legomanbiffo

As well as the ones Charlie listed; Guard to driver beeper, driver's door slam and detonator sounds always come from the lead vehicle. Various other sounds come from both ends at once (brake applications, mk3 coach wail, mk3 coach door slams, flange squeal etc).

To answer some of the points raised; The EM2 doesn't need a series connected speaker, its power handling is sufficient for a v4. We've run them full volume on the stand for months now and had no problems. The EM1 needs a second 4 ohm speaker in series and my Scotrail shove duff sounds lovely with an EM1 in the tanks and a 20x40 in the roof recess. Overall loudness of that combination is on a par with an EM2 but the bass response is less, as you might expect (we're talking relative here; the former is still streets ahead of your average factory fitted sound). For your average manufacturer of miniature loudspeakers, the kind of quantities we are collectively likely to order (or have commissioned) just 'isn't worth them getting out of bed for' when compared with the numbers sold for TV's, radios, mp3 players etc. It would be far more cost effective to design locos to fit the standard speakers available. To that end we have talked to all the big players and had mixed responses, as outlined by Steve above. The other issue is model lead times. The design process for a recent loco release from one of the big players began many months ago when the bass reflex speaker was considered state of the art. If it was designed today it might be designed to accept an EM2. Rest assured we're doing all we can to get the manufacturers to take sound more seriously and design it in from the outset. In the meantime we will continue to push the envelope of what's possible with existing models and deliver it to you at a price compatible with the quality of the results. Bif

Bob, The results were an unqualified success with all three versions of the HST (Paxman Valenta, Paxman VP185 and MTU). The MTU doesn't have the wow factor of the other two but that's just an accurate reflection of the prototype really. They are fairly straightforward to fit, going in the guard's compartment area in both cases. In the dummy car you have to remove the plastic chip holder (two minutes with a razor saw), and in the power car you have to remove an approximately 5mm square piece from the metal cast 'shoulders' either side of the motor.. i did this with a junior hacksaw in 10 minutes. Then you have to glue down anything and everything in the body that can rattle, because it will with all that sound energy in a small space. You'll also need a load of extra weight because believe it or not the cars will rattle on their own wheels if you don't, especially the dummy car! I used lead flashing for that, easily cut with an old pair of scissors. I also put black insulation tape over all the rear windows which hides the speaker but doesn't alter the appearance from the outside. Hope this helps, Bif

Just to let you know that my sound project for the Class 14 'Teddy Bear' is available now. It was recorded from D9659 on a private session at the Spa Valley Railway with a train behind it (the same day we did the 25 actually). As always the guys there did a great job for us. If you're adept at metalwork and brain surgery and have the patience of two saints you can fit two sugar cubes in the Heljan model and it sounds great! Lovely raspy engine this one, and sounds just like a 20 when it spools down. Bif

Steve, Many thanks for the thumbs up, it's much appreciated. It's no coincidence that the sounds produced by two parties who are both keen modellers and passionate about sound (Paul and I) make special mention on your list. We are both doing our best to push up standards across the board. It's a slow process when commercial considerations come into play, but as the Dapol 68 and SLW 24 have demonstrated, progress is being made. Bif

Not by us you won't, we don't do that. Could that Zimo board be used with chips from other manufacturers?

Gordonotron; I will be able to reblow chips at Glasgow, Nottingham & Ally Pally in the near future, not sure which show you mean. We will also have speakers available. Black hat; I wonder if you have left F0 (normal lights) on when using F19 or F20? Only one of the three F19, F20 & F0 should be used at a time, to suit the train you're operating. Please come back to me if that's not it though. When used on their own, F19 and F20 should have no lights at the train end regardless of direction. F21 (parking mode) should have reds at both ends regardless of direction. Bif

