I just recieved a new Intermountain ES44AC in Norfolk Southern, and must say it's an excellent locomotive except for one thing- the sound. I have one of the heritage units from the previous run and I believe Intermountain took a step backwards with the sound. So my question is, is there any way I can take the sound files from the heritage unit and use them on the new loco's decoder? I have a computer running JMRI hooked up to a DCS51, if that helps.
Thanks in advance for any advice!
Not likely, as they are two different decoders. The new one should be Loksound - I find their sounds MUCH superior to Tsunami, especially the horns. You might need to tweak the volumes, so many time these things come out of the box cranked to full volume which just creates noise and distortion. Also make sure the speaker is properly in place, if it got dislodged it could be touching where it shouldn;t, or not seated in its enclosure, which also causes poor sound quality.
Tsunami sounds are not user-replaceable. Loksound is, but you need the Loksound Programmer to do so. If they used the Select version, there should be multiple horns and bells, don't know if they would have included multiple prime movers since there's only one correct one for an ES44AC. Also, what are the old ones, also ES44ACs, or are they SD70ACes? The EMD and GE prime movers sound nothing alike so if the older ones are EMDs it SHOULD sound a lot different.
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The previous run from intermountain, the heritage es44ac, do have a loksound decoder. The horn is what bothers me-- it sounds like it is a different recording and to me does not sound as clear. You mentioned the LokSound programmer; what is this and would I be able to use it to put the old horn sound file in the new model?
Thanks for your help!
rrinker Not likely, as they are two different decoders. The new one should be Loksound - I find their sounds MUCH superior to Tsunami, especially the horns. You might need to tweak the volumes, so many time these things come out of the box cranked to full volume which just creates noise and distortion. Also make sure the speaker is properly in place, if it got dislodged it could be touching where it shouldn;t, or not seated in its enclosure, which also causes poor sound quality. Tsunami sounds are not user-replaceable. Loksound is, but you need the Loksound Programmer to do so. If they used the Select version, there should be multiple horns and bells, don't know if they would have included multiple prime movers since there's only one correct one for an ES44AC. Also, what are the old ones, also ES44ACs, or are they SD70ACes? The EMD and GE prime movers sound nothing alike so if the older ones are EMDs it SHOULD sound a lot different. --Randy
They are the same decoder, the heritage units have ESU in them, just like these. Not sure why they sound like this, I agree they are a little off.
Seems to be a little confusion as to which decoder. The earlier run of heritage units have Soundtraxx Tsunami's, the current run has ESU LokSound (but they kept the same product number). Either look at the instructions, or take the shell off and look or call Intermountain to see which one you have.
Did you order/buy it from a dealer? Just because it's new to you doesn't mean it's the current run.
Literature from Intermountain - http://www.intermountain-railway.com/IRC%20DCC%20Decoder%20Information%20V2.0%20-%202014.pdf
If it's a Tsunami, you can change the horn. Programming information from Soundtraxx - http://www.soundtraxx.com/factory/OEM_pages/intermountain/intermountain.php
and 3 horns to choose from http://www.soundtraxx.com/factory/OEM_pages/intermountain/es44acho.pdf
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The Loksound decoders have 16 different horns - it's possible the latest runs has it set to a different horn. CV48 is used to select the different horns. Any value from 17 through 32 will select the different horns.
Mark.
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I'm not crazy about Loksound that much. I use Tsunami's since they have a great equalizer so that you can fine tune the sound. BUT, the problem with those locos I found is the speaker and enclosure. I would first replace the speaker with a high bass type and build a good enclosure as large as possible. Horns can make cheap speakers rattle.
Richard