# Confused about sound



## AndrewP (Dec 27, 2007)

Hello All,

Please help looking for advice. I have various Aristo locomotives, 3 Pacafic, 2 Mikado and an ALCO A-B-A.


I am using the on board train engineer and want to upgrade to Revolution sometime.

My problem is sound. I am at a loss as to which sound boards to get. I don't need DCC as I use the train engineer. I know I do want polyphonic sound. Being in South Africa with the bad exchange rate I don't want to pay an arm and a leg, maybe just a finger or two 


Any constructive advice would be appreciated.

Cheers,

Andrew


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## lownote (Jan 3, 2008)

There are not really very many options. As I understand it, f you want to use the new Revolution TE, the choices are Phoenix (excellent, expensive) or Dallee (mediocre, much less expensive). f there are other options I don't know about them


I have been very happy using the QS/Airwire system under track power. It works out to be about the same price and the installation is much much easier--you don't need to mess with wiring up a soundboard and the Aristo capacitor board. DCC is a bit more complicated than the Revolution, but not that much


My sense is that the Aristo Revolution really works best with batteries, but I've read a number of posts from people using it with track power. Once they add the extra capacitor board, it seems fine. 


Judging by your description of what you want, I think Phoenix is probably your only choice with the Revolution


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## Totalwrecker (Feb 26, 2009)

http://www.smallscalerailway.com/ 

Makes canned sound that is optically activated. I set up my controls for my grandnephews. The sounds are automatic, no buttons to push. I'm happy with it. 
Can be used with any controller. 

John


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Unfortunately Aristo hates DCC, so the old and new systems are not capable of interfacing to DCC sound systems, where you could buy an excellent one for about $50 (the Tsunami). 

Since you have steamers, you will also need to add magnets to try to synchronize the chuffing with the revolutions of the drivers (an easy thing with DCC decoders). 

For quality sound I can recommend nothing other than the Phoenix. 

For inexpensive (and much lower quality) sounds, the other 2 suggestions made by my esteemed colleagues are also my top 2 recommendations. 

Regards, Greg


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## lownote (Jan 3, 2008)

Posted By Totalwrecker on 14 Aug 2009 10:34 AM 
http://www.smallscalerailway.com/ 

Makes canned sound that is optically activated. I set up my controls for my grandnephews. The sounds are automatic, no buttons to push. I'm happy with it. 
Can be used with any controller. 

John 


I have a smallscale card and it's good, but it's not polyphonic--the chuff stops when the whistle blows


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## Totalwrecker (Feb 26, 2009)

"esteemed colleagues"????? Where??????????????? lol 

WOW have I moved up or what???? 

Now how am I expected to button my shirt over that puffed out chest???? 

Seriously I will agree that SSR sounds are less than perfect and my ear does detect a mono graphic nature (one sound at a time), but unles you concentrate on it you won't notice it. Although it is humourous to listen to the whistle as the train goes through the tunnel! Imagine all the grime that the whistle would blow off the ceiling! As well as deaf crews.... but for $80 it does the job. 

John


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

In my lowly opinion, good advice to a newcomer is the best thing we can to for the hobby. 

Just my personal crusade... don't mind me.... ha ha ha... 

Regards, Greg


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## bdp3wsy (Mar 14, 2008)

I have been using MYLOCOSOUND system and now it works with the REV plus the TE from aristo. They have British and American steam and deisil. Jake

www.mylocosound.com

The MyLocoSound soundcards are indeed compatible with the Aristo Revolution in all respects apart from the bell which I will mention later. They are connected as follows:

· Revolution Receiver Auxiliary Control Harness
o Connect the Black wire to the soundcard GND terminal
o Connect either the Green wire to the soundcard VS terminal. This means that the bell button on the transmitter can be used to turn on and off the static steam hiss or diesel tickover. The brown wire could also be used with the smoke button if you are not using the smoke unit.
o Connect the Blue wire to the H2 terminal to operate the whistle or horn.
· Revolution Adaptor Plug
o Connect the MOT+ and MOT- connections to the M1 and M2 terminals on the soundcards. It does not matter which way around.

