Sources for sounds

[nightstar.train]

I've been inspired by the recent series in Hornby magazine about making a sound project and am wanting to try and make some of my own for my trains. So i am looking for sources of sound recordings, in particular of DMUs. Does anyone know of sites or groups with that sort of thing?

[Lady_Ava_Hay]

I've been inspired by the recent series in Hornby magazine about making a sound project and am wanting to try and make some of my own for my trains. So i am looking for sources of sound recordings, in particular of DMUs. Does anyone know of sites or groups with that sort of thing?

 

Sound projects come in two types, RTR chips come with a variety of different sounds built in and, apart from adjusting some basic CV's, there is little you can do to change things apart from having it re-blown by another RTR supplier.

 

Then there is DIY which is where you want to be.

 

You will need to source your own sounds. Nobody will give them to you just like that. This means recording gear. I use a Sony Minidisc and a really expensive shotgun microphone. You need to locate your chosen prey and liaise with the railway that owns it for when it is in service.

 

DMU's are good in that as long as the driver drives it normally, you will be able to record it and get some good user sounds. You might find that recording lineside needs care as both Doppler effect and other sounds might intrude.

 

Once you have the sounds, you will need to edit them in a sound editor software. Allow several days for this. Then you need to chop each sound so that the decoder will play it when you want it to. Allow several weeks for this.

 

Then you need to download the sounds into the decoder. For that you will need a programmer dongle and software plus huge amounts of midnight oil to master that.

 

About 60% of the time it will sound awful and you need to go back to square one and re-record the train. Hopefully, it will not be undergoing repair or out of service for months, years even.

 

Then you need to adjust the decoder settings so that all is synchronised. Downloading and synching? Allow about a day for this.

 

Then, when you have done all this and realised that you could earn all of £10 downloading this to others..........

 

Of course, you could always give the sounds away to anyone who asks.

[Etched Pixels]

I've been inspired by the recent series in Hornby magazine about making a sound project and am wanting to try and make some of my own for my trains. So i am looking for sources of sound recordings, in particular of DMUs. Does anyone know of sites or groups with that sort of thing?

 

There are a few sites that cover sound recordings, the best source (for personal use only in general) are the computer rail simulator sites. Quality varies and you have to watch the licenses are ok - a fair bit isn't, and some of it is entirely "do as you like" which is great and other stuff is "personal use/non-commercial only". I've still not sound a source of decent 323 sounds I can use for example.

 

Trying to pull stuff off video and the like is a real last resort and again needs permission in most cases. A lot of the serious sound sets are done by people with good directional microphones and the real thing. then a lot of editing work. In many cases it also can't be done well on heritage railways as you can't record the higher speeds/gears at 25mph.

 

After you've got the sounds you need to equalize them, mix and clean them up, then cut them to flow together when they loop. Tools like audacity can do most of this work for you.

 

So its work - its a bit of a time sink but it's fun, rather like kit building !

 

Alan

[loickebros]

 

I use a Sony Minidisc and a really expensive shotgun microphone.

 

 

 

what microphone do you use then?

 

Regards

 

Dave

[Lady_Ava_Hay]

what microphone do you use then?

 

Regards

 

Dave

 

An Audio Technica ATR55 plus an added furry wind cheater. Superceded by ATR6550 I think after a quick glimpse here page 46. I seem to recall paying £80 + for it and about £30 for the windsock. I only paid £30 for the Minidisc.

 

The windsock takes you up to about 10 or 15 mph and then starts cutting out and recording wind roar.

 

The shotgun enables recording at considerable distance; I have recorded successfully at 100 yards and tracking a loco becomes a possibility but outdoor recording is by no means easy and to get consistent and useful results you need a lot of luck. Fortunately, the chips sound quality is so poor that a lot of other sounds are lost in the edit. Nevertheless, the dog bark and cow moo plus, in my case, the parakeet squawk are a distinct possibility!!

[legomanbiffo]

 

I've still not sound a source of decent 323 sounds I can use for example.