Nick, As you are no doubt aware, the 68's operate in a variety of different scenarios including light engine, pulling trains, propelling trains, top and tail and so on. When you start to think about how the lights operate (eg no reds next to the train, reds at the rear when propelling etc), and when the sounds should operate (eg no horns when propelling) it quickly becomes complicated trying to cater for everything. After giving it a lot of thought and trying various things out I settled upon the idea of operating modes, which greatly simplifies things for the user. There are three main modes as follows; F0 light engine mode. This works exactly like any other loco. Reds and whites switch automatically, sounds all play in both directions. Halo lights can be added with F14. F19 Train mode, train at #1 end. No lights next to the train. Lights st the opposite end reverse automatically when pulling or propelling. Directional sounds (eg horns) only play when loco is leading. Halo lights can be added with F14 (when loco is leading). F20 Train mode, train at #2 end. As above but the other way round. I will be updating my DVT Mk3 project to go at the other end, and the 68 & DVT won't need to be set up as a matched pair, just given the same address. Hope this helps, Bif

Noel, Just to correct a point relating to your video. Whilst the Irish sounds are of the quality that our customers have come to expect, I cannot take the credit for them, they were produced by another sound programmer who supplies Charlie. I've had a play with them, they are very good and have some great functionality. Bif

Dave, Don't listen to Charlie, he'll tell you anything! :-) I had originally intended the serial number to follow on from my existing 47 as I only planned to change the engine sounds, so it would have been v4 mnr 47 v15 or whatever the 47 is up to, I forget. A handful went out like that. I quickly realised that there were going to be quite a number of new features over and above that (handbrake on / off sounds, new horns, reverser hiss when you change ends, sanders etc) so I decided to give it its own identity; v4 mnr 47 v1 (mnr being Mid-Norfolk Railway, where it was recorded). One of the features I've recently rolled out is to set one of the user id CV's (CV105) to the version number, so you can read it without having to open the loco and read the little white label. Bif

Stewart, I did revisit my existing Class 50 recordings recently to bring them closer to 'modern standards'. I made some fairly significant improvements to the responsiveness, and made the much quicker warm start the default. You can still kick-off with the cold start if you wish by turning F1 off and back on again. Quite a few other minor improvements as well, including drivelock, sound fade in and out on the move, slow light fade and so on. Richard Armstrong and I did record another loco and had four mics deployed. The recordings are great at idle and slow speeds but all four sets suffer from a very weird artefact when the loco opens up, like you were listening to it down a long drainpipe. As such they are unusable. Haven't worked out how much that cost us but fortunately we recorded another loco the same day so not a complete write-off. We will try again at some point, with a different loco. Bif

Really looking forward to seeing Blair Atholl again. Saw it at the SECC many years ago (when we still lived up there), it was superb. Bif

We'll also have an East Midlands Trains HST fitted with EM2's at both ends and the brand new Paxman VP185 engine sounds...

Fear not Bob, just drop them off with us and we'll see that they get safely to him. We see each other often enough, especially during the show season.

When I last spoke to him Steve said he was going to try and get down but didn't know what day that would be.

Black Hat. No, there are four different F keys. F0 for light engine, and from memory F19 and F20 for the two train modes. I forget where I put parking mode. Paul. In Jan / Feb I will be at Stevenage, Stafford, Doncaster and Glasgow. The stand will also be at Southampton but I can't make it.

The optimum load for a Loksound v4 is 4 ohms (by optimum I mean the value it was designed for, the value that will give you the best transfer of energy to the speaker, and hence the highest volume). Do not go lower than 4 ohm (eg two 4 ohm in parallel) or you will overload and possibly blow the chip. Going above that (8 ohm, 23.5 ohm, 100 ohm, even 1000 ohm is perfectly safe and won't blow the chip but the power transfer becomes increasingly inefficient the higher you go. In practice anything above 12 ohm or so will be too quiet to be of use for our purposes so I suggest a practical upper limit of 8 ohm. If that speaker does turn out to be 23.5 ohm, three or four in parallel (around 7 or 5 ohms resoectively) should provide an acceptable solution. Hope this helps, Bif

