has anyone ever recorded the sound of their loco and magnified it
as in 87 times for HO, 160 times for N
I would think it wouldnt be correct to scale as the engine sound difference between a N scale Motor and a HO scale motor would not be all that much
RECORDING from a loudspeaker (even at a ‘live’ performance) won’t pick up realistic sounds due to the limitation’s of the PA loudspeaker - let alone a 3/4" $10 miniature speaker in a toy train.
ELECTRIC motor’s produce diffent tpe sound’s than reciprocating engine’s, and recording HO or N scale engine’s to play them back @ 87 times wouldn’t produce anything close to real. First off, WHO has a sound system that can reproduce the 20 Hz rumble of a real train or even a full symphony orchestra, for that matter?
If you took the sound of a Kato motor times 87, it would be as loud as an old Athearn diesel. That’s very unrealistic, but I don’t really care. I like them just the way they are, as unrealistic as the sound may be.[:D] The oldest Athearn diesels, well, that’s a different story.
Well… I do. But it is measured in thousands of watts and cost over 30 thousand dollars. (I do pro sound reinforcement) No way would I want it in my train room. Besides it would be a real pain to get down there and even without my hearing aids would be a pain on other ways. LOL I think the real question here is why would anyone want to amplify the sound of a model train 87 times. (Actually, are we talking about energy levels of output or decibels?) A 10 decibel boost doubles the the energy of the sound wave. A 20 decibel boost has 4 times the energy, a 30 decibel boost has 16 times the energy etc. So, if the threshold of hearing is 10 decibels (for normal hearing) and you took the quietest sound you can hear and amplified it that much… 87 times 10 would be 870 Decibels. The sound wave would crush your chest and literally tear your body apart! 80 decibels constant sound over an extended period of time can cause permanent hearing damage and 130 decibels is the threshold of pain. I don’t think I want to try the experiment! [:D]
Real locomotives often sound extremely loud when standing on a station platform, but drop rapidly in volume as the distance increases. In a suburban setting, a train could pass ‘silently’ a hundred yards away.
Surely an HO scale locomotive should not be heard clearly over a distance of about 12 feet in a quiet room. Keeping the volume down also increases the quality of the sound, especially the bass rumbles. High volume gets too screechy in my opinion.
yah
i would only test that much sound in a open field
Though the sound of a loco’s engine may rapidly decrease, the horn can be heard for miles
I hear the 6:45 MBTA inbound commuter every morning at the bus stop, and i live about 5 miles from the rail line.
actually, the whole idea seemed a bit idiotic (well, a more than a bit), when i was writing this topic, refering to howmus
Somehow it might be fun to try out on rivet counters though… [;)] “Hey, come on over, I’ve got True proto sound…” LOL
I only like hearing my deisels rumble where im standing, if it moves away from me I want to hear it fade until its around the corner.
Sound is one reason why I refuse to use roadbed and prefer Athearn “coffee-grinder” locomotives–I want my diesels to make some noise! Some 20 Hz subsonics would be nice, but obviously more than one could do with most sound systems…maybe just a subwoofer for a sensation of diesel purr.
Decibels are really just a ratio of the intensity of the sound to the threshold of hearing(10^ -12 watts/meter squared)expressed in logarithmic terms as given by the formula 10log(intensity / threshold of hearing). We should be scaling the intensity of the sound down rather than the decibels.
Let’s say, for example, that a certain real locomotive is 80 decibels. The intensity of that sound works out to 10^ -4 watts/meter squared. 1/48 of that is 2.08 x 10^-6 watts/meter squared, which works out to a volume of about 63 decibels in O scale. The same locomotive in HO scale would be about 60 decibels, and in N scale about 58 decibels.
That’s not right, the threshold of hearing is 0 decibels. A 10 dB sound is 10 times the threshold, 20 dB is 100 times the threshold, 30 dB is 1,000 times the threshold, ect… So to put it to scale, 87 times would be a 19.4 dB difference. 160 would be a 22 dB difference.