Legacy GP7 - I can differentiate diesel engine, air compressor and wheel squeal sounds but what is the banging sound supposed to represent? Almost sounds like a grunt?
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Mark, that’s a tough one. I can’t even guess. Maybe that’s why I’m not a sound guy.
Yes, and it’s not on the 3 other, earlier Legacy Geeps I own.
@Mark V. Spadaro posted:Legacy GP7 - I can differentiate diesel engine, air compressor and wheel squeal sounds but what is the banging sound supposed to represent? Almost sounds like a grunt?
Mark, I think it’s the same sound on my rs-27? Listen as it gets closer in the video, is this the same sound?
Gene
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I believe it's just simulating the creaking sound of engines going over old sections of track. Probably a bit overplayed as it's not something I've heard very often in real life. Maybe more realistic for steam locomotives.
It sounds like Lionel getting carried away with extra sound effects.
It does sound like a creaking, something you might hear a train do especially when moving slow, but it also sounds like a sound that is playing back at the wrong speed. Maybe record it and speed it up and see if it makes sense. Does it make the same noise at all speeds?
@Genemed posted:Mark, I think it’s the same sound on my rs-27? Listen as it gets closer in the video, is this the same sound?
Gene
Gene - I’m not hearing it on your video. Perhaps a retake at a slower speed, and if you have a freight sounds boxcar, please silence that.
Mark: another one of the "mysteries of life" in model railroading!!!
Peter....Buco Australia
My son's Lionel FAs do that too. It's suppose to be the engine creeking and growning like metal rubbing together.
I kind of like it. It's really only good when he runs slow.
Ron
@Mark V. Spadaro posted:Gene - I’m not hearing it on your video. Perhaps a retake at a slower speed, and if you have a freight sounds boxcar, please silence that.
Mark, at some point tomorrow morning I’ll video the engine alone slowly. I had that video in my iPad already.
@Mark V. Spadaro posted:Gene - I’m not hearing it on your video. Perhaps a retake at a slower speed, and if you have a freight sounds boxcar, please silence that.
Mark, this is the odd sound I’ve been hearing since I got the locomotive. I never thought anything of it until you mentioned it. After hearing yours a few times it’s not quite identical. Maybe the age of difference sound files but yours sounds deeper with a bit of an echo(it could be the acoustics of the room?). Hope this helps.
Gene
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Mark- the sounds on your Geep are much more pronounced that Gene's RS27. I think the first one (on the back straight) sounds like the slack being taken up on a string of cars, would make sense on start up but not continually. The second (in the curve and front straight) sounds like a creaky door hinge to me.
IMO- these effects are appropriate at slow speeds to simulate the squeaks and squeals of locos and rolling stock. If they could be shut off above a certain speed then it works.
Bob
@Genemed posted:Mark, this is the odd sound I’ve been hearing since I got the locomotive. I never thought anything of it until you mentioned it. After hearing yours a few times it’s not quite identical. Maybe the age of difference sound files but yours sounds deeper with a bit of an echo(it could be the acoustics of the room?). Hope this helps.
Gene
I totally agree with you, Gene. Thanks for posting. Your sound effects seem to be much less obtrusive than my GP7. Mine seem louder, as noted by Bob above, and longer lasting than yours. I sent an email to Dave Olson, so I hope he weighs in.
@Mark V. Spadaro posted:I totally agree with you, Gene. Thanks for posting. Your sound effects seem to be much less obtrusive than my GP7. Mine seem louder, as noted by Bob above, and longer lasting than yours. I sent an email to Dave Olson, so I hope he weighs in.
I’ll be curious what Dave says. According to Bob’s input, can I assume that locomotive sound files include some freight sounds also?
Gene
These new sounds appeared when Lionel changed to their new Legacy boards in 2021 and every diesel engine review I have heard on the Internet since then has the same sounds. Here is a link to a previous thread: https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/...2#154026431082574122
I can tolerate the creaking and the groaning, but I hate the high two note sound that constantly plays. I have never heard a real diesel make this high/low "heeee-hawww" sound. Because of that annoying sound, I haven't purchased another new Lionel diesel engine since 2021.
