Hi,
I have a record for the 2.horns of the Confederation Train of Canada.How can I put this sound on a sound decoder or do I need special sound machine .If there so - is there a manufactor who make this?
Digitrax makes a programmer for its SFX series sound decoders. The software (SoundLoader) is a free download from their web site. You can use the software to edit an existing "Sound Project" and swap the horns you have for the existing ones. At that point, you can download the songs using a PR3 decoder. The PR3 only works with Digitrax SFX decoders, though.
Other manufacturers, LokSound for one, allow you to download different files into their decoders with their own proprietary hardware programmers, but I'm not sure if you can edit the files to make custom sound sets.
The SFX decoders aren't the highest-quality sound units available, so many people stay away from them. On the other hand, I suspect that they're the only game in town for creating custom sounds.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
I think the decoders that you can add your own sounds to may be Lok Sound, QSI, or Digitrax Sound Bug. Each will require a special programmer from the respective decoder manufacturer. You may also need some type of audio program to take the sounds from the record to the computer. One program that comes to mind is Audacity, and it is free. (My wife just got done recording music tapes to her computer using it.) Here is a link: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Hope this helps.
Elmer.
The above is my opinion, from an active and experienced Model Railroader in N scale and HO since 1961.
(Modeling Freelance, Eastern US, HO scale, in 1962, with NCE DCC for locomotive control and a stand alone LocoNet for block detection and signals.) http://waynes-trains.com/ at home, and N scale at the Club.
Only Loksound and DIgitrax allow you to put your own sounds in, via their proprietary software. There is no standard for loading sounds into sound decoders at the present time. QSI allows you to replace the sound but only with other QSI sound files, you can't make your own by taking one of their sound files and changing just the horn. You can do that with both Digitax and Loksound. The Loksound is much easier to program in that manner, Digitrax gives you access more to the 'brains' of the decoder but that comes at the penalty of learning a lot of complex programming to truly take advantage of. Either one will require sound editing tools and skills to take a raw sound clip and break it into the pieces needed for a sound decoder.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.