Steam engine sounds for UK locomotives?

KotangaGirl

Pre-Grouping Railways Nut
I've been Googling around looking for steam engines sounds and I've also been looking on the DLS, but so far have found very little in the way of good UK two cylinder steam engine sounds.

So far I've found: 2 Cyl steam enginesound V3.1 (vovven47) <KUID:448495:50113>

LNWR Coal Tank Steam sounds (knucklesnvector) <KUID:387744:100086>

Steam Engine Sound - 2 cylinder Stephenson (narrowgauge) <KUID:44700:53052>

Does any forum member know of any other good steam sound files that they have tried and can recommend? I'm using TS2009 3.1 to run my trainset.





 
75 views and no-one has any ideas or comments to make? Well I guess I'll just carry on with this by myself then.
 
The main ones available are two cylinder Stephenson which are recorded from an LNER J36, two cylinder walschearts recorded from a black five and the three cylinder set recorded from Flying Scotsman. I think there might also be a set for a Merchant Navy.
 
There are some great sounds on some of the You tube vids of English Locos especially those of trains on the Ais hill but I don't know how to capture and record them. There will be a way to do it I'm sure and one of the longer serving Trainz guys will no doubt know how as the sound file is just a loop I think, once you have the basics? Alternatively I may be completely wrong!
But good luck. Cheers
 
Thanks for your replies.

I think doing sound captures and then making them Trainz compatible might be a bit beyond my abilities nimec. Thanks for the thought though.

Edh6, - I have been using the two cylinder Stephenson engine sounds that were recorded from 'Maude' and I've since tried using the LNWR Coal Tank engine sounds and found them to be very different, but in a good way. That set me wondering if there was any other engine sound files for Trainz available as while the sounds from 'Maude' are good I have an MPD full of locomotives that all sound the same. The LNWR Coal Tank sounds work nicely for older locomotives and do make for a pleasant change so I've been converting some of them over from the 'Maude' files.
 
I hadn't realised the LNWR one existed. I'm going to try it out later with a view to using it on some of my future models.
 
The sounds of '<kuid:387744:100086> LNWR Coal Tank Steam sounds' are playing to slow.
Example:
the 60rpm sound (4 chuffs) should pay in 1 second, but its duration 1.429 seconds.
The same problem with the sounds for the other rpm values.

Peter
 
I run my computer sound in/out jacks to my hi-fi amp, so I can record You Tube sounds on a tape deck, I then replay them
to the computer & use 'Audacity' to make the wav files for Trainz.
 
It's possible to directly record the sound your PC plays to audacity. You can also easily extract the sound from youtube videos via various converter websites which is how I created my Ffestiniog whistle sounds. I suspect these converters are largely used to illegally download music but they come in handy when your friend gives you permission to convert there video soundtrack for trainz too!
 
I have some friends who use Audacity to make sound files for decoders fitted to their railway models so perhaps I should pick their brains.

The Great Western Archive http://www.greatwestern.org.uk/sounds.htm has .wav files taken from a wide variety of steam locomotives and I wondered if that might be a good starting point.

The sounds of '<kuid:387744:100086> LNWR Coal Tank Steam sounds' are playing too slow.
Example:
the 60rpm sound (4 chuffs) should pay in 1 second, but its duration 1.429 seconds.
The same problem with the sounds for the other rpm values.

Peter

Do you think the sound files have been deliberately played too slow in an attempt to make the files sound different, or do you think it's just a mistake?
 
Probably a mistake. The speed has to be right so that you get the correct number of "chuffs" per wheel revolution (4 for 2 cylinder and most 4 cylinder locos, 6 for 3 cylinder locos, 8 for a Lord Nelson).

I would imagine that making sounds for DCC encoders is a fairly similar procedure (I don't know though) so it might be worth asking them. When it comes to source files I think you need recordings of the loco operating at various different speeds to get the most accurate result.
 
Most probably a project for me to look into when I have some time to spare then. Being a pre-grouping steam geek I do like my locomotives to sound nice and work how they should. It's interesting that you mention whistle sounds as I like having the correct whistle sound for a locomotive where it's possible to do this. I have a friend who plays Dovetail's TS and he was telling me how the engine specs and sounds are very much individualised for each locomotive and even for individual locomotives within a class and I must admit I feel a bit envious of that.
 
