The latest Model Railroad News has a Bachmann ad on the back cover, and I was happy to see that they plan to offer engines with Soundtraxx Tsunami sound.
I have about 20 QSI-equipped engines and maybe four with Loksound. I also installed Tsunami’s (four heavy, one medium, one light) into other engines. They have distinctly better sound and features, with the sole exception of not being download-capable. This is probably not much disadvantage since each Tsunami gives a choice of whistles and ways to modify the chuff and bell.
So I’m looking forward to new Spectrum offerings. Would be great if Bachmann also would start giving more attention to prototype accuracy per RR than merely changing paint schemes.
Hal
That’s probably why they weren’t offering separate sound decoders for the new On30 2-8-0, they were offering them only installed in the engines. I bought one of these engines at the National Narrow Gauge Convention in Durango in August, and asked at the Soundtraxx booth if they had decoders for them. They did have repackaged models with the decoders installed, for $165.00 more than I paid for my model. Oh well, I’ll probably have to get someone else’s decoder for mine.
You don’t need downloadable sounds unless you need a diesel sound. All of the Tsunamis are capable of being programmed to any of the steam sounds currently available. You can make the Shay sound like an articulated…if that kinda thing is your preference. It’s all in their 50 page tech manual.
The Steam Sound User’s Guide (74 pages) and the Technical Reference (102 pages) indicate that up to eight whistle sounds are available on each version. The Heavy has six, the Light and Medium, eight. There is some overlap, making a total of 20 sounds, or 18 if you don’t count the road vs. yard variations. There seems to be only one (different) bell on each version, though its rep rate can be changed.
If you are saying all whistle sounds are available on all three versions, or that additional sounds can be put into a Tsunami, please advise where you found this info; I don’t see it in the manuals.
Havn’t tried using articulated chuff on the Light or Medium; does it work?
Hal
This is a good move for Bachmann but a bad move for SoundTraxx. Bachmann’s so-so quality is going to pull down SoundTraxx’s good name. People are going to associate Bachmann’s lack-of-great-running-locos with SoundTraxx and therefore think that SoundTraxx is so-so.
SoundTraxx should have made a deal with Atlas for diesel locos and Life-Life/Proto/Walthers for steam locos. Those would have been some excellent marriages in quality and the combinations would have blown the other sound units out of the water.
With the Bachmann-SoundTraxx marriage, at least there will be some good sounding turds sitting on layouts.
“If you are saying all whistle sounds are available on all three versions, or that additional sounds can be put into a Tsunami, please advise where you found this info; I don’t see it in the manuals.”
Yes, that’s what I’m saying. A Tsunami is a Tsunami. The programming is what makes it engine specific. Thay are all capable of producing ALL of the sounds in the manual. I cannot give you a specific page where it says this, because it’s not there. Try it, you’ll see.
Bill, I agree with you generally. Unfortunately, since LL already chose QSI and Athearn already chose - even worse - MRC, they probably are wedded to them for some contract period.
I have about seven each LL Heritage and Bachmann Spectrum. While my 2-8-8-2, 0-6-0 and 0-8-0 LL’s are good slow runners, my Berk is not. I sent it back, but Walthers/LL claims it is “better than most” - not the kind of thing one wants to hear. They refused to do anything with it.
Some of my Spectrums run pretty smoothly. So I don’t see the slow running thing as completely black and white. Trouble with Bachmann is that they usually offer one configuration in maybe eight roads and pretty much ignore variations of running gear.
For running, sound AND being prototypical, my favorites are the Trix BB and Rivarossi Allegheny I put Tsunamis in.
Hal
That’s kind of like spraying perfume on a pig!
cf7
Robert, this is at odds with my understanding of the Tsunami. Because of that, I called Alan at ST.
He says that while the operating code is the same in each Tsunami, the whistle sounds are unique to each type. The Light and Medium each have eight and the Heavy has six. One cannot access any whistles, bells, etc in a given type other than those designated because they fill the chip and no other sounds of any size could be added. He stated emphatically that all sounds are not in each chip; do you dispute this?
While the chip is in fact erasable and could be reprogrammed from, say, a Light to a Heavy, doing so would require desoldering the chip and doing a re-burn, assuming you had the Heavy code and an EPROM programmer. This would not seem worth the trouble.
If you have found other sounds not listed for a given version on its package label, it wouldn’t completely surprise me (having found hidden or leftover code in EPROMS before), but could you explain exactly how you accessed them? What motive would ST have for not telling the user how to do it, to sell more decoders? Seems like the opposite would be true.
Hal