Balancing Loco Sounds.
Bruce
Petrarca www.Mr-DCC.com wrote on 31 Jan 06
John
-
You've
hit on a favorite subject of mine.
MOST
sound decoders are not set up right. In fact, if you set one up to mimic
reality, most folks will be unhappy.
For
example, I spend summers near
Various
SoundTraxx decoders let you set different sound
levels, ranging from the complete control of every sound individually in the
Tsunami to the groups in the LC series.
When
I can, here is what I like to do. It is the best balance between reality and
loco operation. Most customers seem to like it, too! I'll explain diesel, but
the same, except for dynamic brakes, works for steam. This is for decoders where
you have complete control. Your mileage may vary! I use a dB meter - about $50
at Radio Shack. I set the loco on rollers, so that the distance between the
speaker and meter doesn't change.
I set
the loco to an idle and read the dB level. I activate the bell and adjust its
level until the reading is 3 dB more than the idle - indicating that the idle
and the bell are about the same level.
I
turn off the bell and turn on the dynamic brakes. Again, I adjust for 3 dB more
than the idle.
I
turn off the dynamic brakes and run the loco to top speed. I note the sound
level reading. The horn is adjusted to be 3 dB louder than the prime mover at
top speed. While this is less than the 10 dB or so I estimate reality to be, it
gives a noticeable horn and fits within the dynamic range of the limited
speakers we have available.
When
set up this way, multiple locos can operate on a layout without driving
everybody up the wall.
The
above settings can be made by ear, just by adjusting the one sound to seem to
be the same level as the prime mover.
My
observations are that folks run the prime mover sound too loud and the bell WAY
too loud.
Bruce
Petrarca www.Mr-DCC.com
John Lauterbach wrote:
>
Okay, I don't expect to get any sympathy here.
>
>
Tonight's local freight on my railroad has an Atlas Trainmaster and an LL GP-7
for the motive power. I have throttled
down the sound on from the QSI system on the Atlas Trainmaster so that you can
hear the GP-7 (Soundtraxx LC series). Somewhere there must be some data on engine
noise in decibels versus throttle setting so that sound balancing can be done
correctly.
>
>
Also, what we desperately need from QSI is a firmware upgrade so that the
Trainmaster will do the series-parallel transition on first generation
diesels. Soundtraxx
LC decoders have their problems, but they do that transition so well.
>
>
John