I just did something I'd never thought I'd do again. I did a freight run on Main Spessart Bahn in TSW 2020. I went back to TSW 2020 just to compare the sounds with TSW 2, and they were so nice I stayed for a full run. The 185.2 ran along the track with a pleasing low pitch rumble and the occasional thump and rattle as it went over points and switches, far from the constant screeches and flatspotted wheel sounds in TSW 2. I had forgotten how nice and relaxing it can be to drive a german freight train. Because that's just it, isn't it? The German routes definitely suffered the most when it came to problems with sound following the move from TSW 2020 to TSW 2. Problems that by large still isn't resolved some 18 or so months later. On streams I hear DTG say that -"yes, we know the sounds are bad" and -"It's hard getting good sound sources", but I feel that's simply not true. Most of the sounds in TSW 2, ambient, trains, locos, switches and levers, range between good and excellent, with the occasional amazing being in there as well. When it comes to the preserved routes and trains the sounds aren't bad, they are BROKEN! And there is a big difference between being bad and being broken. The sounds on MSB wasn't bad in TSW 2020. They were actually quite good for the time. Not as good as for example the ICE or the DB BR 101 perhaps, but perfectly acceptable. I understand that it's probably a lot more complicated and a lot more work than I think to re balance the sounds correctly. But then again, it's not rocket science. It's just regular science. So please DTG, take the time and effort to sort these sounds out once and for all. And PLEASE don't let it take another year and a half. For anyone who has TSW 2020 installed and have 40 or so minutes to spare, I recommend the service DB 88119, Gemünden - Aschaffenburg at 12:20 with the BR 185.2. It's a nice, relaxing run with lots of trains going in the other direction. I did it in Autumn mist with the clouds turned all the way down for a clear blue sky but with a little haze in the distance. Then do the same service in TSW 2 if you dare. If you make it past Lohr Bahnhof I'd be impressed, because I didn't. There is a terrible looping sound that produces a faint high pitch noise every 11 seconds when doing 100 km/h. To me it sounds almost like sonar or something from a whale. All this being said, I think that TSW 2 does pretty much everything better than TSW 2020 and I really love it. The only thing letting it down are the broken, yes, not bad, BROKEN sounds on the preserved collection.
I would add that I miss the BR143 sound from TSW 2020 - besides that, WORD! Thank you for posting this. Long waiting for the sounds on the older routes to be fixed as well as the ogoing issues.
The lirr m7 also has broken sounds since you can't hear the motor audio at all. That should be a priority when lirr gets looked at again
I have the impression that the QA of DTG is not able to pin down that difference on a technical level. There are so many issues across different DLCs, which should be so obvious that these never even should pass to the live build.
At the time TSW2 released, owners of earlier DLC wanted the 2-compatible versions released nownownownowNOW!!! Something in the UE 4.19 -4.23 conversion changed the audio codec which broke a lot of sounds- but if DTG had spent six or nine months to get it sorted and withheld the Preserved Collection, there would have been riots.
