I hve been experiementing with a variety of sound producing options on my DCC HO layout
They fall into three groups:
GROUP 1. Three way decoders installed directly in the body of the loco or tender. I have several installed as snap in loco specific fits, an equal number hardwired in older locos. I have used exclusively Tsunami, and various Soundtraxx LC series decoders.
GROUP 2. To forgo the hassle of trying to get a decoder and terrible sounding speaker into a narrow body loco or small switcher (for me any single speaker 1" or less is pretty disappointing), I have created "dedicated’ loco specific cars that couple with various groups of locos…that is early EMD LC decoder in a box car or under a coal load in a gondola mounted with 2 to 4 large oval speakers in parallel series to keep the ohm rating low. I then hook the speaker wires up with the tiny snap in connectors which I have wired to protrude unobtrusively from a loco and a dedicated trailing car. These sound great, by the way.
- Non dedicated sound cars with sound only Soundtraxx DSX decoders installed with their own rail wipers. These are programmed in consist style with the desired loco…again, a narrow body or switcher that could not accommodate the 2 to 4 large oval speakers firing through the floor of the dsx sound car. These need only be coupled with the chosen loco…no connecting of micro connectors is needed.
Why these three systems? All experiements to overcome the inability of installing decoders and ridiculously ineffective tiny speakers in narrow body locos and swithchers.
So far to good. I am well pleased with the qualitY of the sound…which is paramount with me. I can install good budget motor and light decoders in the locos and hook up one or other of the type of “soundcars”.
Now I am wondering about the usefulness of a “layout” sound system such as&
The MRC systems use 8 bit sound samples. They are midrangy, with no spacialization (reverb/ echo) and the repetitive sounds like chuff and river/stream and rain are very short samples, making it obvious they are recordings very quickly. We use the MRC Synchro units, steam and diesel, and a City/Country unit, and while both fill an otherwise empty room with sound, it is not very impressive sound.
Many people really like these units, but I am an amatuer musician, and sound reinforcement/studio engineer, and have been an audiophile since Fosgate (the original) and Alpine ruled car audio, and when active crossovers used 110v and were only a dream for car audio. If onboard sound, in HO scale anyway, sounds good to you, I’d suggest a trip to a LHS or a friend’s house to audition these units before you plunk down your money. Of the units specified, we like the Synchro diesel prime mover samples, and the City Country unit’s church bells, dog, rooster and cricket.
Our layout soundspace consists of several layers of available sounds:
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The MRC Synchro units, and
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A PC CD player, generating 16 bit CD quality background bird, water and insect samples, and
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Winamp, triggered by a simple (and free) keyboard mapping program (Superkeys), playing 16 bit CD quality digital samples of train bypasses, foreground wildlife and weather samples, and various industrial sound effects, with all three of the above audio sources feeding a Behringer 12 channel mixer with effects loop (ambiance/reverb on FX send 1, EQ on FX send 2), which in turn is routed back into the PC, where it drives a 580 watt THX 5.1 speaker array, and
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Onboard locomotive sound units, and
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Layout mounted single purpose sound units for the saloon and sawmill, with their own speakers.
In the near future, we are planning to add the software capability (Discwelder series) to mix and burn DVD-A audio disks, and will replace the current CD background (birds, water, insects) audio CD with 5.1 mi