NOT DCC SOUND - BUT NEED HELP BOOSTING STATIONARY SOUND UNITS

[TEAMYAKIMA]

Hello

 

This question has no reference to DCC, but I hope people on here can help.

 

A friend built me a couple of sound boards with loco whistles on. When I press a button the sound is heard from a speaker hidden in a building. In my shed it sounds loud, but at exhibitions my operators don't bother using it because they say the viewers don't hear it over the ambient background noise.

 

 

 

How can I boost the sound so people can hear it loudly at shows?  

[Prof Klyzlr]

Dear TeamYakima,

 

Couple of thoughts:

 

1 - Your operators have no way of telling what any given audience member can or cannot hear.

 

2 - As the layout owner, you have the right (and responsibility) to create the presentation of the models you wish to to deliver to the audience

 

3 - Scale Sound is absolutely a thing. You do not install G scale details on your HO scale locos just to ensure every passer-by notices that you added some "extra details".... So why do we think that we can get away with putting G scale (or larger!) Sound under HO scale models and NOT materially negatively-impact the resulting scale model presentation?

 

4 - Scale Sound is like scale details, not every "passing punter" will see/hear the finescale details,...

...but those who are genuinely interested, and actively lean-in to get a better view of your modelling, will be rewarded with both a visual and auditory scale-model impression.

 

5 - in terms of optimising what you have, rather than overpowering a poorly-performing install with sheer grunt, I would suggest checking out the "Scale Sound Owners Manual", and keeping in mind that any speaker which is not pointing at the punters head, IE where the ears are located , is not really installed with it's purpose in mind.

 

6 - While it's incredibly tempting to be sucked-in to the idea that "the ambient noise level of an exhibition hall is louder than my layout room, so of-course we need to crank up the volume to shout-louder than the crowd",

this is a recipe for dB-DragRacing between adjacent exhibition stands, NO-One Wins such contests, 

the Scale Model Presentation suffers, and layouts which indulge in such self-centred noise-pollution frequently find themselves no-longer-invited-back to exhibitions *

 

For my own exhibition layouts, I have been actively deploying Scale Sound and Layout Sound for many decades (Google "Brooklyn : 3AM"), and I strictly adhere to 60 dB SPL @ 1metre for both home and general-public exhibition mission. This has allowed me to present prototypes such as scale 3AM warehouse rave parties on 4x2 micro layouts, which produced an very-real sub-40Hz "thump in the chest" impression to the viewer who is leaning in to the scene, and yet is all-but-inaudible at the next stand/layout. This is a desirable situation, not a negative. The key is that "inaudible" means below conscious-level, which is only -3dB SPL below the ambient level.

 

The point being, Your operators might say "the sound cannot be (consciously) heard", but rest assured if properly-deployed, it most certainly IS still there in the air between the layout and the ears!. Your loco whistle system's soundwaves are very-much present, even if they are not consciously audible above the maelstrom of passing-crowd ambience... seeking to "punch above the crowd" is generally inadvisable, and should only be pursued with a very clear understanding of exactly how sound and human hearing behaves...

 

Happy Modelling,

Aim to Improve,

Prof Klyzlr

 

* Sidenote: I witnessed an incredibly telling example of this a number of years ago, at a show where I was exhibiting my "warehouse rave party" equipped layout. We were located on a stage at one end of a community hall, and had a raised view of the layouts and crowd in the hall body. That we "had a rave party" on our layout had spread thruout the exhibitor-community, and until we actually powered-up, the exbhibitors either side of us had been fearful that "scale rave party" meant "weekend of untenable auditory abuse". On the hall floor was a Japanese N scale layout, with a full-sized 18" subwoofer mounted under one front corner, supposedly supporting a "tokyo city" scene with mini LCD screens mounted in high-rise buildings. From our vantage point, the 3' radii semi-circle of floor area around that layout corner which the punters actively-if-unconsciously REFUSED to walk within due to the abusive pummelling of the propagating "doof doof" soundwave was both visually astoundingly obvious, and incredibly telling as to the power of excessively-loud, distorted, Bad Sound....

...my layout with it's 60dB-SPL @ 1metre SCALE "rave party" was invited back and received critical praise for "all the impression, none of the obnoxiousness"...

...the Japanese layout was not invited back to this exhibition, or any other in the local area that I am aware of...

Edited December 19, 2022 by Prof Klyzlr