Black Hat, I thought long and hard about the best way to set up the lights. I also wondered if I could tie in the 'directional' sounds (horns etc) should users want to team the loco up with a DVT. In the end (and subject to Dapol's approval) there will be three 'modes' as detailed below. These aren't yet set in stone so I'm open to amendments. Light engine mode. Press F0 and you get what you normally expect, ie whites at the front and reds at the rear, all of which reverse as you'd expect, and the sounds work in both directions. If you also want the halo lights on you can press F14, and again these reverse automatically. Push-pull / train mode. This is used whenever you have a train attached. The lights next to the train are always off regardless of direction. The lights at the other end of the loco are white going forward and red in reverse. The directional sounds only work when the loco is leading (they come from the DVT when the loco is trailing). Again you can add halo lights (when leading) by pressing F14. Since the train can be at the #1 or #2 end, there are two associated F keys, just use the appropriate one (like the real loco the model has #1 and #2 printed on the cab doors to help you). Parking mode. Reds at both ends. Simples. I've kept all functions to F20 and below to maximise the number of controllers the model can be used with. Whichever way I set them up won't suit everyone or every controller but I feel this is the best regime all things considered. Bif

Steve, I'd need to check the dates on the files to be sure, but I think the updates were done before Warley. I'm fairly sure had both versions of the 08 there. Our Hornby loco has the 4mm version and the Dapol model has the 7mm version, but only the engine sounds are different. Why do you ask? Bif

Nile; I would love for you to hear some of our EM fitted locos in a quiet environment and then try and tell me the sound is 'adequate' :-) Everything you say about scaling sound is true, as is everything that Lady Ava said about the HST, but our speaker experiments have pushed the boundaries far beyond what people have come to expect from DCC sound, particularly with respect to bass performance. I have locos that I listen to now and say 'yes, that's what I've been trying to achieve for the last ten years or so'. The laws of physics (probably) prevent us from achieving that with all of them but as in all fields of human endeavour, experimentation moves us forward all the time. Stephen; I think you will struggle to find an 'iphone' style speaker of 100 ohm impedance to suit the v3.5, the vast majority will be much lower. They will overload the v3.5 which as you found, very quickly overheats and distorts. You were lucky you didn't blow the chip. Your best bet would be to try 4 or 5 in series to bring the impedance up to the right level, I'm pretty sure that would work and be achievable space wise in most locos. Bif

As the year draws to a close, Steve, Charlie and myself would like to say thanks to all of our customers for your continued support this year. It's been pleasure meeting with many of you on the Model Railway circuit, listening to your opinions and suggestions and enjoying a bit of banter. We look forward to doing it all again in 2017. Rest assured there are plenty of new projects and updates in the pipeline. I've not had much time to report on progress lately so here's a quick resume of some recent developments; The latter half of 2016 has been a period of consolidation, where I've concentrated upon bringing existing sounds up to a common, high standard. This will ensure that each sound set has (where applicable); drivelock, sound fade in/out on the move, slow fade lights, CV-identifiable version numbers, the latest algorithms for each sound, stay-alive readiness, indeed a whole host of 'attention to detail' style updates. Many of the most popular projects have already been done. I want to finish as many as possible before I start adding new features such as the dynamic / independent brake, and processing the backlog of recordings. The Dapol 68 sound project is currently being finalised to suit the mechanism of the production model and ensure that the various lighting and driving configurations are catered for (light engine, push-pull, parked-up etc). I've set things up so that a single F key sets all of the lights and directional sounds to suit the mode of operation (light engine, parked up, or pulling or pushing a train). The lights and sounds then behave prototypically and also 'reverse' when you change direction. This will also avoid the need for reblows if you pair the loco up with my Mk3 DVT project, which is being updated to match. On the subject of DVT's, following another recording session at Bounds Green a completely updated Mk4 DVT and Class 91 matched pair is available now, with some great new sounds and features. These include authentic parking brake operation at both ends, and the ability to select either 'classic' door and despatch whistle sounds, or the more up to date 'seagull' door sounds with 'first and second tip' despatch whistles to match modern practice. The Paxman VP185 engine sounds (as fitted to Midland Mainline / East Midlands Trains HST's) are advancing well and sound great through a pair of EM2's. If you're not familiar, the sound of the VP185's are a sort of halfway-house between the original Valenta engines and the modern MTU's. Following customer requests the Leyland DMU project has been updated with a new multistart regime to allow individual, user-controlled engine start-ups on twin-engined DMU's and additional start-ups to suit power-twins etc. All of my AC electric locomotive projects have recently been reviewed and updated. Following a recording session with Les Ross's loco at Willesden the 86 has a raft of new sounds including handbrake, exhauster, sanders, authentic brake sounds etc. It also now has three-stage rheostatic braking sounds. These are the same as in an 85, so that has also been updated accordingly. An all-new acceleration & deceleration sound regime has been added to all AC electrics to maintain interest when they are on the move. Finding a reliable source of EM speakers at an acceptable price is taking frustratingly longer than we'd hoped but we should have them in commercial quantities in January. Limited numbers of EM1's are available now. Finally, there's an updated version of the 08 with all-new engine sounds to suit to Dapol O gauge model. These are nice and bassy with more prominent traction motor sounds. They sound great through bigger speakers such as our EM3. All versions of the 08 have been updated with multiple configuration options to suit the different prototypes, making it easy to select wooden or metal doors, two different kinds of whistle or an air horn and any combination thereof. Best wishes for 2017, Bif, Charlie and Steve

