DCC Sound

[mlp]

I have a Nickel Plate Road #759 engine/tender and I want to increase the volume of the sounds.  I am a DCC novice.  What equipment and/or setup do I need to accomplish this?
Thanks!

[trainman203]

You need a DCC system that allows you to change cv's of the sound volumes.  EZ Command is not advanced enough to do this. 

In the attachment, See cv's 138-132.  And note that Cv 134, blower, and 136,steam release,  although not shown, are present too.

https://soundtraxx.com/content/Reference/Factory-Installed/Bachmann/SoundValue/bachmann_ho_284berkshire_sv.pdf

The sounds are not well balanced at default.  Set 128 master volume at 255, the maximum.  Then set 129, whistle, as loud as it can go without distorting.  Set the chuff, 131, as loud as it can go but still be covered up by the whistle.  Bell 130, the same.  Steam release, set at maximum 255.  Blower ok as is.

Try these and report.

[Terry Toenges]

I have E-Z Command for my DCC system. I just got one of these for the decoders. Digitrax PR4. It's a decoder programmer that works with your computer. You do the programming on your computer. It's my first attempt at using something to program CV's and I like it so far. Once I got it installed it's very easy to use. You can find them for about $75.

https://www.digitrax.com/products/computer-control/pr4/

[trainman203]

Lets you keep the basic EZ command. But. After getting a more advanced wireless DCC system, there is no going back to the EZ command. I gave it to a kid who was just getting started in model railroading.

[Desert Rose]

Upgrading to a two-amp sound decoder along with a two-watt speaker solves this problem. one-amp sound decoders can sound anemic. Even when the master volume CV128 is set to the maximum value of 255. 

[trainman203]

It only solves sound quality issues at higher volumes. It doesn't allow adjusting of all the other individual CVs, for the various sounds.  To do that you need some device capable of actually changing the cv volumes to suit.

I myself like using the programming on the main option in a DCC system like NCE wireless pro cab that I've been using for about 15 years now. You can actually raise the whistle up and down while the engine is running, to see how well it realistically covers up all the other sounds.  Some of the old soundtraxx sound-on-board products that were factory installed in. Bachmann engines had very anemic whistles. According to my friend who works out there, Tsunami2-2 has a much better amplifier and you can't turn the whistles up all the way without distortion. After programming a few engines with tsunami 2–2, you start learning the limitations.