Idea about obtaining "Hard To Find Railroad Sounds"

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Hello Crew,

IMHO, It’s great how many more of us have become interested in sound over the past year. NIce! I noticed that some modelers have been interested in having sounds of rare railroad locomotives, RDC’s, Electric MU cars, Subway trains etc.

Here’s a SUGGESTION to seriously consider:[;)]

Members here are from all over the globe. This means that some of you live near rail lines where RDC’s, Diesel MUs, Electric locomotives, rebuilt Baldwins, and museum/tourist steamers operate.

Digital recording equipment has been getting cheaper! Some of you may already own decent quality recorders with wind/noise suppresors. Some of you are talented at editing recorded material. [4:-)][tup]

Consider recording sounds from these units. If your recordings come out sounding “clean” then put the sounds onto a website where other modelers can access and download the sounds. [:D][8D]

The key would be to get these trains while they’'re at idle, accelerating from a stop, decelerating, horn, whistle, bell, starting up, etc. Get what you can. [;)]

At some operating museums, recording would be a piece of cake. Depending upon where you’re at, it may also be easy at a passenger train station or even at a railroad siding where units may regularly park, idling.

BTW: Don’t you guys in Texas [C):-)]have “Trinity Rail Express” which uses Budd RDC’s?? “Mosey-on-down” to the station when it’s not rush hour and start recording! See if you can get permission to go to the servicing facilty. Tell them what you’re doing. Can’t hurt to ask.

Some of our Canadian friends also see RDC action.

Yeah I know, “Tony you’re wacko, again” but remember…many of today’s innovations, like EBay and Price Line, started with a “wacky idea”.

Peace.

2

I think this is what Digitrax kinda sorta had in mind.

3

I agree, SpaceMouse, but a number of modelers here want sounds that are currently not available; even in sound libraries. So this may be a way for modelers to help modelers.

A modeler in Charlotte-North Carolina, who wants an RDC sound, may be able to get it from a modeler who lives in Texas, near the Trinity line where RDC’s run.

A modeler in Florida who wants sound for his HO scale Amtrak HH8 might be able to get it from a modeler living in the Northeast Corridor who recorded an HH8 at a station (with Amtrak’s permission of course) and downloaded it onto a website.

This makes uploadable decoders from Digitrax even more valuable to modelers wanting specific sounds.

That’s the general idea. [:D][8D][;)][tup]

4

First post here…!

I’d suggest you talk to some of the Train Sim guys about that sort of thing. I’ve made some aircraft models for MS Flight Sim, and I know that the editing process must be pretty similar for locomotives with DCC decoders.

Just a thought!

Ed

5

the idea has some merit, fellow model rail roaders networking to share resources. in this case sounds. It could work as we have been networking text and graphic based information via this forum for a long time.

6

This topic really piqued my interest! 20-30 years ago I belonged to a round-robin organ music group. It was hosted by a fellow in Montreal, who has long since passed away, and the members passed around reel-to-reel tapes of organ music by mail. Membership was world-wide. Members who recorded music sent a master tape to the host who transferred it to reels for mailing. It brought back memories of all the good organ music, mostly pipe organs, that I was able to listen to.

AntonioFP45 said

I think it would be a great idea if someone who knows how to create a web site and has the time to maintain it could collect train sounds. People could upload recordings to the site, download the ones they were after, and there could even be a request section if someone is looking for something specific. Train sounds from all over the world could be collected.

In 1967, Canada’s Centennial year, CNR had a special train which was a sort of travelling museum of pioneer artifacts and displays. It went across the country stopping in many, many cities and towns. The locomotive was specially painted and its horn played the first 4 notes of “O Canada” (Canada’s national anthem). I recorded that horn, but subesequently lost the recording. I’ve regretted losing that recording ever since. [:(]

How about it, does anyone want to start a library of train sounds in a web site?

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The way I understand it is that Digitrax created a easily replicable format and they encourage users from around the world to form users groups to collect and exchange sounds. I’m not sure how that is different from what you suggest.

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I think this would be really cool.

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SpaceMouse,

I’ve read of Digitrax’s uploadable sound decoder, but did not see any material where they made that suggestion. That’s great that they did! Apparently since a number of people have this same basic idea, chances are we may see it become reality.

