All,
To date, the SoundTraxx Bachmann Sound Value family of decoders do not support CV 113 - Quiet Mode Timeout Period.
RR Baron
Yup - "it depends". At home, I like them fairly quiet, so I can hear them when standing next to them but not standing across the room. In public club displays, I turn them up all the wya, or as loud as they will go without distortion - in a big open venue with lots of people, you'd never hear them at ALL on my 'home' setting, plus the crowd wants to hear the whistle blow. Just like they want to see stuff always moving, realistic switching bores most common spectators.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
This is the practice used by the Edmonton Model Railroad Assoc. The locomotive and db meter are about a foot or so apart. The db meter is a cell phone app. Accuracy is not important for the meter just consistancy. The actual levels you choose is a personal preference but this works for us.
Sound volumes need to be low enough that the sound is for the most part isolated to the area the locomotive is in. People operating or working in other areas of the layout should not hear the locomotive. You may hear or read this referred to as the 6 foot rule.
The "Time-out" Configuration Variables (CVs) shut off the sound after a time-out period to units or consists not in use. In some cases all functions must be shut off first (Soundtraxx). "Sounds on Power Up" CVs configure when sounds will start. NOTE: Not all decoders have these features.
First, as soon as I have set the cab # as the address, I get into the master volume of a new/newly reset decoder and halve the maximum value the manual says it can rise to. From that much more civilized cacophony, I adjust the individual volumes. I set injector, blow down, pop-off, hiss, and turbo-generator even lower so that I can just hear them. The bell is also low, but not as much, and the same for the whistle and chuff. I have to custom-fit each loco for the installation parameters of the speaker and the capability of the decoder. This takes maybe five minutes with each new/newly reset to defaults decoder. I have to do this perhaps twice a year. Once just for practice.
In an generally quiet room of any size where loud males aren't commanding all the attention, decoders don't need to compete at such a volume that they destroy any pleasure they may offer the person wanting very much to appreciate all their various sound capabilities. Imagine a busy restaurant, not even a 'family' one with kids and annoyed teenagers complaining that the service is slow...you have been there. You talk louder to hear above those who hear you talking louder, thus forcing an ever escalating cycle of auditory desperation.
On the face of it, if you are the only one put off, you are in trouble at this place. If no others have noticed, or attempted to negotiate a happy medium themselves (and obviously failed...), you have a tough row to hoe. Tough sledding. An uphill battle (infanteers will get this). You'll have to hope that some of them admit they know what you mean when you raise the matter at a meeting. If they do, maybe you can ask for some support to a bylaw or policy that all decoders have to be set to approximately half their maximum volume level as set in the Master Volume CV....or less. No more than half.
FWIW, I really liked the QSI feature when they were more popular that allowed one to customize the mute level. With mine, I could mute them to about 20% of the max value and they'd just barely be aubidle sitting there idling, waiting to be called to duty. Otherwise, locos are fully muted if they are not being used, or removed entirely from the rails. I keep only one working, usually, and one or at most two whispering out their neutral/idling sounds somewhere around the layout.
In the confined spaces of even large layouts, decoder sounds should not compete with locomotives more than about 12 feet away. They don't scale anyway, just like real water. If not, you get the strident competition of Ye Olde Tavern an hour before last call.
I can't give an expert insight on that.
But a suggestion would be to have a group of folks get together as a panel. Put one loco on the track, near the group, and adjust the master CV up and down to put a range on the too loud and too soft "limits". Use a sound meter (like my Android phone app) that would be the agreed tool in the future. (Repeatability matters, not absolute accuracy to true dB levels.) See what the consensus level is for one loco, perhaps in the middle, and make that the loco target (using that tool). Anjust any new loco to that spec. Consider both high rpm and horn sounds.
Then go to a relatively large number of locos running simultaneously and scattered a bit, to see if the additive effect (sound works funny in terms of our perception or tolerance for increased loudness). If needed, lower the target a bit and ask everyone to tune reasonably close to that.
That would be one way to approach it. Realize that half the battle would be in different viewpoints / opinions of what various folks prefer, as there is no "right" answer. And it sometimes depends on duration. It can be nifty at a higher level for awhile, but then preferable to turn it down. And some folks don't like small scale sound reproduction as they think none is better than our compromise sounds.
Paul
Modeling HO with a transition era UP bent
Best answer is "it depends."
Size of the room, how the room is finished (wall, floor and ceiling materials), other noise (A/C or heating, onlookers).
I've never heard of a club with a specific rule. I would think a good rule of thumb would be that no loco should be much louder than the others, then consider overall sound.
I think a couple of my locos are a bit loud for others and there are a couple I have thought about turning up. I wear hearing aides, so do not hear some sounds as well as other folks.
Out of courtesy to others, all loco owners should be willing to turn down the sound at a club layout, so that no loco stood out and an overall sound level was not too loud.
Soounds like a club level problem and a consensus would have to be reached on how to monitor the sound levels.
Good luck,
Richard
club have many locos with sound. Some seem too loud and anoying.
has anyone given thought about what a realistic sound level (~dB SPL at some distance) should be, in particular when there are multiple locos active at the same time?
greg - Philadelphia & Reading / Reading