does anyone know of a good way to get sound effects into a layout, preferably with a really small speaker? I just converted an unused lineside hut into a WW2 air raid shelter, and it would be pretty neat if i could have a button that would make the siren sound. is there any way of doing this? perhaps some sort of sound module which you could install short sound files onto from a computer and with one of the speakers from a dcc sound chip for inside locos? and does anyone know where i could get the actual siren sound file?
thanks,
Sean
Saen,
There are lots of ways of doing this. An electronic siren available from one of the electronic hobby shops would probably be the best, but you could use a cheap MP3 player with a small speaker plugged into the headphone jack and download an appropriate wave file, or you could use a sound effects CD. Another option is to gut one of those model cars that have sounds (emergency vehicles such as police or Fireengine), there's a Yahoo group that deals in model railroad sound effects, you could ask them.
cheers
Alan Jones in Sunny Queensland (Oz)
These guys have several kits for sirens. Look under "Sound Effects Kits."
http://www.bakatronics.com/shop/
I've never tried them, but they do respond to e-mails.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Try:
http://www.fantasonics.com/samples/audition.html
They have a harbor, city, and roundhouse WWII soundtrack CDs in there. Convert this to .wav using windows media player, put it on a SD card, and plug it into a DreamPlayer. You can add an air raid siren to track two, and have it play with a momentary push button press on the front panel.
http://www.fantasonics.com/scaledreams/player.html
Don - Specializing in layout DC->DCC conversions
Modeling C&O transition era and steel industries There's Nothing Like Big Steam!
I looked on the bakatronics site, and they advertise a 'super siren'. is this an appropriate sound for an air raid bunker or is it something else?
also, ndbprr raises a good point, can I adjust the volume of these things?
and can I add a button switch or will they only work with the slide switches?
I haven't heard them, but they do answer e-mails. Ask which one is most appropriate.
I'd assume you can replace a slide switch with a button. It should make no difference.
You could put a resistor between the module and the speaker if it's too loud and there's no other way to do it.
When I get to that point, I'll probably try a couple of these. For the price, even if it doesn't work out, it's an experience.