I agree. I also think it is wrong that the horn sound stops playing as soon as you let go of the horn. It really should have a transition noise for turning off an on. TS2018 can handle this thing just fine...
I also agree; any video I watch of American locomotives shows the horn to be very powerful with plenty of reverb.
Its been noted here that they are aware of the issues with sound in the game and are waiting on an update to the UE4 engine to fix issues such as this. Personally, the fix can't come soon enough. I pretty much avoid using the horn as it just sounds sad.
The thing is, I'm not sure what the UE4 audio update entails. Just how limited is the audio right now...? What kinds of immediate benefits of it would we see? Would DTG even update CSX and GWE to use it? I sometimes get the impression that the whole "oh the audio update will fix that" thing isn't true for every single audio issue, and DTG is just trying to put it off for later.
I don't have the required knowledge of the UE4 engine to comment on that but it doesn't really make sense to me. Everything else sounds pretty good to me so I don't see why, on the technical side, the horn should suffer. I just hope we get some better audio for it soon.. In the mean time, I'll just use my imagination at grade crossings lol.
Horns on trains for me is extremely important and must be done right. Unfortunately DTG has not got it right with the horn department but I’m hoping with the start to TSW they’ll take on a new way of development. Remember they’ve only released 3 routes in the span of one year so they have time to improve. Most other areas don’t have those powerful American horns so we have yet to see another American route soon!
Unfortunately, this still seems to be an issue of immersion, for me! As mentioned above, as well as not being able to use dual horns. I try to blow both horns with a USB keyboard, but it's either one or the other... No transition! So, it would be nice to be able to use both, the high and low horns, simultaneously... Or, at least to have them bleed together with reverb.