I’m sure someone has already thought of this and it’s most likely a standard practice by now (please don’t complain that you’ve seen this before or something like usual[banghead]) but for those of you who haven’t thought of it yet, is that a great way to add life to any scene where radio would be available is to add music.The simplest way to do this is by making a cd with all the tracks you would wish to play, then instal a CD player with a speaker where the music is “comming from”. One aplication is if you model 80’s-modern era, you could add a group of hoodlums breakdancing to a boombox, or if you’re like me and model the 40’s and have a large passenger terminus, and it just happens to be December (Like me) than it would be an idea to make a “PA system” that plays “I’ll be Home for Christmas” when friends come over for an open house (which I plan to do).[;)]
It’s an idea I have heard before but a good one IMO.
I think if a fellow modeled a record/music shop there would be music coming from the store all the time during business hours, era would determine the genre of music chosen. Finding a way to add a bit of animation is a cool addition to the music. Maybe that break dancer could be doing a back spin…with the help of a motor below the layout. [;)]
I think Michael Gross (of Family Ties/Tremors fame) did an article about doing that in an MR issue a year or two back.
Or if want to add realism, there’s this…
http://www.railroadradio.com/
I built an “Arnold’s Drive-in” from Walther’s and plan on playing 60’s music from it. The sound will only be loud enough to hear when you standing in front of it.
Doc
I thought the same thing when I first came across railroadradio.com but I couldn’t think of a place on the layout where you would really hear radio traffic except in the cab or …(what the heck do they call “Mission Control” on the railroad?) dispatchers office???
I suppose the sound could be filtering out an open window…any ideas on where the radio chatter could practically be used to enhance the realisim of a scene?
The Arnold’s Drive in is a classic for sure. There was an article in MRR that described modelling a dance hall with a rotating floor. Visitors would hear the music coming from inside the hall and see some dancers moving inside.
Years ago I had an “Arnold’s Drive Inn” type of restaurant (though mine was scratchbuilt and called “Al’s”). I put a speaker in and played a cassette tape from a portable recorder under the layout (if that approach tells you how many years ago it was!) When the layout room lights were out and the building lights and street lights on the layout were turned on, the effect of having the Beach Boys and Bill Haley streaming from the drive inn, surrounded by miniature '50s and '60s muscle cars with an occasional VW bug, was almost magic. I could easily imagine the 1/87th scale teenagers enjoying a Coke and talking girls and cars. If you do music, I would encourage you to do lights for night operating effects as well.