 

Alan

 

 

Alan, send me a private message if you wish; I did a full recording session of a 323 at Soho (London Midland's depot in Birmingham), and also have line running sounds recorded out of the hopper window on the Cross City line! These will be finding their way into a DCC sound project when I can find time.

 

Bif

[nightstar.train]

Sound projects come in two types, RTR chips come with a variety of different sounds built in and, apart from adjusting some basic CV's, there is little you can do to change things apart from having it re-blown by another RTR supplier.

 

Snip....

 

Of course, you could always give the sounds away to anyone who asks.

 

You know i am just looking to do this for personal pleasure and a bit of fun. I'm not advocating ripping off other peoples sounds, or trying to destroy the DCC Sound industry. I was merely asking if anyone knew of groups where people like to share their projects and recorded train sounds. Some people like to do that you know, for the benefit of others. I'm not planning on violating anyone's copyright (my parents are both IP lawyers so i do know quite a lot about copyright BTW). I just enjoying doing techy stuff like that.

 

Thanks for the advice Alan, i'll have a look into that. Never thought of train sim sites, but i guess they have quite a lot of stuff like that.

[Lady_Ava_Hay]

You know i am just looking to do this for personal pleasure and a bit of fun. I'm not advocating ripping off other peoples sounds, or trying to destroy the DCC Sound industry. I was merely asking if anyone knew of groups where people like to share their projects and recorded train sounds. Some people like to do that you know, for the benefit of others. I'm not planning on violating anyone's copyright (my parents are both IP lawyers so i do know quite a lot about copyright BTW). I just enjoying doing techy stuff like that.

 

Thanks for the advice Alan, i'll have a look into that. Never thought of train sim sites, but i guess they have quite a lot of stuff like that.

 

We are all in it for fun, this is a hobby.

 

Nobody, including me, is suggesting any form of rip off.

 

What you will find is that nearly all free issue of sounds has been bashed to death. Train Sims seem like a good source but the sound quality is not good. I once spent many hours with a full set of steam sounds for a West Country only to have the whole thing sound like junk in the decoder. There are one or two decent whistles and airhorns about and quite a few sundry sounds but these are readily obtainable from a visit to a preserved railway and of much higher quality.

 

The bottom line is that, if you want quality with no real effort, buy RTR. If you put in the effort and record sounds you will get an enormous blast from that and, having got a working project as an amateur, you won't particularly want to share it for a variety of reasons. I am not alone in this.

 

If you want to go into business as a supplier of RTR chips then you can do that and the sound projects will be your living so you won't share them.

 

The difficulty for all of us sound gurus (nerds, geeks...sub as nec) is that we are hard put to tell the difference between a perfectly innocent request for 'gimme some sounds so I can have some fun' looks exactly the same as 'gimme some sounds so I can go into business'.

 

At the same time, it has to be said that the 'gimme' posts outnumber the 'how do I get the overrun rod clank to work' by about twenty to one.

 

It tends to make you cynical.

 

I answered your post in that vein and for that I would apologise.

[big jim]

We are all in it for fun, this is a hobby.

 

I once spent many hours with a full set of steam sounds for a West Country only to have the whole thing sound like junk in the decoder.

 

If you put in the effort and record sounds you will get an enormous blast from that

 

The difficulty for all of us sound gurus (nerds, geeks...sub as nec) is that we are hard put to tell the difference between a perfectly innocent request for 'gimme some sounds so I can have some fun' looks exactly the same as 'gimme some sounds so I can go into business'.

 

 

totally agree with the above posts, you people probably know i record sounds purely for bryan at howes as he is a good friend, a genuine bloke and most importantly knows what he's doing with them, as i've said in previous threads i've got plenty of sounds to do my own chips but i neither have the time, inclination or skill to even think of looking into giving it a go, i just give what i get to bryan so he can get what he can from it and do a proper job, bryan must have a good 10 hours of my recorded fastlien class 66 sounds of which probably about 75% is unsuitable for use, wind noise, vibrations etc but small variations in sounds between locos or sub classes can make a huge difference on a chip (ie non low emission and low emission 66 start up, horns etc)

 

regards getting a blast from recording, yeah thats fun, obviously i'm luckier than most in that i can actually drive or be on the trains at line speed rather than pootling rouund (eg class 66s sounds at 75mph are somewhat different than at 20mph, or a class 56 fully open at 75mph with 1500 tons behind it which sounded awesome), to hear it all then translated to a chip is brilliant, i have units with my announcements, tornado with my shovelling coal in etc, my latest recording are the chiltern bubble and a class 67 (again at 100 mph)

 

i too have had requests for sounds which in all fairness i turn down, purely for the reasons dwhite points out, where do you draw the line?

