Comparison of train horns What I was pointing at in the other thread (and didn't want to derail it) was comparing for example the Canadian GP 38 horn in this video with the AC4400 after it (around the 22 minute mark) that should be about the same. It's very much not even close to the same. The first sounds like a locomotive horn, the second sounds like a bad 1980s music synthesizer. Not to mention a lot quieter in volume, even outside the cab where it should be very loud compared to the running sounds. Same with the SD-40 after it. The GP-38 (same model, same horn) is even quieter and wheedy. Then you get the SD-40 for Clinchfield and it sounds pretty good. The C-40 then goes back to the fake synthesizer music sound. The three F7s are... a mix. One a good one, one is medium quality, one not so good but not terrible, The F40s seem pretty close, all variants. The SD 40 on Sherman Hill is closer.... not great. Too high pitched but at least louder. The SD 70 for UP not deep enough, but like the SD 40 not terrible. The NS ES44 is back to being very weak and low volume, bit tinny. Not synth though. The NS GP38 is... a car horn. Now maybe NS did use car horns on some of their locos, but I haven't run across them. The BNSF ES 44 is... mediocre. Not great. The BNSF SD-70 is pretty decent. It's just such a wide range of quality. Not sure if that's true of the other country locos, and I can't speak to most of the commuter stuff but the freight stuff and the things I've travelled to along the East and West coasts I can verify first hand. The AC4400 is especially bad, and the NS GP 38 car horn is just terrible. The closest thing I can give for that would be a 1993 Buick. Well, now that the thread is made.... what do you think? What are the good or bad horns you've found in game?
I really do not know what to make of this post. I live along the CSX in Virginia and can say that horns on the same model locomotive will sound vastly different due to many reasons. These can include dirt in the bell, damage to the bell, air pressure and how the engineer works the air valve. In this I am saying that all the locomotives had the same make and model of horn. What horn goes on the locomotives can vary by railroad. They all seem to have their own preference. I know people who are horn collectors and there are loads of them and they all sound different.
To pick the clearest example, none of them sound like an 80s synthesize like the AC4400. You can very easily google Sand Patch and hear it for yourself. Some like the Canadian ones and the F40s are pretty darn good. I'm guessing it's hit or miss with the UK and German stuff too, but I haven't been around those as much in real life. Living by railways and traveling near them I can tell the CSX, NS ones well. The MBTA and BNSF/UP less so, more just on travelling.
SPG is also the game's oldest route. So might this be a case of more recent locos having more/better options available for the devs?
lol US rail fans and their horns. There are even YouTube channels dedicated to specific models of American locomotive horns I drive mostly German and UK routes and the horn sounds while probably not always 100% true reproductions of the real things are close enough. European trains mostly run silent and don’t have to blast their horns five times at every level crossing or have loud bells clanging when they pull into stations so the horn factor isn’t as important here.
It was remastered at least once that I know of. Yeah, but get the wrong thread count on the seat in your passenger car and it's the end of the world! ;-)
Can I remind those on PC that there are many horn mods out there - about as many as the opinions on which is better!
It depends on the recording of the horn tbh. The AC4400 horn was actually recorded from an AC6000, but was done a pretty long time ago with much older equipment and approaches to what we do now. Modern recording kit is fantastic - 192bit recordings mean that you never have to worry about clipping (exceeding the volume). Previously it was much more challenging - US horns are pretty loud! Sometimes we're able to get recordings for the trains, but can't get the horn - either because the train is static in a depot where they can't sound it, or they simply have a policy for the sake of neighbours to never use the horn in or near the depot. TGV was like that. In some cases we've worked with a community member who has a collection of air horns from trains and the equipment to sound them and he's helped us fill some gaps (thanks Jim!). But yes also as someone else has noted - the same train type can have multiple different horns, operators don't care about that kind of thing as long as it has an appropriate horn that meets the spec. Sometimes they take a bit of a beating and sound a bit different just because of that too. Hopefully you're finding the newer horns to a higher standard. Matt.
The newer ones do seem better, but the problem is many of the same horns are on the older stock and not updated, and the newer stuff is exclusively passenger stock. I get that it's not a huge priority given TSW 3 and older US stuff isn't a priority. Given that they are layering onto new routes though (like the MBTA using the older US freight stock layers), it might be worth considering tweaking the older stuff to be up to the same quality. Much of the older stuff is pretty good in other ways (few exceptions like the ES44 dynamic brakes) but overall, it's decent quality and doesn't need to be redone. I'm by no means a horn collector so couldn't tell you what exact models would go on what exact trains, but the newer US ones do sound fairly common and closer at least than the ones they have. Even something common like the K3LA I think it's called would work because it's widespread across fleets and models. http://atsf.railfan.net/airhorns/k3la.html if they're going to go obsolete, I get not updating but if they are going to layer on new routes it's worth it, especially if the newer releases (like the F59) have better horns that could be used in a pinch. Anyway, thanks for the feedback Matt.
Pity though that the impact of said train horns in game have no impact on the environment they are used in as in attack decay sustain and release. Train horns are real loud but in game they are flat. There's good examples of what I'm trying to convey in the vid below.
So the Doppler effect? Or are you referring to the reverberation and echoes, etc? There is some of that in game (tunnels are a good example)
