Wondering what others have done in terms of adding ambient sound aside from dcc loco sounds? This could be for layouts set in the open country or in the city. In my case, I'm looking for urban sounds: factories, car horns, streetcars, construction etc.
On the easy end of the spectrum I could just set up a stereo system under my benchwork and play sound fx cd's or records..
Or I could try to set up some kind of immersive surround system throughout the room.
Either way, sound is an important part of the experience that I want to somehow replicate.
I first thought about this after listening to some of O. Winston Link's recordings, and I realized how neat it would be to do something similar on a layout.
Anyone know of products to accomplish this?
Andy
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Milwaukee native modeling the Milwaukee Road in 1950's Milwaukee.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/196857529@N03/
Haven’t done it myself. But google model railroad ambient sounds and many suggestions come up.
If you're a Trains.com subscriber check out David Popp's Olympia 2 videos. He talks about how he has done it
Take your pick. Over 3000 to choose from.
https://sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/search?cat=Machines&resultSize=30
David
To the world you are someone. To someone you are the world
I cannot afford the luxury of a negative thought
In a back corner of my layout, I have a working carfloat terminal. It's a small space and the inside of the 0-6-0T tank engine is even smaller, so I mounted the Soundbug decoder inside a small structure with a speaker for locomotive sound. In this case, I think I could add a few sound files like seagulls and a whistle for the tugboat to the Soundbug and bring life to the scene.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
chris.mincemoyer If you're a Trains.com subscriber check out David Popp's Olympia 2 videos. He talks about how he has done it
I just watched one of the videos. I more or less anticipated what he did with a simple stereo set with subwoofer, aside from the Dream Player board.
So I did look into the PRICOM company that makes that board and it could be an option. Looks like the original player is a good 15 years old but there is a second version. Didn't see a date on it but hopefully it's relatively current and SD card interface isn't too clunky.
Also bookmarked the Fantasonics site to look into a little more.
While I can imagine the sound of a steam locomotive climbing a grade with a heavy train, or diesel passing by at speed, but after more than 40 years in a steel mill, sound is better left to my imagination, than being re-played into my ears.
When you hear a pit-crane lifting a 25 ton ingot, then dropping it 40' in order to cause the mould's base to disengage from the bottom of the ingot, you've had all of the noise you'll ever need to hear.
No thanks...I've had a lifetime's worth of noise.
Wayne
Something I tried over 40 years ago was to make a 'second track' in the framing under our high-school club main line, and arrange a carriage with a sizable-for-the-day speaker on it. This would follow a locomotive, playing appropriate audio for it with correct dynamic range, and multiple speakers could be connected so that things like clickety-clack and flat wheels could be 'played' at an appropriate perceived distance from the motive power. At least in theory you could turn the gain up and down and tinker with the EQ to simulate the effects of cuts, tunnels, etc.
When I first read about BLI's Rolling Thunder, I thought this would be the sort of thing they were designing -- I was disappointed to see it was only a sub with radio feed, even though low-frequency sound is nominally less directional.
Regardless, it would be vastly better to use a 'broadcasting' decoder or some kind of Bluetooth adapter to take some of the output of a sound decoder and transmit it to a moving speaker under the layout that moves with the train. So much more is possible now than in the early '70s!
There's lots of fun possible with small speakers and sound sources under some layout buildings and features, including brooks and rivers; I seem to recall at least one layout where the light 'changed' with the time of day and featured appropriate sounds like cows, roosters and bird calls. Key is not to overamplify: it's background noise, not sound effects.
I'm amazed you can hear at all after that long in a mill. As for me, it took a couple dozen concerts and my own rock band excursions to leave me with a little ring in the ears and a loss of some upper frequencies.
The Milwaukee Road WarriorI'm amazed you can hear at all after that long in a mill.
Well, it's rather useful when Wifey (SWMBO) goes off on a rant.
doctorwayne The Milwaukee Road Warrior I'm amazed you can hear at all after that long in a mill. Well, it's rather useful when Wifey (SWMBO) goes off on a rant. Wayne
The Milwaukee Road Warrior I'm amazed you can hear at all after that long in a mill.
lol, I imagine she eventually gets wise to that.
Didn't MRC have a sound system years ago? Some were farm/country, some city, IIRC.
Ya, not really a new idea; I think I still have some Green Frog cassette tapes from the 1980s. They offered a couple different versions of background sounds ("city", "country", etc.) Long ago, some model railroaders got inexpensive cassette players and spread them out under the layout to play various sounds. Main thing is to keep it in the background - only loud enough to be heard when you're next to it. Not so loud it drowns out SWMBO.