My Sound System

S

shamus

Registered Member
Dec 17, 2000
3,489
0
36
88
UK
For some time now I have had a simple sound system, which I devised, (Academy/Archive) but always had to put up with some inappropriate cassette sounds from my library. However, I solved that the other week by obtaining proper Shay/Whistles/Clickety Clack sounds etc, along with bird sounds. I set about in a programme called “Goldwave” to mix some sounds together i.e. Birds & Shay -- Birds & Clickety Clack -- Shay & Clickety Clack. (You get the idea) Well, now it’s complete. I also have the appropriate sawmill sounds on cassette and all these sounds are now controlled from the railroad control panel. A CD player has all the necessary rail sounds, whilst the cassette handles just the sawmill sound. Inside the sawmill there is a small speaker -- Photo No. 1

The layout has eight speakers placed at various strategic places such as under the logging areas. The rest of the speakers have been relegated to each corner of the room.
Here’s a couple of photos from underneath the layout, one such speaker is housed in an old ice-cream tub. Yeah, I use all sorts of things if it will work. Photos No. 2 & 3

All speakers are switched On/Off independently from the control panel, so it is relatively easy to match it with a train going around the layout, simply by switching in the appropriate speakers. As for the sawmill sounds, this hasn’t got a speaker on the control panel because I just switch on the cassette, and hey presto; the sawmill is alive with sound.

Apart from sounds, I have by the sawmill one donkey engine, which just loves to puff smoke. I added a smoke unit to it to bring it to life. Photo No.4

Well that’s about it, until I can think of something else to add, Model Railroading is a lot of fun.


Shamus
 

Attachments

  • sound1.jpg
    sound1.jpg
    94.1 KB · Views: 189
Hi Shamus, Very clever my friend. I can think of one sound you need...for the steam donkey...one of those high pitched little signal whistles.....You know the ones that go..Wheeeeeeeet!! :D Perhaps the whistle could be recorded on a continious loop tape and the speaker controled by a push button. That way you could "blow" signals to the crew.:)

I know what you mean about the background sounds A couple or years ago I bought a tape that was supposed to be authentic narrow gauge sounds actually recorded on the D&S and the C&T. My intention was to play it through my sound system as backround sounds. The first time I played it in addition to the the "authentic" sounds...I heard the following mingled in... A jet plane, a semi-truck, a helicoptor, a "whoop-whoop" police siren and Micheal Jackson singing:mad: :eek: :D Hardly the right kind of sounds for the D&RGW in 1933:eek: :D
 
Sound and stuff

Shamus, Sounds just fab! :cool: :cool: :cool: (pun intended)

Is the next step a live webcam?? PLEEEEEEEEEEZE??? :eek: :eek:

I already set up a few things like that too, direct from my pooter to do a similar sorta thing. I've just made up a webpage (personal web server), with links to .WAV files on my hard drive. Click on the link, and you get the sound. A friend here, in OZ, has spent many years collecting all sorts of sounds, and placed them on his webapge. I'm yet to work out how to get two sounds at once, dynamically. Because I like passengers, I'm using a whole heap of platform announcements he has, and just "click" and I get the appropriate platform announcements for the appropriate train!

I'm yet to put the speakers inside the platform buildings. It's part of the eventual dream of DCC driven from my pooter, and also appropriate sound affects at the "click of the mouse!"

Friends webpage which has the Melbourne announcements is here

Windows Media Player is all that is needed here these Australian platform announcements. Click the links and it "streams" the WAV. (bout 2 sec delay after clicking the link).

Sydney announcements here

And train announcements for the Sydney Olympics is here

His homepage is here that contains all sorts of goodies! :D

My favourite? The first one on the list from the New Zealand announcements here :p :p :p
 
Listen to sound effect

Hi guys,
Vic, I have the donkey engine sounds also on the CD, just forgot to mention that, thanks for reminding me anyway.
Attached the CD player, you can just make the names out.

Woodie,
If you have the programme called "Goldwave" (Which I use) you can mix as many sounds as you wish and also copy/paste as many sounds into one as you like. I started with one 10 second sound of birds singing and ended up with 3 minuets of birds and all manner of other loco sounds all combined in one wavefile.

Shamus
 

Attachments

  • cd.jpg
    cd.jpg
    31.1 KB · Views: 162
Another dimension to model railroading and as always Shamus, you show us the way. I have a collection of Greenfrog tapes and a couple of tape players but that's as far as I have got.
 
Goldwave

Shamus,
I had a look at Goldwave, and it is OK, but I found it's counterpart MultiQuence (from the same company) much better. You can line up more than one track, move it along with the mouse to mix it over the top, and fade/in out each track. However, the eval version does not let you mix/create/merge more than 45 secs into a final track. You can mix/merge/create up to 6 hours and have it play, but not records a NEW track of more than 45 secs. but with Goldwave you can record the final complete track.

What I really really want is to be able to "click" on a sound, then "click" another sound and it dynamically plays over the top (mixed in) with the other sounds. eg. 10 mins of birds tweeting.... then "click" a thunder clap when I want to, or a "toot" when I need one. That sorta thing.

That multiquence is quite good actually. It doe/mixes video as well.
 
Hi Woodie,
I have had Goldwave for some months now and I find I can Mix/add echo/cut/paste and add as many tracks as I need for as long as I need it. Never seen this "MultiQuence" is there a demo of it?

I also use goldwave for making CD music up, i.e. my old Radio Broadcasts I did from the 1960's, got them all off reel to reel and dumped them on CD.

Shamus
 
Shamus,
From www.goldwave.com Then select downloads.

There are some major differences. Goldwave will do CD sound extraction and save in multiple formats (MP3 etc).
However, to "mix" a sound in, you must "paste" it from the clip board.

Multiquence will only save in .wav format only, and you must already have your MP3, .WAV , or CD sound files already available.
To add another sound to your track you "add" another track, it then opens up a SECOND track/graphic for that sound. slide the sound along to where you want it with the other sound and VIOLA. It still has the same "split/drag" facilities. You can also "mute" one track and let the other play if you wish. It keep all you tracks separated, until final recording time.

As it only saves in .WAV, you would still need Goldwave to generate other formats.

Goldwave gives you some limited mixing ability, but is mostly an "editor" of the sound clip. Multiquence has some editing ability, but is mostly a "mixer" for sound and video. EG. Goldwave you can make the recording fit a specified time, without altering the pitch. I would call this an "editor" type function. Multiquence cannot do this.
 
Re: Who's Got Em?

Originally posted by planeshavings42
Shamus, where may I inquire did you get the Clickity Clack, whistles and bells (Train sounds Tape) to begin with?? I would like to incorporate such a system to my layout now while it's in the begining stages. Thanx in advance:confused:
Click to expand...

I bought a CD from Greenfrog with all the sounds needed, I just patched, mixed and matched what I wanted plus adding a few of my own from cassette. If you would like some sounds on CD, I would gladly send you some.

Shamus

 
havent tried it for this purpose but..
dick smith and tandy in in .au have 30 sec digital sound recorders built into a keyfob
little bit of resoldering to connect a bigger speaker-relay or pushbutton on panel to trigger sound-bobs ya uncle
(ps these units were about 20 bucks australian 1 months ago when i bought mine-about 10 us!..probably even less o/s)
btw if looking for soundeffects-yahoo have a very effective wav search engine-found plenty of soundeffects that way
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom