Exhill Works and other adventures in 7/8ths

[John Besley]

Ok, spent a happy afternoon getting my head round Audacity, downloaded numerous sound files from Pixabay - Blacksmith Workshop, angle grinders, rusty gears, summer bird sounds, door handle.

 

I found I by cutting an adjusting the volume of each clip I could build a 10 minute project, useing the bird sound as a background track and the others as foreground tracks in an effect.

 

Need to convert to an MP3 format at some stage, wondering about how to run this I could fit a couple of speakers inside one of the buildings... just need to think what I could use to run this, I dont really want to add it on my phone, at the moment the file is a project saved on Audacity 

[SteveyDee68]

58 minutes ago, John Besley said:

Need to convert to an MP3 forma

Delighted to be able to tell you that this is as simple as “Export to mp3” from the Audacity menu!

 

eBay is selling iPods for very low prices, which you could load up with sounds/tracks via iTunes on your computer (I think it is available for both Mac and PC). Something like an iPod Nano with 32GB of memory should be more than enough to hold your backing tracks - and with a micro jack socket for headphones/audio out, you can run the sound to some powered speakers under the baseboards.

 

You could pick up any old generic mp3 player, but just remember that Steve Jobs demanded the iPod be created because he loathed the awful user interface on them before Ives came up with the “touchwheel”!

 

Steve S

[John Besley]

Just had a look on flea bay and found a pair of mini cube speakers 65mm square. Seeing as how the Desktop PC sits on my desk directly underneath Exhill I can mount both speaker's under the base board at each end, I think I can tweak the sound project to run from either left or right as I want which will be fun.

 

The MP3 file can then live on the desktop for the time being,  they should arrive by this weekend from China! Anyway at £5.99 postfree can't go too far wrong

[Keith Addenbrooke]

37 minutes ago, John Besley said:

Just had a look on flea bay and found a pair of mini cube speakers 65mm square. Seeing as how the Desktop PC sits on my desk directly underneath Exhill I can mount both speaker's under the base board at each end, I think I can tweak the sound project to run from either left or right as I want which will be fun.

 

The MP3 file can then live on the desktop for the time being,  they should arrive by this weekend from China! Anyway at £5.99 postfree can't go too far wrong

 

Could be just the job.  As it happens, I was sharing a display table at the November meeting of our local 009 Society Group with @ColinK (who first mentioned Audacity on the previous page).  His rather fine micro layout next to my collection of 009 scratch and kit built models.  The gentle sound of appropriate ambient noise would have complemented the day quite nicely I think, so I hope this all works out.  Keith.

 

Edited January 3 by Keith Addenbrooke

[ColinK]

Hi Keith, I didn’t realise it was you next to me.  Thanks for the kind words about my little layout.

[JeffP]

Interesting, John.

I'm sure you know what rivet counters are?

Now you'll meet feather verifiers.

"I'm sorry, bird x would never sing at this time of day."

"Do you realise that birds y and z are rarely, if ever, found together?"

"Your birdsong seems to be on repeat. Those birds don't repeat phrases..."

And on it goes.

Birders are more picky than railway modellers, trust me😄

 

[Gedward]

9 minutes ago, JeffP said:

Birders are more picky than railway modellers, trust me😄

 

"It's a hobby dummy, it's supposed to be fun! 😀

 

[Gedward]

14 minutes ago, JeffP said:

Interesting, John.

I'm sure you know what rivet counters are?

Now you'll meet feather verifiers.

"I'm sorry, bird x would never sing at this time of day."

"Do you realise that birds y and z are rarely, if ever, found together?"

"Your birdsong seems to be on repeat. Those birds don't repeat phrases..."

And on it goes.

Birders are more picky than railway modellers, trust me😄

 

 

 

"I remember hearing a Nightingale sing somewhere..."

"Berkeley Square per chance?"

"That was it!"

 

 

[John Besley]

Oh dear I might have stirred up a can of worms - well the birds will like it...

 

I have started my bird sounds with a clip of spring garden birds moving on to background birds in summertime looped a couple of times to fill and birds in woodland as these fadden in and out nicely.

 

Then used a couple of clips from a blacksmith shop, grindering disc mixed up with some light hammer sounds I cut and pasted then a gas weilding torch.

 

Added in a belt drive machine along with a lathe starting added in a clip of rusty gears which when edited soundered like a rough casting being machined.

 

As a bit of fun added in a dog barking that I faded so it came as one in the lane behind the Works.

 

Also found a clip I mixed in of a plane in the distance - really must hunt up an old prop plane, remember the crop duster in North by Northwest...

[John Besley]

So far my track is 38 minutes long... waiting now for the speakers to arrive so I can set them up and set up any volume and stereo alterations to give a bias to left or right depending where I want the sound.

 

This going to be a whole new ball game or rabbit hole I've fallen into

 

 

Edited January 4 by John Besley

[JeffP]

23 hours ago, Gedward said:

 

 

"I remember hearing a Nightingale sing somewhere..."

"Berkeley Square per chance?"

"That was it!"

 

 

Aire des Bles d'Or, north of Chateauroux, A20

[Gedward]

1 hour ago, JeffP said:

Aire des Bles d'Or, north of Chateauroux, A20

 

Sorry that's gone right over my head, I didn't take French, I took technical drawing instead.

 

[Fishplate]

1 hour ago, Gedward said:

Sorry that's gone right over my head, I didn't take French, I took technical drawing instead.

 

Me too! I was very proud of my 23% exam result in 3rd year. Exactly the result I needed to ensure I didn't do O level French, but got to do TD instead. 👍 

 

Oddly I can't remember the percentage I got in TD. . . .

[JeffP]

"Aire des Bles d'Or".

Motorway rest area of the Golden Wheat.

All French motorway rest areas are named, many, being far from a local village, are given fanciful names like the above.

Sorry to those who didn't understand, I've done so much driving in France I assume others have too.

As the years have accumulated on my age, and driving in the UK is now so unpleasant, I probably do more miles over there than in the UK.

But with the SNCF freight yards mostly lying idle and overgrown, the unpleasant experience is growing over there too.

Sorry...back on topic.

[John Besley]

No worries a bit of thread drift is fine 👌 

[JustinDean]

On 03/01/2024 at 18:00, John Besley said:

Ok, spent a happy afternoon getting my head round Audacity, downloaded numerous sound files from Pixabay - Blacksmith Workshop, angle grinders, rusty gears, summer bird sounds, door handle.

 

I found I by cutting an adjusting the volume of each clip I could build a 10 minute project, useing the bird sound as a background track and the others as foreground tracks in an effect.

 

Need to convert to an MP3 format at some stage, wondering about how to run this I could fit a couple of speakers inside one of the buildings... just need to think what I could use to run this, I dont really want to add it on my phone, at the moment the file is a project saved on Audacity 

Late to the party on this but I’m doing exactly this on Middleton Top; only I’ve being using a field recorder to collect samples from the actual location. I’ve used the set up described for several small sound art installations and it works really well. 
 

Jay

[John Besley]

27 minutes ago, JustinDean said:

Late to the party on this but I’m doing exactly this on Middleton Top; only I’ve being using a field recorder to collect samples from the actual location. I’ve used the set up described for several small sound art installations and it works really well. 
 

Jay

 

While I have used clips from the Internet, I do intend to gather up my own clips, one of which will include a skylark as it's so typical of a warm spring day as they climb higher and higher.

 

Buzzards in the distance again is something I want

[JustinDean]

17 minutes ago, John Besley said:

 

While I have used clips from the Internet, I do intend to gather up my own clips, one of which will include a skylark as it's so typical of a warm spring day as they climb higher and higher.

 

Buzzards in the distance again is something I want

If you’re looking for a high quality stereo portable recorder I use one of these:

 

https://zoomcorp.com/en/gb/handheld-recorders/handheld-recorders/h4n-pro/

 

I have the excuse of needing it for work (I’m a music producer) so wasn’t too worried about cost. It’s a really excellent piece of kit. 
 

Jay

[JeffP]

7 hours ago, John Besley said:

 

While I have used clips from the Internet, I do intend to gather up my own clips, one of which will include a skylark as it's so typical of a warm spring day as they climb higher and higher.

 

Buzzards in the distance again is something I want

Not heard a skylark in years.

We used to find their nests by watching the adult bird hovering.

Farmland in north Lincolnshire that had been bought for housing, but stayed undeveloped for 4-5 years.

Yellow hammer another I've not heard in years🙁

"A little bit of bread and no cheese".

[John Besley]

Well we are making steady progress with the 0-8-0 busy assembiling cab fittings, weathering and such like, as an aside I have set up the desk along with the soldering iron in a vice like clamp for two handed (well one and a half) operation to start converting the first two locos to DCC, modified the front light on The Bat' and thread a grain of wheat bulb through the front of the loco then wired in a plug to seperate the body from the chassis easily.

 

 

 

Just pondering how to make all the motor and decoder connections...

 

 

 

Edited January 15 by John Besley

[John Besley]

Just looking for wiring clarification to hard wire this all up

 

[John Besley]

Hit a problem as the decoder burnt out, Bu99er ... another is on its way found an issue I think with the stay alive wiring as once I'd wired this up evrything stopped working, cut this off and problem solved untill something went wrong and the decoder burnt out, rewired the chassis back to DC and tested it - no shorts so dont know what the problem is...

 

Set to and wired up the second loco The Baldwin this time with a sounder MS490F which works very well on the test bench, although it does seem to stop completely requiring a slight nudge to move again... i need to check the connections for the LaisDCC 872007 stay alive I take it these are as used for the capacitor as supplied I did wire this into the Common + (not the Cap+ from underneath) and ground however this doesnt apper to be correct so removed it, and guess what this otherwise runs a treat.

 

Sound project for this is the Ruston 48DS

 

 

 

Edited January 17 by John Besley
Photo added

[John Besley]

Had a sort of return to work day ( first since the accident Dec 5th) still can't drive or do much with the left hand.... but in other news the decoder arrived today so will get fitted tomorrow.

 

I then intend to send both locos to Digitrains so they can fit the stay alives as I think there is a fault with them.... put it another way if I followed the correct as supplied instructions and they stopped working then there has to be an issue... I don't want to turn the sound decoders into toast by fitting it again even though it needs one as it will just switch off in the middle of a run up and down the bench test track for no reason.

 

Once I've got these running I'll get another for TB4 the big Hunslet - however I can't make up my mind what sound project I want, the Ruston 48DS is brilliant as fitted to the Baldwin, and sounds just right.... I had toyed with an 08 but not too sure a class 33? ... need to find something that sounds bigger than the Ruston but still a bit rough and clunky, want a nice engine chough on start up.... panel rattle vibration... an the odd air brake blowing off...

 

Any ideas anyone?

 

 

Edited January 18 by John Besley
Correction

[JeffP]

Class 37?

[Ramrig]

13 hours ago, John Besley said:

.. need to find something that sounds bigger than the Ruston but still a bit rough and clunky, want a nice engine chough on start up.... panel rattle vibration... an the odd air brake blowing off...

 

Any ideas anyone?

 

 

Sounds more like my old Sherpa van from the nineteen nineties……. 😂😂