The USED to all be full Loksound decoders, so yours probably is. One oddball was the turbine, the Rivet Counter I think had TWO sound decoders to gt all the sounds needed for both the turbine and the diesel prime movers, but the Operator one only had one decoder. Or something odd liek that.
This "Loksound Essentials" thing is new.
Most any sound decoder has a mute. F8 is not always it though. There is actually no standard at all for what function key does what, other than the headlight being F0. It's more or less become convention that F1 is bell adn F2 is horn, and most systems are set up with F2 as a momentary function for controlling the horn, instead of it going on when you press the button and having to press a second time to stop the sound. But many Eurpoean locomotives don't even have bells, and F1 is often used for the horn or whistle. Which button is couple clank, which is dynamic brakes, that all varies. ANd even more so when you get to "no prototype" options like muting the sound.
ESU decoders do have probably the most comprehensive funtion remapping capabilities, there is no restriction that a lot of decoders have that certain outputs cna be freely changed, but only between SOME of the function buttons, and another gorup can be changed between any of another group of buttons. Loksound decoders can map any sound and/or any output wire to ANY function key. So it is possible to consistently map every sound project so that F8 is mute, even if it doesn't come that way.
That does come at a price - it's hundreds of CVs. But it is far less complex than it sounds - I do so wish people could understand that. It's a table, many rows, each with 8 or 9 CVs. Each row is identical to every other row, so while the sum total of a lot of CVs, it's really just the same 8 or 0 repeated over and over. It's NOT hundreds of distinct CVs, each with their own values. Each column in the table has a set of values which indicate which funtion key, which function wire, which could sound, and under what conditions (moving forward, standing still, transistion from stop to forward, moving in any direction, etc) that the settins will apply. This is just repeated many times to give enough room to make the decoder do whatever you want. The order of the columns in each row is always the same, the allowable values is always the same for any given column.
I don;t think any other decoder offers that. Other decoders do function remapping, but none are as flexible as ESU.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
mbinsewiEDIT: I just realized that perhaps I have hijacked the OP's thread? I'm also a newbie with sound.
All good with me. I am learning alot.