One of my firends is taking a Visual programming class (in other words, he will be able to make basic pc programs). So we have this idea to make bascially what would be a PC version of the MRC Soundstation http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/500-312 . Oh course with this you could import your own sounds to suit your layout needs [:)] .All you would need is to place a few pc speakers under the layout and run them to your desktop and or laptop. We havent started yet though (im in charge of getting some of the included sounds, my friend is gonna do most of the programming ) and we probally wont start till late this month or early april. And of course it will be free (though donations are welcome [:D] )
Matt
Seems like a cool and usable idea
If I’m reading you correctly then this has the potential to allow some interesting scenarios on a small or club-sized layout.
-
A city or small town themed layout and hearing the faint background sounds of auto, bus, and truck traffic.
-
A harbor scene where you hear an occasional distant blast of a ship’s horn and the sound of seagulls cawing.
-
Scene out in a rural area with a lake or river underneath a railroad trestle. One would hear the faint sounds of the water flowing.
Is this within the “ball park” of your idea?
[8D]
word of warning → don’t get in over your head. If the “visual” language is Visual Basic, it is a pain to get working right like that (though not impossible). Took me a long time to get VB to play even the simple windows sounds ( the error beep or chimes that come preinstalled as the default sounds for like everything)
If you guys can get it working, it sounds like it will be a great program.
Keep us abreast of how it is going. My layout could benifit from a program like this.
Good luck!
David B
''Sounds" like a great idea to me.
I’d be interested. I’ve toyed with the idea of doing this also, but haven’t had the time to work on it. (I wouldn’t have tried to learn Visual Basic, but planned to set it up in html with “buttons” linked to play the various sounds.)
if you have surround, maybe you can get 4 different sounds going. I was wondering if you could have more than one soundcard and get them running different sounds… maybe not.
The other idea is to use the cheapie CD players, get the cheapie powered speakers, or maybe non powered that get enough volume from the headphone output, then burn some audio CDroms with repeating looped sounds full CD burned then put the player on repeat (loop)
That way you can get more sounds going than the output of the PC can do.
Just don’t do what MRC did with the Sound System, and make the loops way longer than 4 -5 seconds. The only sound I can keep running on MRC’s system is the “Insects”, and even turned all the way down, the sound is too loud.
Rotor
The project you describe is already largely completed here on our layout, completed as in functional, not “finished”. We have more than 180 sound samples stored on hard drive and programmed for keyboard triggering, since there isn’t room at the control station for a monitor or mouse. 31 animals, 31 birds, 11 insect samples, 3 night mix samples, 13 water, from a tiny brook to Niagra falls, 7 weather, 23 diesel prime mover samples, 14 diesel horns, 2 military, 17 steam whistles, 2 misc, 2 chuffs, and so far, about 15 full bypass mixes each for steam and diesel, as it sounds from a fixed point when a train rolls by. We will probably always be adding new sound samples as we find them from online sources and from CD collections. Don’t forget your DVD collection either, if the voiceovers go silent, the train sounds are right there, one Radio Shack cable away from your hard drive. Right now, the biggest remaining job is to transfer another 30 or so bypass samples from CD to digital, classify them as to train length and train speed, then mix them for our layout, transfer them to the layout PC, and program the keystroke sequences that trigger them. That will finish the system in stereo, and open the door for full surround enhancements.
In setting a system up like this, the first thing is to decide the main wiring sequence. There are two possibilities, one where the computer feeds an external mixer, and acts as a sound source only, and two, where the computer acts as both a mixer and a sound source.
Sound Source Only:
Pros:
- Easy to layer multiple sound sources at once. The headphone out jack from the CD player does not use the soundcard, so you can lay down a background ambience mix on CD, play it back, and the PC sound card remains free to play keyboard triggered sound samples. The stereo outputs from the CD player and PC soundcard feed the mixer, which in turn feeds the amplifier and speakers. Additional sound generators such as MDC units, or single sample