Sound
Page last updated 29/03/07
by Steve Jones
DCC Sound
Experimenting with DCC Sound
One of the benefits of DCC is the ease with which onboard sound can be implemented and controlled. Unfortunately at the moment it's somewhat expensive and choices are limited, especially for the modeller of the UK scene. Not being known for my patience I was considering flexing the credit card to obtain one of the well regarded American SoundTraxx decoders to get the feel for how it all worked when I came across some alternatives in the Roco catalogue. I ended up with a VT115 Trans Europ Express (ref 43086) for £259.10 from International Models - I wanted a TEE for the collection at some point anyway, so this seemed the route to take.
Prising the roof off the shiny new power car shows where it all fits. One DCC decoder (slightly larger than my normal non-sound choices) on the right feeds a speaker that points up through the roof grilles. These components are made by LokSound, are very customisable and should fit in most UK outline diesels.
Download some sample WAV files from their site and have a listen.
A closer look at the gubbins that make all of the noise. To say I'm impressed with the sound is a major understatement! It's much, much better than I expected and whacks out a fair old volume. Tick over and start up in particular are superb and sound very much like a British DMU. Triggering the sounds is simplicity itself, you just press a numeric/function key on your DCC handset. This particular example gives a compressed air hiss if you press 4, a short toot on the horn if you press 3 and a longer blast on 2. Pressing 1 makes the diesel engine splutter into life. This is synchronised with the speed of the loco, as you'd expect, and is two channel so you can use more than one sound at a time.
The decoder is destined for transplant into a UK unit at some point, but for the moment I'm having fun with it in it's current home. In the space of an hour this has changed my whole outlook on model railways - now I want sound with everything. The only barriers are availability and price.......
One of the benefits of DCC is the ease with which onboard sound can be implemented and controlled. Unfortunately at the moment it's somewhat expensive and choices are limited, especially for the modeller of the UK scene. Not being known for my patience I was considering flexing the credit card to obtain one of the well regarded American SoundTraxx decoders to get the feel for how it all worked when I came across some alternatives in the Roco catalogue. I ended up with a VT115 Trans Europ Express (ref 43086) for £259.10 from International Models - I wanted a TEE for the collection at some point anyway, so this seemed the route to take.