 

i was on the chiltern class 168 simulator last week which had some nice sounds, tempted to ask if i could have a copy of them!!

[Lady_Ava_Hay]

Just to veer away but not off topic, I have just returned from Maplins and have spotted some radio mikes on the shelf at affordable prices. A quick gander suggested that two types are available, one being a hand held voice mike in VHF and another tiny lapel mike in UHF, range 50 ft.

 

So how about taping a wind shielded mike to the boiler barrel of a steamer and riding the 'plate to record the sounds? Anybody tried this yet?

[big jim]

 

So how about taping a wind shielded mike to the boiler barrel of a steamer and riding the 'plate to record the sounds? Anybody tried this yet?

 

not done it with a kettle but i have done something similar with 66s and a couple of 37's, put the mic in the exhaust area but it didn't really work, picked up wind noise above about 30mph also quite a lot of background, ie bridge abutments passing by the mic etc, did manage to get some sucessful recordings though, a better mic may have helped

[Lady_Ava_Hay]

not done it with a kettle but i have done something similar with 66s and a couple of 37's, put the mic in the exhaust area but it didn't really work, picked up wind noise above about 30mph also quite a lot of background, ie bridge abutments passing by the mic etc, did manage to get some sucessful recordings though, a better mic may have helped

 

Most of these that I have researched today are pretty standard mikes with a battery powered transmitter. Downside is that the receiver base station is mains powered. Except one. I have asked Shure to comment on one of theirs which is powered from a 12V DC socket at the back and presumably a wall wart.

 

The mikes come in two types, one is the standard handheld and the other is the tieclip one. I envisage a windshielded box with this latter mike in it on the boiler casing or diesel roof. One wonders whether the metal casing of the loco would interfere with the signal. Apparently, bounce off walls means that two aerials spaced 40 cm apart are needed on the receiver.

 

With a range of fifty feet, riding the first coach is probably not an option although hanging the receiver out of the window might work.

[nightstar.train]

Thanks for the advice all, i'm going to give it a go and see what i can come up with.

 

The main reason i'm fancying doing it this way is the cost. Most British sounds you can get use the Loksound decoder, a pricey option but a very good decoder as i understand. I am wanting to sound all my trains (eventually), and a lot of them need more than 4 functions to work all the light functions i want in them (day/night headlights, separate rear lights for locos, interior and CDL lights for units), and the Loksound only has 4. So looking around the Zimo MX640 looks great, 6 functions, supposed to be very good decoder and much cheaper than the Loksound. Problem is there seem to be only about 5 British sounds available for it, hence wanting to try and make my own. Don't have the time or contacts to try and get on board real trains to record them, so i need to try and find them on the web. I'm going to have a stab and see how it goes, and if its rubbish i'll have to think again.

[Etched Pixels]

The number of sounds available is growing and the promised range is large (the hardest bit isn't turning them into sounds for decoder X but editing up the sound) so with luck the situation is going to improve. And even if it turns out rubbish you can still get the decoder reblown with a better "pro" set once they come along so its not a big cash hit either.

 

I find it like kit stuff though - my 31 sound set isn't that great compared to say Howes, but it's *my* 31 sound set, its unique and I made it !

[cassey jones]

I have been stung that many times trying varoius peoples sound files, that I have to send the chips off to either Howes or SWD to have them re programmed.

 

Its ok doing your own sounds, but the problem starts when individuals sell their sound files onto other companies, who in turn sell them on to joe public.

There are a few suppliers I would not touch with a barge pole, once bitten twice shy!