The only limitation relates to the bell. The soundcard will trigger the bell when the loco starts moving and will switch off the bell once the loco speeds up. This will happen automatically and it is not currently possible to turn the bell on and off from the Revolution transmitter.

Please let me know if you need anything else.

Regards
Peter Lucas


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## bdp3wsy (Mar 14, 2008)

OH yes, its digital and polyphonic and $69. Jake


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## Gary Armitstead (Jan 2, 2008)

Phoenix. May be expensive- $149-but it is totally "customizable". Is that a word?!! Oh well, you get the idea.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Where do you get a Phoenix for $149 with the sound trigger inputs that work with the TE? I think you missed adding the P5T to the P5... 

Regards, Greg


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## Gary Armitstead (Jan 2, 2008)

My bad!


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Not bad, but might have been confusing for Andrew. 

Andrew, the Revolution TE has 6 triggers... it can control up to 6 sounds with these triggers, provided the sound card has the "trgger inputs". The Phoenix 2K2 (out of production has 4 I believe), the PB9 has 4 also I believe. The P5 does not have any triggers I believe stock, you have to add an extra "trigger" board. 

So you can find a Phoenix board for $149, but you need an additional board to work with it, and a P5 and the P5T total about $220 street price average. 

Regards, Greg


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## AndrewP (Dec 27, 2007)

Thank you for all your valuable input. The MYLOCOSOUND seems attractive but limited in functionality. I think I will bite the bullet try the Phoenix P5 with P5T aux board.

If any of you are interested to see pictures of my layout you can get me on Facebook, Andrew Pappas. It will be a work in progress for 6 years this October and still far from finished.


Regards,
Andrew


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## lownote (Jan 3, 2008)

I have not tried the Revolution. People who have seem to really like it, especially if they run on batteries. You can look through the Aristo forum and see people's responses. The Phoenix cards are excellent, no doubt

But look at what you'll need to do what you want to do with track power


Transmitter
Receiver
Capacitor Board
Phoenix board
Phoenix trigger board 


and compare it to doing the same thing, using conventional track power, with QSI


Transmitter
G-Wire receiver card
QSI card


Less wire, less hassle, less complication. And it's cheaper. In my opinion, QSI's implementation of sound is better, because the sound is linked to the motor load--not just motor speed. So the character of the motor/chuff sounds changes as the loco encounters grades or curves. Much less of the tedious "machine gun" effect. 


I'm sure you will be happy with either, they both have advantages


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

Never heard of MyLocoSound.com. Looks pretty nice.


I have the SmallScaleRailway.com board in my Annie. Very nice. You have no control, it's all automatic, but it's always making sounds appropriate to what I'm doing. I had the Dallee board in my Mallet. Didn't like it. I put the Phoenix in and love it. The price of the Phoenix might kill you in SA.


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## blueregal (Jan 3, 2008)

Lownote is right look at QSI/G-wire and either a t-9000 throttle or the new NCE QSI throttle by QSI in the long wrong least expensive most functional setup and ease of installation is the real "KICKER" on this with the PNP setups. The only system I like better and I will only have 2-3 engines runnin on it is the MTH DCS system I have the Triplex and it and the throttle are a "HOOT" for functionality, and I will only add maybe a challenger or a big boy to the roster on that system. To to my site and or you tube and check out my things on QSI/G-wire and or the MTH triplex click on video on demand and watch videos.



Crazy Train Guy's Garden Railroad Channel - Mogulus Live Broadcast


Blueregals Garden Railroading Home Page


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## AndrewP (Dec 27, 2007)

The QSI solution does seem attractive but I currently run the TE and will want to upgrade to the Revolution later. What's great about the Revolution is that it's 2.4GHz and also bi-directional so the receiver speaks back to the transmitter to confirm the command was received.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Yep we know... wireless DCC systems have had this for a number of years... the bidirectional... and 2.4 GHz alone does not a good system make.... 

The bottom line is performance, usability, etc. I spend about $100 less per loco than you will be doing, and I have more control, more features and more reliability. 

Not starting a war, but be sure of all the things you THINK you are getting, don't believe advertising alone... 

