Better EMD (645 era) dynamic braking sounds

[geepster775]

One thing that I have always felt was missing from payware sound sets was the famous whistling noise when EMDs from the 645 engine era were in dynamic braking mode. The general whine noises seems to be well covered, but the slight whistle component not so much.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LT-s0mdOtI

This video demonstrates the whistling noises in dynamic mode at higher speeds. Ignore the head end as the hogger blows the horn and contaminates the sounds of the front end power set as it passes, but concentrate on the helpers when they pass at around the 1:15 mark. Both SD40-2 helpers have that nice dynamic brake whistle sound.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhRY0zsfywA

This video demonstrates the lower speed dynamic brake sounds. Starting at the 2:00 mark, listen to that whistle, especially on the trailing unit. Later on, around the 2:35 mark, as the train gets slower, the lead unit's dynamic braking sounds have tapered off due to low speed conditions, but the trailing units dynamics are still at work.


If someone has come up with a sound package that covers this better, I would love to know where to find it.

[PORU333]

Dynamic brakes? What are those??

I honestly couldn't help out though, Where I am from, Dynamic Brakes aren't used, they are either removed completely, or disabled.

[rockislandfan]

The whistle sound you hear is the 645 prime mover turbocharger. When in dynamic brake mode the diesel engine does not stay in idle but instead it revs up a bit. The engine runs at a speed that seems to be about the 4th notch. For some reason the second unit seems to have a louder turbo.

Ron

[BNSFfan]

In MSTS, it's impossible to simulate the throttle up without having conflicting audio. Trust me, I've tried.

[mipman25]

Then why not put the throttle sound into the dynamic brakes sound? As the dynamics go up, so does the turbo.

[rockislandfan]

It would not be realistic because the engine prime mover "turbo" sound needs to remain constant where as the dynamic brake whine would go up and down with more or less braking effort. You can have the sms file play a constant engine wave while in dynamic brake mode but you would still have the engine idle wave file playing along with it. As Anthony says, it probably wouldn't sound just right.

Ron

[BNSFfan]

Ron, you just described the exact same approach I tried. I suppose it MAY be possible to make it so that the lower the throttle setting below 0% would mute the engine idle sound.. But I'm not 100% sure that would work without a combined throttle.

[rockislandfan]

I can't think of a way to make it work with a standard throttle. As you mentioned it may work with a combined throttle but I never did try it. I worked on some Dash9-AC4400 sounds a while ago but I never finished them so I never did get to mess with the dynamic brake sounds much.

Ron

[cbff33]

It sounds like the loco engine sort of does the same thing that an 18 wheeler does when using it's own power to restrict it's own movement. I know when I use the jake on my truck the back pressure in the motor revs up the turbo charger, creating the same sound as in the vids, but on a much smaller scale. It sounds like the engine is revving but it actually is not...it's just back pressure creating increased turbo spin, which makes you believe the engine is revving. But know MSTS sound limitations, this could be very difficult to capture and make work fully within the sims sound parameters.

[bwbrgb]

You could put a " Ghost " in with SMS's of only turbo waves and dynamic brake waves . The same as I do for dual engines or 4 exhausts in one loco .
Just a thought !

[Noisemaker]

Not sure I know what you mean by 'ghost'? Like an Invisiocar kinda thing?

[BNSFfan]

Still doesn't work. You can't make the engine idle go away.

[Noisemaker]

I see what you mean Anthony.

And not to doubt or dispute you, but there is a way. BUT - it's really ugly! A British chap over at UKTS did a great small Whitcomb engine SMS years ago. Replete with Start Up and Shut Down sounds. But via the 'B' bell key, and bell triggering was placed on 'V' - usually for the wipers. I used this to great extent for Paul Charlands great little TIR 500 engine. As cute and realistic it was in testing, through force of habit - I was always hitting the B key to trigger the bell, and the dang engine would shut down while still in motion! In trying to swap it around, put start up on 'V' and Bell back onto 'B' - it just didn't work the same for the engine then. So I'm not sure of what the significant difference is of the two? Other than the 'V' trigger is a simple 'constant' switch, whereas 'B' trigger can be made momentary or constant via the horn engagement setting in ENG.

Anyhow, the British gent was brilliant to go to such pains with that all. A pleasure to learn from and interject on Paul's great little engine. But to put it into practice for mass MSTS diesels to make DB's more realistic - it's simply NOT advisable. I think we're all too 'hardwired' to be hitting the B key after 12 years, that it would make driving even LESS realistic to have the engine accidentally cut out than having the 'idle' constant while DB's engage.

As much as I'd like to find the breakthrough as well for all - I agree 99.9% with you Anthony.

[Huecuvoe]

Solution

Add these two triggers to the sound stream that produces the "IDLE" sound. (Don't forget to increase the number of triggers by 2.)

Variable_Trigger ( Variable3_Inc_Past 0.05 SetStreamVolume ( 0 ) )
Variable_Trigger ( Variable3_Dec_Past 0.05 SetStreamVolume ( 1 ) )

You may need to adjust the Variable3 value and the second SetStreamVolume value to match your sound configuration. The "Idle" sound will disappear ( volume = 0 ) when the dynamic brakes are activated.

You will probably want to add another sound stream that is activated by the Dynamic Brake to produce the "Dyanmic Brake Engine" sound. If you are clever and depending on the SMS configuration you might be able to combine the "Dyanmic Brake Engine" sound with another of the prime mover sound streams.

Addendum:

Seems to work. After a little editing my EMD16-645F sound file steps up to Run 3 when activating the dynamic brakes and back to idle when deactivating them.