Those are freight car sounds.
How can we convince Dave and Ryan to not put freight car sounds in the locomotive sounds???
Andrew
@falconservice posted:Those are freight car sounds.
How can we convince Dave and Ryan to not put freight car sounds in the locomotive sounds???
Andrew
Agreed. Suppose your running light.....phantom freight cars????? really???????
Wonder if the sound set can be reloaded with an older sequence?
@falconservice posted:Those are freight car sounds.
How can we convince Dave and Ryan to not put freight car sounds in the locomotive sounds???
Ever since Rudy left Lionel, the sounds haven't been the same. 
@gunrunnerjohn posted:Ever since Rudy left Lionel, the sounds haven't been the same.
In conventional operation, sound volume can no longer be adjusted on recent Legacy steam engines that I have purchased. In my opinion, the volume is not loud enough and my older Lionel engines sound better. I just bought a new Railking RS-3 diesel and the sound level still can be adjusted by a potentiometer on the underside.
MELGAR
@Mark V. Spadaro posted:I totally agree with you, Gene. Thanks for posting. Your sound effects seem to be much less obtrusive than my GP7. Mine seem louder, as noted by Bob above, and longer lasting than yours. I sent an email to Dave Olson, so I hope he weighs in.
Did Dave Olson reply?
@Mark V. Spadaro posted:Legacy GP7 - I can differentiate diesel engine, air compressor and wheel squeal sounds but what is the banging sound supposed to represent? Almost sounds like a grunt?
I’m going to bet it’s supposed to be the sounds of slack running in and out. But it is horrible, almost as bad as the cab chatter.
It sounds like most of you guys have not spent much time trackside. There are a LOT more sounds around a train than those made by the engine. Slack running in or out, coupler sounds, flanges squealing on curves, general running gear noise, track noises…they are all a part of the many different sounds that trains make.
That’s what all this sounds like to me. As to whether they should be part of a locomotive sound set, you guys can debate that.
Just curious is if they are linked to train speed in the Lionel engine, meaning you hear these when going slow as in the videos, but not when at speed. I know I have heard creaks and moans, spring sound as bolsters get pushed up and down on uneven track as a train goes by slowly, but trackside, being passenger or freight when at speed, it was clickity clack of rail joints, the clank of a flat wheel, flange squeal in a curve, just overall roar of a passing train, but no groans.
On my ES44AC the sounds are constant independent of speed. They are similar to the sounds Lionel put in the FEF, Challenger, and Big Boy that I have.
@Rich Melvin posted:It sounds like most of you guys have not spent much time trackside. There are a LOT more sounds around a train than those made by the engine. Slack running in or out, coupler sounds, flanges squealing on curves, general running gear noise, track noises…they are all a part of the many different sounds that trains make.
Although few have as much experience as you have, I think many of us recognize the sounds you have identified. I wonder if you could look at the video I posted 3 years ago and identify the two tone, high pitch sound that occurs as -0.28, -0.17, and -0.01. Three times in 30 seconds. What do you think that sound is representing? The sound appears to be present in all Lionel diesel locomotives made after the change in the Legacy boards around 2021.
https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/...2#154026431082574122
Thanks
@JFC454, I have no idea what those sounds are supposed to be. If it played just once when starting, I’d say it could represent coupler slack stretching, or something like that. But to repeat this sound at regular intervals doesn’t make any sense to me.
@Rich Melvin posted:@JFC454, I have no idea what those sounds are supposed to be. If it played just once when starting, I’d say it could represent coupler slack stretching, or something like that. But to repeat this sound at regular intervals doesn’t make any sense to me.
Thank you for checking.
@Rich Melvin posted:It sounds like most of you guys have not spent much time trackside. There are a LOT more sounds around a train than those made by the engine. Slack running in or out, coupler sounds, flanges squealing on curves, general running gear noise, track noises…they are all a part of the many different sounds that trains make.
That’s what all this sounds like to me. As to whether they should be part of a locomotive sound set, you guys can debate that.
