Searching for some flavorful hornsounds.

J

JonMyrlennBailey

Active member
There are many hornsounds available on DLS but one can't hear audio samples of them in descriptions. Using a music keyboard, I consider these my favorite chords for locomotive loud audible warning devices. A number of American trains have had these over the years during the 20th century. American automobile and truck horns tend to be major or minor third intervals of two distinct pitches. Trains often have three, four or five notes in their horn harmony. Many more modern train horns sound sick or dissonant. My question is, which downloadable hornsounds have sounds similar to the five I have demoed in the following video sample? The content authors don't tend to define them in musical terms.

 
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I like this A-flat Diminished whistle, 3 notes, on this 15-"-ga. locomotive at Train Town, Sonoma, California. It is the most definitive American steam whistle for trains. I last rode this with my family in the summer 1975 at age 11. They had a scale Pacific engine then and a 1800's style locomotive.

 
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JCitron said:
Check this out.

Five Chime Consultants Airhorn Guide (railfan.net)

You can sample the horns and also the site gives the notes that create the sound. If you have a piano or keyboard, you can play them.
Click to expand...


It would be nice to be able to create custom horn/whistle sounds for Trainz in custom tunings. A diminished chord sounds best for an American steam locomotive. I think of train whistles in musical terms. I think I would have minor chords for GM carbodies, major chords for SD40 series, augmented chords for sw1500's and diminished 7ths for GM/EMD Geeps. If I owned a real railroad, I would definitely have horns specified to custom tunings for my powered rolling stock. I love the Southern Pacific horns of old, think pre-1990's. Those spooky diminished and diminished 7th chords really send chills down my spine at night.
 
Whimsical horns are great for fun, maybe for a model railroad, but in real life the railroads choose cacophonous sounds to essentially scare those who are nearby to get out of the way of the train.

In music, chords are used to not only add body to the music, but also to add drama and emotion. A battery of the same minor chord, each played with increasing volume, can invoke the feeling of terror. Add in some percussion and it only gets more terrifying. Back in the old silent movie days, the use of diminished minor chords, such as Fm7 along with its tonic F minor, were used to represent the villain or doom in the scene.
 
JCitron said:
Whimsical horns are great for fun, maybe for a model railroad, but in real life the railroads choose cacophonous sounds to essentially scare those who are nearby to get out of the way of the train.

In music, chords are used to not only add body to the music, but also to add drama and emotion. A battery of the same minor chord, each played with increasing volume, can invoke the feeling of terror. Add in some percussion and it only gets more terrifying. Back in the old silent movie days, the use of diminished minor chords, such as Fm7 along with its tonic F minor, were used to represent the villain or doom in the scene.
Click to expand...

Southern Pacific and/or GM/EMD oddly chose to use a bright, cheery major chords on it's SD40/45 series locos. I've heard dark diminished and minor chords on SP's Geeps and SW1500's of old as a young boy in Novato, California. During the night, I would lie in bed at age 5 and hear these spooky horns approach from the distance. As the train comes, rolls through town and speeds away, there is the doppler effect which adds to the eeriness even more so. The doppler effect seems to change the horn pitch chromatically, in intervallic half steps, and that is another hallmark of horror music in old-fashioned picture shows. American conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein once described chromaticism as creepy and crawly in its musical persona. You will hear the piano, string orchestra or organ move minor or diminished chords up or down in chromatic fashion in scary or suspenseful movies such as when the train is just about to run over the woman tied up on the track before the hero rescues her. When I think of suspenseful music, I always think of trains blowing whistles through town at night.
 
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