We have really good stuff for you to see and hear at Warley this year. These are just the bits I can remember; Dapol 08 fitted with an EM3 speaker, completely updated project with new engine sounds and great traction motor sounds. Multiple configuration options (wooden or metal doors, choice of two different whistles or an air horn) etc DJM 71 decorated sample with comprehensive sound project including pantograph operation The tamper, totally transformed with an EM2 speaker. Now the Earth really does move EM speaker fitted Peak, 25, 26, 27, 33 , 37, 40, HST, Deltic. Bass and clarity you wouldn't have thought possible in 4mm ESU v4 / EM2 fitted SLW 24. Judge for yourself All-new Class 25 project recorded at the Spa Valley Railway Matched pair of DRS 37's on the flasks Updated Leyland DMU project with new multistart options (user-controlled two-engine starts, easily selected additional starts for 'power-twins' following customer requests) Janus shunter sounds (in a demo 03) First Great Western 150 with Cornish announcements by Andrew Keast of Kernow! Heljan O gauge 20, 25, Hymek, 37 (with EM3), 40, Western, Deltic, all with high quality speaker fits Hornby Pendolino to demonstrate the Revolution Trains sounds including new announcements Sound-fitted Dapol MRA wagon! Drivelock on all diesel locos New easier to operate 'auto-buffering' feature Updated 86 with handbrake, exhausters, automatic three-step rheostatic braking fans etc etc, updated following a full recording session New and improved acceleration and deceleration sound sequences on all electric locos and units Oh, and did I mention the East Midlands Trains HST with EM2 speakers and brand new Paxman VP185 engine sounds?! Another 'first' as far as I'm aware Very much looking forward to catching up with friends old and new. Bif

Brian, My Deltic isn't available on v3.5 but we can discuss various options on the day to get it sounding more like a Deltic for you. The v4 20 can be reblown on the day (subject to demand). Bif

As a bit of background to this, the Deltic sound fit developed by Steve has gone through around ten different stages of improvement before he has settled on the existing one (which I think I'm right in saying is an EM2 in a milled chassis, with no mods to the fuel tank). I also think I'm right in saying that the same mod can be applied to the prototype Deltic, but don't quote me on that. When carrying out sound fits for customers we always give them the best fit available at that time, but as you know we are constantly pushing the boundaries of what's possible in terms of the speakers themselves, where and how they are fitted, and the sounds themselves. Regular visitors to our stand have witnessed this over the years. The unintended consequence, much like it was with desktop PC's a few years back, is that a better solution might come along after you've upgraded. I don't think anyone would want us to stop experimenting to avoid that though, as it's for the common good. We're modellers as well remember :-)

I had chance for a brief listen to an iPhone 6s speaker recently and it was very good, possibly a bit better than a sugar cube but with a flatter profile (perhaps 2.5mm deep?). It would definitely have uses in some locos where a normal sugar cube wouldn't fit. The latest demo model of ours to have the EM treatment is the tamper (the kit built one from Jonathan Buckie). I fitted an EM2 this afternoon and the transformation is nothing short of astonishing. It previously had a bass reflex and was always slightly underwhelming in comparison to the sounds I knew were in there. Not any more! We'll be at Peterborough at the weekend with a number of EM1 and EM2 fitted locos (the new 45, Paxman HST pair, SLW 24 all with EM2's on Saturday & Sunday plus EM2 fitted 25 and 37 on Sunday). Btw, Charlie and Bif are not the same person. I am definitely not from Yorkshire! Bif