Rich I’m a hobbyist. Not even a model railroader. I don’t repaint, I decal, I don’t reassemble, I don’t solder, and I don’t modify. And, Brooklyn born and raised, real freight engine sounds are foreign to me. Going around my CBL, and occurring so frequently, these extraneous sounds absolutely detract from my enjoyment of running this train. Truthfully, it sounds to me like a drunk guy banging up against the door, tryin’ to get out of the stall, in a dive bar bathroom.
@Mark V. Spadaro posted:Rich I’m a hobbyist. Not even a model railroader. I don’t repaint, I decal, I don’t reassemble, I don’t solder, and I don’t modify. And, Brooklyn born and raised, real freight engine sounds are foreign to me. Going around my CBL, and occurring so frequently, these extraneous sounds absolutely detract from my enjoyment of running this train. Truthfully, it sounds to me like a drunk guy banging up against the door, tryin’ to get out of the stall, in a dive bar bathroom.
You need to spend more time around the RR and less time in those dive bars! 
@gunrunnerjohn posted:You need to spend more time around the RR and less time in those dive bars!
An EXCELLENT suggestion! Nothing like sitting in a shady spot at a local station on the BNSF triple track "East End", on a nice afternoon, watching & listening to the various freight trains, Amtrak trains, and METRA trains. Just yesterday afternoon, I saw 5 movements in just 40 minutes.
Did anybody ask Lionel?
Trains do make all sorts of sounds on the rails as Rich and Hot Water can attest to. Where my local train store is and one spot on my way to work, trains frequent these spots, sometimes at speed, and others slower or dead stop. I've heard a bit of those sounds, not unlike some I have heard at Strasburg(particularly coupler slack). On the Black River & Western there is a lot of noise to be heard as well. Some of that comes from the bridges and some from the old restored track. A couple of years back, I was able to take the ride out to Bowne Station where the tracks had been restored after many years of neglect. The cars swayed quite a bit and a ton of creaks and other such sounds abounded on that set of tracks. I don't know to what extent the fix was, but rather slow speed on that set of tracks. I know Rich had said there there are grades of track conditions which also factor into how the train has to travel over them.
The two engine videos posted after the original sound like normal engine sounds. The original however sounds like a drunk elephant barfing repetitively.
And who needs that. I can see your point.
@William 1 posted:The two engine videos posted after the original sound like normal engine sounds. The original however sounds like a drunk elephant barfing repetitively.
And who needs that. I can see your point.
We all must assume then, that you have LOTS of experience around barfing elephants, but none around railroad train movements.
To me, it sounds like an elephant beginning to trumpet than starts to puke. Maybe that's a stretch, but point being I wouldn't want that sound playing over and over again on a simple loop especially. I couldn't hear much of the diesel engine sounds besides that on the original video, isn't that the point of the exercise.
Here's what it sounds like to me:
- On the Alco RS27, i hear flange squeal and main reservoir blowdown. Real locomotives send warm compressed air from the compressor to the reservoir. As the air cools, water condenses, and that is the reason that there is an automatic blowdown valve on each reservoir, which periodically opens briefly, to blow the water out of the reservoir. That way, the compressed air sent from the reservoir to the brake system and other appliances is "dry".
- On the GP7, I hear the main reservoir blowdown, some flange squeal, and, additionally, there is some heavy metallic clanking, which might be intended to be noise from switch frogs, or drawbar noise, or truck suspension noise. And there's also a little bit of wheel click that comes and goes.
I wonder if you manually increased the engine RPM sounds, whether the slow speed sounds would go away. Try each of the throttle RPM settings for a couple of loops at the same speed we saw on the video. If you allow the Legacy system to choose your engine speed, then you "get what you get". If you manually try the various engine speed levels while maintaining the same speed, then the extra sounds might be controlled by engine RPM. If you try a different (fast) track speed and then manually adjust the engine RPM sound to each setting for a couple of loops and there is no improvement, then the extra sounds are yours for life.
Somebody on the Forum hopefully has the skill to change your Legacy railsounds to an earlier version. If you are annoyed by the secondary sounds, you can't get full enjoyment from your locomotive, and we're all in this hobby for enjoyment. Good luck with your experimenting.
