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legomanbiffo

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Blog Entries posted by legomanbiffo

  1. legomanbiffo
    I did more work extracting the Class 20 engine sound clips last night. For a good v4 project you have to create approximately twice as many discrete clips compared to v3.5 so it's quite time consuming, but the improved responsiveness and all-round play value is definitely worth it.
  2. legomanbiffo
    I finished creating / extracting the Class 20 engine sound clips this morning. In-between 'real' modelling I spent the rest of the day tweaking the flowchart to get the engine sounds driving how I want them. I'm probably about 90% of the way there with that, and fed up listening to just engine sounds so I added all the previously created 'auxiliary' sounds (horns, air sounds, door slams etc) to see how it all worked as a package. Probably another two or three days tweaking to go and version 1 will be ready. Not sure what to do about a target loco for the video. I've got an early Bachmann (20052) but I don't know if it's the model I want to run with. The speaker certainly won't be as good as the test-bed 26 I'm running the sound in just now.
  3. legomanbiffo
    The Class 20's do a nice little hiss when the reverser is operated, and a slightly longer one when the driver puts his foot on the deadman. We captured these when we did the recordings at the GCR so today's 20 minute task was to add these to the project. Needless to say things didn't go quite to plan. No hiss on reversing and no deadman sound, in fact the loco just sat there idling and refused to move. I'd got this feature working fine on the 118 dmu so I knew it worked. Most of the time if you get something wrong in the flowchart it tells you but not this time. It took about two hours to get to the bottom of it, I guess that's what they call experience. Trouble is, next time it happens I will have forgotten how to fix it...
     
    Anyway, reverser and deadman hiss now working fine.
  4. legomanbiffo

    Sidetracked!

    By legomanbiffo,

    I got sidetracked from the usual sound-based activities this morning by a bit of railway photography at Lea Marston. I also managed to fit in some 'real' modelling, having made a start on weathering my rake of BDA's. I spent yesterday morning round at a pal's where we milled the cast lumps off the underside of a Bachmann 20 and a Hornby 56, both in readiness for underframe mounted, downward facing speakers. Tonight's task was to turn Bachmann's clip-on battery box sides for the 20 into a rectangular speaker enclosure with a 23mm round speaker. Tomorrow I shall mostly be at St Albans show and taking photos on the MML.
  5. legomanbiffo

    Top & tail

    By legomanbiffo,

    Coincidentally, a pal has given me a couple of 20's to turn into a v4 sound-fitted top & tail pair (to go with his RHTT set). Work is still in progress but they sound good whistling round together, with the horns etc only coming from the front loco and reversing when you change direction. This wonderous sight might make its way onto You Tube when I've finished tweaking the 20 sound and he's finished his RHTT.
     
    Saturday saw a sojourn down to St Albans for the show followed by a bit of MML photography near Harpenden on the way back. Two hours in the freezing cold in a muddy field were richly rewarded by some great snaps and the sight of an NR 73 going full chat on diesel power!
     
    I picked up a chip at the show to go into the newly milled 20 and this was fitted on Sunday morning. The improvement gain from having the speaker in the underframe was worthwhile, but only just. There is clearly more bass there but not a huge amount more. Up to now the 20 sound project has been workshopped in my 26 which has the Alan Butcher 28x40 speaker in, so coming back down to earth with a 23mm round (the only thing that would fit into the 20) was somewhat deflating.
     
    I also picked up another BDA at St Albans making the rake up to 6 so far. The first one to be upgraded is just about finished, I'll post a photo next time if I remember. How long do you think before I gash my hand on the rigid brass stanchions? I feel a Railfreight Metals 37 coming on...
     