Audacity is the program I was trying to think of in my earlier post. I like your idea Blackwatch, Ingenious.
Regarding the sound[chuffs] matching the wheel revolution . i.e. 4 chuffs to a one wheel revolution of a 2 cylinder loco my understanding is that its not the sound file that fixes this but the alteration is made in the config file. To do it you need the tech details of the loco in question and get the driving wheel dimensions.
I have forgotten how to do it now, but have done it on a number of steam locos. Its not hard. Having worked on steam engines in my youth I'm very fussy to see that the chuffs match the wheel revs and if they don't cannot use any steam loco as its 'wrong'.There are a few Trainzers left who know how its done but the trouble today seems that many of the younger people who like trainz and the romance of steam may not have heard or seen and actual like steam train running so dont know the correct synchronization.
Lets hope some of those with that skill will see this post and prepared give us an explanation/demonstration of how its done. Get the sound synchronized to the wheel revs, the smoke looking right and the game is really worth playing. There is some payware that is getting better getting it right. Cheers
 
The new sounds for steamlocomotives are based on the rpm. One bogey (usually the driving bogey) need the entry 'direct-drive 1' in its config.txt. The animdist of this bogey and the speed of the locomotive are used to calculate the rpm value. This rpm value is used to select a matching sound.
The rpm sounds should have the chuffs for one or more full revolutions. For a 2 cylinder locomotive (1 revolution, 4 chuffs) this results in:
30 rpm - 2 second / revolution duration of the sound
60 rpm - 1 second / revolution duration of the sound
120 rpm - 0.5 second / revolution duration of the sound
To avoid short sound files, the sounds for higher rpms contain the chuffs for several revolutions.

Peter
 
From the Wiki http://online.ts2009.com/mediaWiki/index.php/KIND_Bogey
[h=4]animdist[/h]Type: FloatCompulsory: Yes from 3.4Desc: Distance travelled in metres by the bogies in 1 second (30 frames) of animation. In other words, multiply the wheel diameter by PI which is 3.1415. Leave this tag out if the bogey is not animated.Bogie animation files exported from the 3D Editor must be called "anim.kin" and included in the asset folder.Do not include anim.kin in the config.txt.If, for instance, there are large driving wheels and smaller wheels used on the pilot, of a steam locomotive, you will need to work out the correct value for each bogey using the angular rotation for 30 frames.
 
Audacity is the program I was trying to think of in my earlier post. I like your idea Blackwatch, Ingenious.
Regarding the sound[chuffs] matching the wheel revolution . i.e. 4 chuffs to a one wheel revolution of a 2 cylinder loco my understanding is that its not the sound file that fixes this but the alteration is made in the config file. To do it you need the tech details of the loco in question and get the driving wheel dimensions.
I have forgotten how to do it now, but have done it on a number of steam locos. Its not hard. Having worked on steam engines in my youth I'm very fussy to see that the chuffs match the wheel revs and if they don't cannot use any steam loco as its 'wrong'.There are a few Trainzers left who know how its done but the trouble today seems that many of the younger people who like trainz and the romance of steam may not have heard or seen and actual like steam train running so dont know the correct synchronization.
Lets hope some of those with that skill will see this post and prepared give us an explanation/demonstration of how its done. Get the sound synchronized to the wheel revs, the smoke looking right and the game is really worth playing. There is some payware that is getting better getting it right. Cheers

Having the smoke and the 'chuffs' right as well as a proper engine spec for a steam engine makes a huge difference to enjoying 'playing trains' I took one of Paulz Trainz Edinburgh Railway well tank Hurst locomotives and gave it the LNWR Coal Tank's engines sounds file and Paul Hobbs's Terrier A1X engine spec file and suddenly I had a completely different little locomotive that sounded and worked as you'd expect an elderly steam locomotive to operate. No more funny glitchy engine sounds and steam powered roller skate performance; - now I've got a completely useful locomotive that's a total pleasure in every way.
 
The best especs for UK steam locos are the ones by 2995valliant that have a build of 3.7 or above as these are designed for use in the latest versions of Trainz.

As for sounds, the BBC has just released there sound effects library free for non-commercial use which contains some steam loco recordings: http://bbcsfx.acropolis.org.uk/
 
Thanks Edh6. Quite a few of the older Broad Gauge locomotives I've got have 2995valiant's engine spec files. He does good work.

There's certainly some interesting sound files in that BBC archive, - thanks for the link.
 
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