# How does one get custom train whistle sounds?



## JonDavenport (May 31, 2015)

I would like to know how to get custom train whistle sounds either from the locos or a fixed position on the layout. These are specific notes. Is there some electronic device on the market that is tune-able to make train whistles of specific pitches? To make it sound real there has to be the echo or reverberation of the whistle also. Here is a home-made recording I made on a Casio music keyboard. They are mock train whistle sounds. They are quite recognizable on trains of the 20th century. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwWuCW1dJoU


They sound convincing, don't they? What I need is some sort of programmable train whistle for modelers for both steam and diesel. There might even be a device on the market which different whistle sounds can actually be selected. For you music-minded, diminished 7th chords are my favorite train whistle notes. They were common on some classic GM/EMD diesels. The diminished 7th was pretty standard on many American steam locomotives. On diesels they are about an octave lower. I don't want to have my Casio keyboard near my layout to "play" the train whistles on however.


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

Here is a helpful loco sound information source.

Note that when you scroll down you will find
a section where you can audition the sounds
available. You may be able to find the sounds
you want that way.

http://www.soundtraxx.com/choose/

Our members who have sound locos may have
additional information for you.

Don


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## Mark R. (Jan 26, 2013)

Even if you have the right notes, it still sounds like it's electronically generated. It's almost impossible to replicate the environment of a real horn by any electronic means.

There are numerous sites for recordings of real horns. Here's a couple ....

http://atsf.railfan.net/airhorns/

http://www.dieselairhorns.com/sounds.html

That's a good start. Videos from YouTube can also be a good source.

Mark.


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## rkenney (Aug 10, 2013)

Order one of these modules from bigDawgs Greetings.

Download the sounds you want from the internet.

Record them to the big DAWG module.

Rig the module to trigger off the desired action (train pasing, etc.) with a momentary switch.

These modules have some spare pads that connect to the batteries provided so you can remove the batteries and supply your own power from a transformer. 

The one I use for a barn has six farm animal sounds and a separate pushbutton for each.

Your imagination is the only limitation here!


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

For some really heavy-duty sounds, you can use one of these modules.

BY8001-16P Audio Player Module

Just add 5 volts DC and a speaker, you'll have sound that's far louder than the greeting card modules. FWIW, I've used several of the greeting card modules, I'm pretty familiar with their operation.

The BY8001-16P has five button locations to play up to five of the sounds directly with a single button press.


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## rkenney (Aug 10, 2013)

BY8001-16P could be a good product but the post above doesn't give complete information and googling information for that module doesn't reveal a whole lot.

You will at least need a properly formatted SD card to store your sounds, in addition to the items listed above and the sounds will of course need to be in the proper format.

The devil is in the details.:cheeky4:


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

It's not as mysterious as all that. The one area I'm still trying to track down is the serial interface specifications. However, for the sounds, any MP3 or WAV file works with it. I've tried from 32k to 320k MP3 files as well as variable rate encoding. The files are numbers in the order they're written to the disk, so if you want to know which one corresponds to IO1, make sure it's written first to a blank SD card, then write the one for IO2, etc.

All you need for this module is a speaker, 5 volts DC, and contact closures for the five I/O ports. You'll be able to play five different MP3 files, and they can be as long as you like, I've played one hour files through it, no problem at all.

I use this module, and I"m creating a remote controlled sound project with it, it's a great module, and it's far superior to the greeting card modules in pretty much every category. Volume, sound quality, and the length of the sound clips are all vastly superior to the greeting card modules.

If you looked at the link I posted, there was more detail on the card, I just posted the pin descriptions.


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