I have recently installed Soundraxx "Econami" sound decoders into two of my simple-articulated Challenger locomotives. With the articulated "double chuff" enabled (with or without 'slip') as done with CV 112, the articulated chuff sounds pretty good at startup and slow speeds, but at higher speeds, sounds like a in-and-out garbled NOISE! Setting CV 112 to "single chuff" makes the higher speeds sound MUCH more like a steam engine and not like a hay-bailer or something... QUESTION IS: Wouldn't it be nice to have the "double chuff" enabled/disabled by the simple press of a FUNCTION KEY? The double chuff definitely is cool during a slow-speed take off, and then be manually TURNED OFF as the speed increases. The "random slip" so often used is garbage, and sounds terrible at mainline speed! Wouldn't a function key solve this? Also, my Y6b locos would REALLY sound nice to be able to start out with a double chuff, then switch to single (compound mode). A Y class engine going in and out of sync sounds ridiculous... anyone else think this would be a great idea, and wonder why it wasn't done IN THE FIRST PLACE? Also, just as a "FYI", those of you who might be using the "Econami" decoders, be sure and give a listen to the ”geared" chuff in CV 123! To me, sounds MUCH better than any of the "light, medium, and heavy" settings! (you may have to increase the CHUFF VOLUME for best sound)
Mike C.
It seems "oldline1" has the same question....
I might point out that the Economi is the cheap-o ("Economy") version of the Soundtraxx Tsunami. It may be that using a better / more expensive sound decoder would give you a better result.
Stix, please let me know of ANY sound decoder that has this feature? Check on the features available on the Econami decoders. You might be surprised...