Regards, Greg


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## AndrewP (Dec 27, 2007)

Thanks Greg,

If the QSI solution is bi-directional as well then I think I need to THINK again 

Do you know what frequency it runs at? Thinking about antenna length. I will check their web site again.

Do i have to use the QSI transmitter or can I use a different one? I have 5 locos and 1 consist and unless I misunderstand the QSI / NCE can only do 4 locos simultaneously.

Thanks,
Andrew


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## lownote (Jan 3, 2008)

Andrew:


You can use the Airwire transmitter, which I have or the newer NCE Gwire transmitter, which seems to me to be better. It works at 900 mhz, which works well for me-I don't have any range issues. The antena is about 2-3 inches long. As far as two way communication, I'm not sure what that means. The QSI card reports back speed, for example. And I'm not really sure about the rebeing a limit on how many you can run at once. I really don't know. Ive never consisted more than two locos, and I've had two in a consist and two others running with no problems. If ther eis a limit to the number you can run at once I don't know about it

Consisting is easy with DCC, which is what you get with QSI and the G wire. You can speed match locos exactly


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

I was thinking track power DCC systems that have bidirectional comms. They also have multiple base stations so you do not have to be near a loco or accessory to have it communicate properly. 

You can have many more consists in DCC, but there are things that you would discover do not work right on the TE, like consist a number of locos, and then blow the horn... which loco will blow the horn? I think all of them... in DCC the "end" locos are known as well as the middle ones. 

There are many examples where the level of functionality does not come close to DCC. 

Now, you don't have to want those functions, and that is of course legitimate... my point is that you want to investigate to see what you are really getting. 

If someone tells you the TE does everything DCC does, go talk to someone else, he does not know what he is talking about. 

Why am I being so verbose? Because if I was a new person to the hobby, bought the "advertisiing line" and then found out all the stuff I was missing, I would be upset.. 

Again, I want all the bells and whistles, not everyone does... 

Regards, Greg


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## Ward H (Jan 5, 2008)

but there are things that you would discover do not work right on the TE, like consist a number of locos, and then blow the horn... which loco will blow the horn? I think all of them... in DCC the "end" locos are known as well as the middle ones. 
Hi Greg, 
to answer your question, the axillary and menu functions are active only for the loco displayed on the screen. You can "toggle" through the locos of the MU consist using the "*" key to display any of the MU'd locos, then activate that loco's functions.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Right, as I said, a shortcoming compared to DCC... where blowing the horn blows only the horn in the "front loco" depending on direction, no searching through menus to try to blow the horn. 

This is only one example, but again, not bashing, just saying there's a world of difference in capability. 

It goes a lot deeper than this, but this thread is not the place. 

Come on chat, we start 7pm PST and I will be there, along with people way smarter than me, where you can ask questions in a conversational manner... we have a good time every evening. 

Regards, Greg


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## AndrewP (Dec 27, 2007)

Merry Christmas everyone! 


OK, I did it. Thank you for all the advice and suggestions. I have purchased 1 x Gwire transmitter, 4 x receivers and 4 x decoders. These for my 2 x Pacific and 2 x Mikados. I also got new speakers. I have only installed one system into a Pacific and having 3 problems.

1. Transmitter seems to stop doing it's job ie transmitting. I have to go into the setup and reset the transmitter. This has happened twice now and is always a panic situation as I think I have blown something. Not too serious a problem.


2. Trying to program the chuff rate...The CV manager software does not seem to save my table. I enter all the values and when I go back to check verify the values the table is empty. I have managed to get an acceptable chuff rate with the "Chuff interval scale Factor"

3. I am a little disappointed about the range? What should be acceptable here? Maybe it's not a range problem. The speed control seems to work fine but then the loco is far away from me more than 15 feet or so the whistle seems to lock up in the on position. The only way I can seem to get it unlocked is to turn either the bell or light on or off. Changing the speed does not seem to effect the locked whistle.


All in all I am happy and will get more next year for my ALCO A-B-A setup. 


PS Anyone interested in 1 x TE 75Mhz TX and 8 x RX, one RX still sealed in the packaging.


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