Clinchfield Route Horns And What Will This Mean For Spg?

Discussion in 'Suggestions' started by JGRudnick, Mar 21, 2021.

  1. JGRudnick

    JGRudnick Well-Known Member

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    In the preview stream for the upcoming Clinchfield route, Matt revealed their new way of creating North American horns. This included recorded each of the bells separately and then layering them to sound like the real thing, or at least get very close. I thought this was an ingenious way to do this, because it would seem to me that finding each individual bell to record would be much easier than finding a working version of the horn to record.

    So after hearing this, it made me wonder. Would it be possible, DTG, to create a K5LA using this message to replace the current K5LAs in SPG (if you can even call them K5LAs)?

    The M5 that was created using this method sounded great, and I think a K5LA using this method would sound much better than the one we currently have in SPG.
     
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  2. mariner86

    mariner86 Active Member

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    I thought that was an interesting idea, but I don’t think it will be the proper sound, the air pressure hitting each bell at certain points is what gives the horn its sort of musicality. I don’t think the M5 sounds fully correct either American horns are not all or nothing especially on older locomotives. Most engineers will open the air valve slowly much like blowing a steam whistle. It can give them a unique sound even from operator to operator. You end up getting a two tone type effect as the air pressure starts low and then increases. The American horns in game lack personality, it is not just all or nothing. Only on new locomotives with a push button horn and even some of them like Amtrak P42s still seem to have a variable air valve that allows quilling of the horn. The functionality is there as some of the European and UK horns in the game capture this effect. I’m attaching a very interesting video of a horn event on an American railroad. I am an avid musician as well and familiar with various recording methods. They would almost be best going to one of these events and using an isolation cabinet to record the various horns that the collectors bring to the event for future use in the game. An isolation cabinet is basically a dry environment that some guitarists will use to get the sound of a cranked up guitar amp without having the amp on stage with them. They place the guitar amp within the isolation cabinet and back stage have it cranked up to very high volumes to achieve overdrive with a microphone in the cab, the sound engineer will then have full control adjusting the sound within the mix. You are able to record this way at high volumes, a cranked up Marshall stack and a train horn have similar decibel levels. They could do the same with the train horns, they could then add reverb affects to them and adjust the sound to make them sound real and in world. Per FRA regulations American train horns are between 96-110db. A cranked Marshall amplifier is approximately 120db. By using this method for recording they should well be able to achieve a high fidelity recording without clipping issues. Many guitarists record at high decibel levels and it does not impose an insurmountable challenge. You could construct an ISO cab with a horn stand in the middle and a microphone on one end, have an air line hard piped to bolt the horn to, and then have the air valve on the outside of the box attached to an air receiver and compressor. You would then be able to play the horn until the needed recordings were obtained. That’s my biggest dislike of the game is that the American horns lack a certain feeling to them, and that the sound design of the GE locomotives misses the mark. If you’re playing the game with surround sound the low frequency chug from the GE’s should shake your living room. It’s not great but it’s not terrible either definetley could use room for improvement.



     
    Last edited: Mar 28, 2021
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  3. Monder

    Monder Well-Known Member

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    I think the new method is not in use yet, they're looking at the possibilities of making it work. The M5 on CRR F7 is still an old school recording made.
     
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  4. robski

    robski Member

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    I do agree with you, I did some horn mods myself using this method and works out pretty well. One thing really killing the emursion is to not have echos in confined spaces between rocks or tunnels, like this:


    In the video its a bit over done I think but could maybe be implemented in to the game.
    That would create an absolutely stunning feeling of actually being there, in my opinion. :D
     
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  5. JGRudnick

    JGRudnick Well-Known Member

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    Yes, I totally agree with you, the NA horns do lack personality. But even if we didn't get a quilling feature, a better sounding K5LA would be great. Also, it is possible to quill the push button horns, as I have heard it done before on numerous occasions. It just requires a light finger on the button.
     
  6. JGRudnick

    JGRudnick Well-Known Member

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    They did say they were looking into doing horns that way. I must have gotten too excited and I heard them wrong :D
     

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