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I begun experimenting with locomotive sounds and sound files. It is frustrating, but can be rewarding. For example, I like the NALW GE air compressor sound idea, but after listening for a while, it sounded too high pitched, so I used Goldwave to "tweak" it some. Sounds better, but not perfect. And some of the other prime mover sounds of NALW aren't really as good as stock MSTS GE, in my opinion. Oh, well . . .I'm still experimenting with the unicode sound files, trying to understand all of them. Any guides out there about that? One thing I did do successfully was to take one of my Amtrak locomotives and make it HEP (so the prime mover runs at about 3/4 throttle all the time for head-end-power). It now chugs away just like the prototype.Fun stuff. But MSTS still has a ways to go to sound completely prototypical, but it is evolving.Like I said, fun stuff.
I like the NALW GE air compressor sound idea, but >after listening for a while, it sounded too high pitched, so >I used Goldwave to "tweak" it some. Sounds better, but not >perfect. And some of the other prime mover sounds of NALW >aren't really as good as stock MSTS GE, in my opinion. Oh, >well . . . > Yawn! You are entitled to your own opinion.... Mayhap some time you'll tell us what we did wrong enough that you think our sound files based on recordings of actual locomotives are inferior to Kuju's! Which of course were done to the same level of detail as the rest of the sim.Chuck Schneider Chief Cook and Bottle Washer North American Locomotive Works
Since it is an electric compressor that would be a neat trick... Perhaps you are thinking of the Motor or Belt Driven Compressors that EMD has traditionally had? Their speed does vary with engine RPM Chuck Schneider Chief Cook and Bottle Washer North American Locomotive Works
OK, here's my admittedly biased opinion, based on spending many hours listening to GE locomotives. (I'm not a railroader, but my office is 2 1/2 blocks from a busy mainline and my home is about 10 blocks away.) The "actual" locomotive sounds from you folks at NALW are pretty good. What's also in there (to my ear) is some extraneous sounds--maybe not even from the locomotive. Also, the "notch-out" sequence just isn't quite prototypical yet. Understand, that what I hear all the time are 2 or 3 GE AC4400's pulling there hearts out on 105 car unit coal trains. They lug like crazy and they are loud! I've posted before about how fun it would be to hear all of the GE idling nuances present in the prototype. I can remember yet sitting at an isolated siding on the Moffat Route where an eastbound coal train with 6 units (two on point, one at swing, and two at rear) in DP waited for a meet. Their "song" was the only man-made sound audible on that beautiful evening. When they charged east after the meet, their lugging shook the ground! When MSTS can capture that sound, I'll be ecstatic. I'm not trying to flame NALW. In fact, I think a lot of the sound limitations that are present are within MSTS itself. Goals to aspire to!