As I pointed out though, it would be great if it could start with members from this forum. The intent being the recording of that “rare” or unusual railroad power like RDC’s, MUs, and certain steamers.

I don’t know the costs associated with maintaining a website, but so many of you already have websites and can provide info on this. I wonder if Kalmbach could be persuaded to sponser a website for modelers and railfans to download/upload sounds.

Would this be viable?

10

Antonio,

It is a great idea. Even if Digitrax created a framework, I don’t think they expect to organize anything. Someone has to take the tiger by the horns.

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I nominate Antonio to be Chairman of the Online Sounds Committee[:D]!

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Uh, Chip, tigers don’t have horns. F7’s have horns.

13

Thanks guys, but I’m the least qualified here. The kids in my neighborhood know far more about electronic media than I do. The tape recordings that I made (using a boom box) of locomotives back in the late 1970s sound crude by today’s digital standards.

I did forward this topic to Bergie and asked him if this idea is viable and if perhaps Kalmbach would be willing to explore the possibility of sponsoring or creating such a website.

My thinking is that if a well known Model Railroad related company like Kalmbach did something like this and advertised it through their TRAINS, MRR, and CLASSIC TOY TRAINS, magazines they may indeed get a very significant response with members willing to provide sounds!

There are railfans who are non-model railroaders that regularly photograph and record trains.

Hopefully Bergie or Andy Sperandeo will reply with a yay or nay and may even give some suggestions.

14

Folks

It’s time to talk to your kids. [:)]
This is what is called podcasting . It started with the music for the Ipod and now “everyone” is doing it. The MP3 file is small compared to other computer audio files.
You’ll find podcasts on most major broadcast and cable news sites. There are people creating their own hour long newscast/ podcasts.

One podcasting expert said there were just 17 hits on Google on podcasts in Sept '04. Now there are about 75 million.

Recording and posting MP3 podcasting files is simple, so that is the way railway sounds could be exchanged. Perhaps someone create a podcast page on thier RR site for that exchange.

I have no knowledge yet of how to transfer to a model system since I am not at that stage yet.

I do work in network TV news so I know a little about this. I have dumped the audio track from video I took on the railway I am modelling. and have them stored on my hard drive. If don’t go to a system like Digitrax I plan to use an old computer under the layout to generatre sounds.

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eridani I will show your post to Kim whom I have been trying to convince that I NEED a iPOD

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Don’t give up on old recordings of steam power. For the 50th anniversary of D-Day a Cincinnati NPR station put together a CD with 24 hours of radio broadcasts from 6-6-1944. They restored whatever recording they could find to modern broadcast quality. With the advances in technology n the last 12 years some of us could have the software they used on our desk top.

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I wouldn’t be obsessed with sound quality for these files. After all, you will be playing them on a 1-inch speaker buried inside a locomotive, with a sub-watt sized amplifier. A little bit of hissing or popping will not be noticeable.

Does anyone know what format the Digitrax decoders want? WAV? MP3? CD-Audio? Or is there a general-purpose conversion tool to take several inputs and convert to the decoder’s internal format?

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I heard .wav

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Please correct me if I"m wrong.

From my limited understanding, it’s “wav”, not mp3.

BTW: Here’s an example that’s already available.

On the www.DieselAirhorns.com website there is an outstanding “CRYSTAL CLEAR” recording of a Leslie RS5T locomotive horn. Same type of horn that SCL U-Boats and UP’s E9s used. I downloaded the sound to my computer’s Media Player. I’m hoping that someday soon I’ll be able to upload this sound for use in my HO scale SCL locomoitves.[;)] [8D][;)]

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Since many of the Locmotives we want sound from have disappeared (long gone) we are faced with Synthsized replacement’s of what we THINK any given locomotive should sound like - coming from a 1/2 - 1 inch speaker and baffle missing all the sound’s below C-above-middle-C on a piano. Even the old F unit’s single horn (B natural) is 2 octaves below this cutoff.

Give credit to SOUNDTRAXX’s owner who moved his firm out to CO. where could faithfully record the current Diesel power and Narrow Gauge steam sound’s. That’s why Steve’s digital chip’s have more accurate sound’s on them .

Diesel horn’s are tuned fundimental’s and easily synthisized. Steam whistle’s on the other hand … are not.