    Bif
  6. legomanbiffo
    My Bachmann 20 is largely finished and I had hoped to make a couple of videos over the weekend but unfortunately real life intervened and no progress was made. You wouldn't believe how challenging it is to find 'quiet' time in an urban & family environment - there is always something 'noisy' going on. Not noisy so you would notice necessarily but the mic picks everything up so I like to film in an empty house where possible, and it hasn't been lately. The time hasn't been wasted though, as my double-headed rats have been upgraded from v3.5 / 100 ohm speakers to v4 / 8 ohm. They are seriously loud. There are still a few tweaks I need to make to the project before I'm completely happy but not too many. As things stand the 20 & 25's are likely to make their public debut on Airthey Park at Stafford show at the weekend (thanks guys) instead of You Tube. I'll be there both days and happy to discuss sound with anyone.
  7. legomanbiffo
    Developing sounds for the Loksound v4 chip involves periods of tweaks & adjustments to the various flowcharts followed by a 15 minute wait whilst the chip loads. You then check that the loco does what you want (which invariably it doesn't without further tweaking, but I digress).
     
    Those 15 minutes are usefully spent doing real modelling, and today I've been roofing an old woollen mill with some laser-cut slate roofing tiles from York Model Making. The mill itself is a Walthers 'Background Building' but the roof looked a bit flat so I picked up some of the slates at Doncaster last week and set to work. The tiles come in self-adhesive strips. It's not a quick job to put them on but in an hour or so I've done one side whilst ascending the learning curve. I distressed the odd tile here and there with knicks out of corners and bits missing and it all looks great. Definitely easier than putting them all on individually. Life is waaay too short for that.
     
    Meantime the 73 electric sounds are coming along nicely, and doing what I want most of the time. If anyone has experience of 73's running on the juice I'd be pleased to hear from you and perhaps pick your brains so I can get things just right.
  8. legomanbiffo

    Mr ED

    By legomanbiffo,

    Having tiled everything tile-able on the layout in between reloads, I've now got the ED to the point where I'm happy with the diesel flowchart, the electric flowchart and all the auxiliaries (compressor, horns etc). Next comes the tricky bit; how to program the changeover from diesel to electric and visa-versa, whilst maintaining authenticity and staying within the technical constraints of the chip. I'm not anticipating this to take too long but the annual sojourn to Model Rail Scotland is going to intervene. All being well I'll be picking up a banger blue Lima 73 while I'm there. Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible...
  9. legomanbiffo

    Gauny no dae that

    By legomanbiffo,

    I'm pleased to say that the Glasgow show was better than last year's, which was hopefully just a blip in the year-on-year improvement. Well done to all concerned. As usual it was great to meet up with old friends, and put some faces to new ones. Deviations on the way up included photting at Winwick Junction and Carlisle, and on the way back, Tower Models followed by fish & chips on the front at Blackpool!
     
    Back in the sound lab the 73 diesel / electric transitions have been sorted out after some persistent misbehaviour by the programming (ie it wasn't doing what I told it to do. 'Gauny no dae that' was very apt at the time). Now it's just a case of gilding the lily with a second set of horns etc just to finish off. As with the 20 the video is going to be a little while yet as I really want a banger blue loco to feature, and extensive searches at Glasgow failed to turn one up despite the vast array of second hand stuff on offer.
     
    Thoughts are beginning to turn to which sound project will be the next to benefit from the upgrade to v4. Current favourites are the Voyager (though this will involve swapping out the four 100 ohm speakers for 8 ohm ones) or the Eurostar (into which I could fit the huge 28x40 speakers from Alan Butcher).
  10. legomanbiffo
    How long back do you think you would have to go to have seen a 60, followed by a 56, followed by a 37, going up the Lickey in the space of 15 minutes? 5 years, 10 years? Try two days! Many thanks to my pal Mark for alerting me to that one. It's a shame the weather wasn't great for pictures but the trip was worth it just for the listening pleasure.
     
