Does the BR Class 395 sound (internally and externally) in TSW 2 meet expectations? This is footage (not mine) of the 395 at Stratford International Station...
In my opinion, the sound for 395s in TSW2 is atrocious. It's inexcusably bad. There's hardly any sound at all. Apart from the traction motors when first starting, there's very little sound at all. The train is virtually silent, with no traction motor or running sounds either outside or inside. It makes the train unplayable for me personally. That being said, a lot of the in cab sounds are quite good. Some of the beeping from doors sounds good, and a lot of the buttons have a satisfying crisp sound to them. The same cannot be said of the power/ brake controller though, which is directly ripped from the 377.
Door beeping sounds were redicously loud in the cab compared to the aws as other alarms , I have to have my TV volume up loud just to hear the cab warning alarms, and run the risk of p#####g off the neighbours from the loud door beeping
The 395 is a tricky one, there is a multitude of sound issues in TSW, and they are only amplified in the 395. The sounds are wrong in the 395, and even in the exterior cam, the sounds are too quiet. Onto the cab, DTG had to make a decision here, do they make it realistic and keep the cab quiet, or do they port in motor noise for the sake of gameplay?, with both of those options the base issues with the sound still exist - incorrect sounds and poor audio occlusion between exterior and interior, so the question is did DTG make the correct choice? IMO - no. What we currently have is a train that does not sound correct when you can hear it, and almost no sensation of operating a train when it is in motion, but frankly, DTG were very brave to do the 395, and maybe even a little reckless considering the issues that they themselves know to have with sound.
The balance of audio is quite poor on the 395. Some examples: 1) The whistle in cab is deafeningly loud, whilst the horn is much more quiet. 2) Clunking of buttons and the master controller are louder than he exterior sound of the train itself. 3) At speed, the train externally is almost silent. It's actually louder in the cab than right by the wheels. I don't have a problem not hearing the traction motors in the cab. If you can't hear them in real life, then you shouldn't be able to hear them in game. But, when pressing a button to switch on a light is louder than a train rushing past at 140 mph, I have to wonder how the audio got signed off on this route. The 375 audio is much better. I can't comment on the realism of the motor sounds, but in terms of balance, its miles ahead. You can hear the sound of the wheels going over track joints, the fans aren't too loud, the motors can be heard at a good volume, and the horn and the whistle seem about right, too. I'm a big fan of DTG and what they do. HMA was a stunning route, and the audio was great. The 423 in particular sounded incredible, and the ICE was another triumph. With GWE and NTP receiving fantastic audio too, I was expecting SHS to be great. DTG, please continue to listen to the community on this subject. Audio is a huge factor for immersion and you've done amazing work lately, but you've dropped the ball here, big time. This isn't a matter of high expectations and an average release, the sound is just badly balanced and feels rushed. If an update to fix the audio issues doesn't materialise in the first patch, or in a subsequent patch relatively soon, I'll feel very let down.
Personally I think that there are more issues with the mixing of the sounds than the quality of the sounds themselves.
