Model Railway Forum

On the old forum there were a couple of threads regarding adding background or ambient sounds to a layout.
I did it with some small flash memory players - very cheap - and a couple of free online sound files.

Today I received an email from Gaugemaster announcing their own version.
If anyone is interested

http://www.gaugemaster.com/news/Introdu ... nic-Sounds

Great find. Guess we'll see more of these appearing as more companies latch on to the potential.

They look to be very useful bits of kit. R-

I couldn't get the link to work http://www.gaugemaster.com/news/Introdu ... nic-Sounds but oddly that does, seems a good idea and its certainly a compact and simple looking unit.

also in the same area will be from Hornby the sound van https://www.hornby.com/uk-en/shop/pre-o ... 3-4-5.html on the website there is a video showing a demo of the sounds although it might be something that works better sitting in a siding than being shifted around.

The Hornby TTS van is designed to sit in a siding - it is modelled in a dilapidated condition.
I've also changed the link in my first post.

Train-Tech tells me that on DCC the GM units will have 8 settable addresses, one for each sound with any two sounds playable at once. Addresses allocated using the standard ‘learn’ button method. I presume its an 8-way accessory decoder at heart strapped to a sound amp and memory chip. They say if a sound is given the same address as say a point motor then the (say) point changing sound will play as the point is operated.

On DC the main background sound will play along with random play of the other sounds. On or off - no other control on DC.

The Hornby Vent Van unit is based on a TTS sound decoder and operates like a loco on a single address by way of all 29 Function buttons. Any three sounds playable at once. The Hornby unit will have solder tags to allow it to be connected to a bus wire system if it is not required to stand on track.

Rob

Rob, that's some interesting information the idea with the GM units that you could match certain sounds to particular actions on other addresses is quiet clever. although is taking up 8 address slots going to limit the appeal to people with more basic controllers.


I wonder which will be more convient to use, hornby where you select a 'loco' and then use the functions or GM where you have to select each accessory idividually

time will tell and at least neither of them are particularly expensive

I can see either working well with Hornby Railmaster as you could program the various units with various themes around the layout and have them popping up on a schedule.

According to the web-site the GM unit on DCC can be set for random play just like the DC mode, which could be more operator convenient.
Rob

At £30 a module possibly more reasonable than adding sound to every loco purchase, or converting exiting stock, but even so I can think of more pressing considerations for a beginners budget

My plan is to add some speakers below deck and play some ambient tracks through my phone (I've bought a small cheap car amp to run the speakers) - there are hundreds of tracks on YouTube - eg, countryside, seaside, wind, rain, thunderbolt and lightning...

as an example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QW1i9vYitmE&t=85s