the locomotive a scale mile away, and I bet that would get annoying.
I like it... but it is not the 'must' have item in my motive power. I much prefer a well designed mechanism that is reliable and a unit that has sufficient tractive effort to pull a reasonably sized consist up a 2% grade. If we have those 'must haves' in place... then adding sound is the 'cherry on top of the sundae'. BTW: I have mostly MRC equiped models including the Challengers and Big Boys; plus, installed into Kato F7 and PA engines. Don't remember what sound decoder the Walthers/LifeLike Mallets have in them.
I like sound and am gradually fitting it to locos that sound decoders will fit. The subject of volume is interesting, I think the volume should not be too loud because if you are standing in one place you can't hear a loco at the other end of the railroad, you shouldn't be able to hear it beyond a certain distance like the 'three foot rule' for details. I live only a couple of blocks from a main line and the only time you can clearly hear freights passing in notch 8 is at night when there is no other background noise. The later MRC decoders are not that bad. One admittedly minor thing I dislike about the Tsunami diesel decoders is that there is no function to shut down and start up the engine, before anyone writes in you can mute the sound but that's different than listening to the engine slowly run up or wind down.
I prefer no sound. I suppose it is like taking time for the air test or filling the engine with water, fuel, or coal. It's just an aspect of real railroading that I don't model.
Try setting CV113 to something like 50. This should cause the decoder to go into "quiet mode" five seconds after the speed step is set to 0 and all the functions are turned off. It remains in quiet mode until you set the speed higher then 0 or turn on a function.
I have no sound equipped locomotives and don't plan on having any. I decided to forego sound several years ago when our Ntrak group set up next to a Hi rail O guage group complete with sound and smoke. It was difficult to determine which was more irritating the sound or the smoke. The science center where the set up was located finally told them to cut out the smoke which they were either not capable of doing or didn't want to. So they shut down. Talk about killing two birds with one stone!
I dont have sound in any locos. I am though seriously thinking of adding an under layout speaker in my yard/fueling area. T.H.E.Wife has and old portable CD player. I am going to make a CD with looped sound of diesels idling...air tests...engine throttling up, etc. I will adjust the volume so its just all low background noise. I just cant justify the $$$$ for sound decoders that I believe would drive me nuts in no time...and I would end up turning them off or removing them in disgust !! Blank CD's are a heckuva lot cheaper...lol .
Fifer - thanks for starting this thread. You just saved me a bundle. Thanks for the input. You just cost me a fortune. Well, er, I mean, now I have a better idea of how to go about it as sound is a major aspect of my life.
I'm hearing impaired, and having not heard one in person (just seen Youtube videos) I'm not sure I would enjoy sound. It would need to be loud enough that I could hear it well, but not so loud as to be annoying. I figure ambient noise would be a better option. I've got O. Winston Link's "Sounds of Steam" series, so I can always put that on loop if I want some atmosphere.
I love running my sound decoders. I've done six sound decoders and I want to do more. I keep hearing that MRC decoders are too quiet, but I've been adding BLMA fans to all my engines as well and I have to run the decoders on the lowest volume setting. To avoid the annoying factor, I turn off some of the sounds. I want to hear a slight engine rumble, airhorns, and bells. I love to blast my airhorns at crossings and ring the bell in the yard. If I have engines I pan on keeping mu'd I only need a decoder in 1 of the two or 2 of the engines in a three engine set. I ran a quatro of sound decoders and it was overload for my eardrums.
