Has anyone installed sound in this loco?
I have been a Tsunami guy, all but one of my 7 locos have tsunamis. But I have been wondering if it is worth the $120. I want to give LokSound a try but I will need their programmer for sound downloads. So ... What about the Digitrax 8 bit and 16 bit decoders? I think they are $50 and $70 respectively, and I wonder if anyone has fitted them in Bluebox Athearns?
NPO1,
You should have mentioned, that it is a RTR, so along with decoder, you also need a speaker, install, some manufacturers, have all that in a kit form. I tried to find a install, but no luck.
Cheers,
Frank
Sorry I do mean it is RTR with DCC quick plug. Bluebox we're wired differently of course. I didnot turn up much on the web about sound installs.
You need the specific programmers to download new sounds - but you can get them with the sound you want already instealled, in which case they are installed and programmed like any other decoder, with no special devices needed.
The new 16 bit Digitrax ones might be winners, but they are brand new and there isn;t much information on how they run. John McMasters is busy building new sound projects for them (it's kind of pointless to just load the old low quality sounds on them) and has posted a few Youtube videos, and some are available in the Sound Depot, but since he's building them all from scratch using higher quality recordings to take advantage of the higher bitrate and larger storage on the new decoder, it may be a while. Check the Digitraxsound Yahoo group.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
So the LHS had it for $60+ tax. I bought it and installed it in the said RTR loco. At first glance, I got to say I am not impressed with quality or volume of the sound, the motor control appeared OK.
On my Tsunamis, at 100% volume! I hear very high quality, loud sound. A Tsunami prime mover (particularly the SD70ACe) running in the basement feels like wow, I got me a diesel under the table or something.
The Digitrax speaker is really small (might need to replace) and the sounds come on with a very noticeable click of speaker static. The idle switches to notch 1 with a click, the horn has a delay from button push it actual sound.
I have aves one optimization to do, but I might go back to the DH163 until I can spend time and money on a Tsunami.
Just first impressions.
Which did you buy? If you have the SDHX 16-bit one, you need to get one of the updated sound projects fromt he sound depot loaded in - what comes with it is just the same old generic 8 bit sort of an SD38-2 sound. The new SDH is the same as the old ones, the only addition is the conenctor for the keep alive. If you paid $60 though you should have gotten the SDHX 16 bit one
One of the guys from the Digitrax Sound Yahoo group has been working like crazy updating various sound projects with new higher quality recordings and adding features to take advantage of the additions to the new decoder. He's been posting Youtube videos comparing the old with the new, it is a huge difference. But you haveto get one of the new sound projects - the new 16 bit decoder can just load the old sound projects, but since they are 8 bit recordings, they won;t sound any better, and in fact probably sound worse then they did on the old decoders.
ALso need to get a proper speaker and enclosure. Little unfair to compare the included speaker to your other installs where, since Tsunamis don;t come with speakers, you bought the biggest one that can fit. Those same high bass speakers work with the Digitrax decoders too, and other brands as well, gaining the same benefits.
Thanks as always, Randy. As a product guy, I wonder why they chose to not include 16-bit sounds preloaded in a new 16-bit decoder! Maybe they wanted to get it out before the holidays, in this case I understand.
Indeed unfair re: speaker. I will measure the space I have in the loco and get a new speaker and baffle kit. This might have to wait as I am in the middle of modifying a terminus station and adding some platforms etc. For now, I have the "Pom Computer and Sound Computer" in the engine for my 4-year old. I knew it when I took the $22 DH163 route that day that I was going to need to spend more $$ to get the "pom" and "ting ting" working.
It was not the "out of the box" experience I had hoped for, but it's for the work that we like this hobby.
I don;t think they had any 16-bit projects ready, other than a quick re-compile of the original 8 bit one. I think any and all in Sound Depot that have remastered audio with actual 16 bit recordings have been done by this one individual for Digitrax. He was getting some really cool effects out of the old ones with their limited 3 voices and not a lot of sound slots, I can only imagine what his 16 bit ones will be like once he utilizies all the stuff in these new ones.
What's not so great is that to actually make it do all the things it can, you have to program right in PIC assembly, there's no front end to the sound programming like there is for Loksound. Great for a programmer, not so great for the person who wants to do more than just swap sounds, but it's a PIC programming expert. The advantage is, if there's something that's not one of the options in Loksound, you're stuck until Loksound adds support for it, with these, if you can program a PIC, you can add whatever you want.
davidmbedardIf the op has nothing but Tsunamis and is happy with the quality of the decoder, why waste his money on an inferior product?
Randy, the person is John McMasters and I am reviewing the videos now. I have a PR3 and can download Soundloader ... So I don't know what you are saying about scripting. I thought it would be ... Install Soundloader. Put loco on program track, load the SPJ file and off you are ... ? Anyway I will study this as I get time.
NP.
davidmbedardPenny wise, Pound foolish. David B
NP01 davidmbedard If the op has nothing but Tsunamis and is happy with the quality of the decoder, why waste his money on an inferior product? because the OP liked the price and wanted it give it a shot. The OP predicts that speaker by and sound file upgrades will be tried, yet future purchases may go back to Tsunami. Randy, the person is John McMasters and I am reviewing the videos now. I have a PR3 and can download Soundloader ... So I don't know what you are saying about scripting. I thought it would be ... Install Soundloader. Put loco on program track, load the SPJ file and off you are ... ? Anyway I will study this as I get time. NP.
davidmbedard If the op has nothing but Tsunamis and is happy with the quality of the decoder, why waste his money on an inferior product?
because the OP liked the price and wanted it give it a shot. The OP predicts that speaker by and sound file upgrades will be tried, yet future purchases may go back to Tsunami.
Yes, just download the SPJ intot he decoder. The scripting stuff is if you want to make your own instead of using one of John's projects. It's not easy. Using a project created by someone else is as easy as using Soundloader and installing it. Need Soundloader 2.0 for the 16 bit decoder.
a) judging by past performance isn't eaxctly reasonable - Soundtraxx original DSD decoders were HORRIBLE
b) there's not much a Tsunami does that's not in the new SDXH166D - same sound capabilities. Need proper recordings to take advantage of it. Plug in keep alive, which Tsunami does NOT have, and support for CV6 so speed tables aren't needed.
c) loksound still wins, for diesel. TCS has them all beat for steam.
Yeah it was the desire to move away from Tsunami that sparked the change. I was actually going to pick up a LokSound based on your comments, but this SDXH-166 came up. Price and the fact that I already own a PR3 were the attractants.
I just have to give it a good chance with new sound files and a speaker.
SDXH is 4 channels. Loksound 3.5's are only 3 channels, never seems to be an issue with my PCM T1's. But, they need to be assigned intelligently. Part of the problem with the old Digitrax sound decoders was that the chip was not powerful enough to do more than 8 bit 3 channel sound, and they picked one that didn;t have a lot of memory to store sound clips. And plsying back multiple sounds (like blowing the whistle) caused it to fail at reading BEMF properly.
According to John McMaster, all of the 16-bit projects now up on the Sound Depot have remasters audio from the source recordings, no more playing back 8 bit compressed sounds with a 16 bit player, exposing all sorts of noise artifacts. 23 or so projects, steam and diesl, with more coming.
Interesting, a post he made today says he's been working on these rebuilds since May - guess he was the tester for Digitrax on this.