    In the sound lab the 73 is just about finished and about to be 'beta tested'. As with the real thing you can switch between diesel and electric on the hoof. A moment of inspiration led me to full user-control of the two-speed exhauster using a single function key. That will have to be retro-fitted to the 33 project...more work! As usual the project features all the usual v4 goodies including different horns, doors and buffer clash in either direction, variable speed flange squeal etc
     
    Looking ahead I think I've settled on the 67 as the next project for the v4 treatment, in readiness for the upgraded Hornby model. I've been reviewing my source material (recorded at Bounds Green) and there's some good stuff in there including a failed start, compressor speed-up etc, all good v4 fare.
  11. legomanbiffo
    The 67 project was coming along nicely and it was time to start getting the sound vs speed relationship how I wanted it. I fired in some settings based on previous experience and ran the loco round and it was clear all was not well. Before I got to halfway on the throttle the sound had already worked its way up through every notch to full tilt! After studying the flowchart it dawned on me what had happened; the most recent software upgrade from ESU had corrected a discrepancy that has existed in the Lokprogrammer v4 software from day one. All I had to do was double some of my numbers and problem solved - for the 67 at least. I then had to go back to every other project I've updated to v4 standards (20+), change all the numbers and test each one again. Needless to say this took me some time and I was not a happy bunny.
     
    The arrival of my 350 has seen a temporary diversion to tweak all of the settings to suit the model. This has taken a couple of days on & off but now things are pretty much how I want them to be. The extra room in the v4 chip has enabled me to include a couple of on-board announcements (one long one for an 'all-stations' service, and another shorter one for a 'limited stop' service). I've set the volume of these fairly low so they sound as if heard through the open doors when passengers are getting on and off.
     
    A speaker has been fitted in the large battery box under the driving vehicle next to the motorised car. The sound is now better but the plan is do an identical fit in the other half of the train with a second chip and speaker. On a 3-car unit you can just about get away with a single chip and two speakers (one in the first and one in the third carriage) but with a four-car unit that's stretching it too much. Once I've done this and weathered the underfame I'll post a video.
     
    I'll get back to that skip one day...
  12. legomanbiffo
    Things in Legomanbiffo's world have been extremely hectic lately, mainly due to three weeks of training in Manchester and Scotland, punctuated with a day's intensive recording session. The trip to Manchester gave a welcome opportunity for rail travel and photography, with stops at Crewe, Stockport and Manchester Picadilly on the way up. On the return journey I spent some time at the Crewe Heritage Centre with Brian Porter, trying to coax more sounds out of the APT. We had minor sucesses but it will be a long time before we get the major bits we really want working again.
     
    The first proper recording session of the year was a bit of a departure from the norm for me. It was at the invitation of the young man behind 'The Armstrong Powerhouse' Train Simulator sound site. Needless to say the opportunity to spend the day with a preserved line, 5 coaches and three main line locos at our complete disposal wasn't to be missed. It's too early to say whether we'll see legomanbiffo sound projects for all three locos since, being a guest I didn't always have 'the best seat in the house' but we will see. Which locos? You'll have to wait & see!
     
    Extraction of suitable clips from the recordings has begun but will have to be set aside again as the training gets under way again on Monday. Roll on the end of the month when things get back to normal.
  13. legomanbiffo
    A two-week course in Scotland provided an ideal spring-board for a bit of recording during the middle weekend. Various Scottish modellers have been asking me to record the sliding doors on a 303 and adapt my 304 project accordingly. However, with the help of the hard-working chaps at Bon'ess I've managed to go well beyond that and record almost all the sounds that the 303's made, including horns, driver & passenger doors, hustle alarm, main & auxiliary compressors, guard's right away bell, aws, oil pump (which they had instead of traction motor blowers), brake releases, main contactor & battery charger hum. The only things which couldn't be done on the day were pan up / down (which might be a possibility in the future) and the traction motors themselves (no 25kV!). All this was possible because the majority of things ran off 240V which can be temporarily lashed up from a shore supply.
     
    For good measure I took the last trip of the day on 37175 and recorded the start-up & run from the back cab, then captured all the 'auxiliary' sounds when we got back. Hopefully this will yield some improvements to my existing 37 project (better / bi-directional horns for a start) and perhaps another 37 project altogether with the new engine sounds. If you haven't visited the Bo'ness & Kinniel Railway it is highly recommended. They have a great roster of Scottish region diesels which are all in fine fettle and the line has a long and steep bank on the way up to Kinniel.Thrash-tastic!
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