Background Sounds

DJ....I went to several of my local thrift stores which I can usually count on finding various electronic gear....namely speakers and DVD players.  I have set up the players and speaker sets at various places where I had specific sounds in mind.  Then, I went online and searched "free sound effect downloads" where I was able to compile a series of desired sounds into sound files on my computer.  I recorded those files on various CDs.  When the CDs are played in the DVD players, all one needs to do is push the repeat button for continuous play or of course the play button to play the sounds over again....hope this helps.

 

Alan

Alan, I have some "sound boxes" that work off of 12volts. Engine house, piano for my bar, mountain sound and others. Don't remember who made them, maybe QSI. Maybe someone on the forum will know. They are simple and work very well. Don

The August 2011 issue of Model Railroad Hobbyist online magazine has an article on Background Sounds - Using Cheap MP3 Players (Page 75).

 

http://issuu.com/mr-hobbyist/docs/mrh11-08-aug2011-ol?viewMode=presentation&mode=embed

What do you mean by inexpensive?

 

With $5-10 MP3 players in MR article, author says he was lucky and found a speaker his player could directly drive. Many of these operate from a single 1.5 Volt battery and can't drive a speaker at suitable volume. In which case amplified speaker(s) could be used – about $10-15 on sale as used to boost iPod or PC audio out.  Or buy an MP3 player with built-in speakers.  These are, say, $20 and up.  I missed in the article how he manages battery-life.  So if inconvenient to change batteries, consider a voltage adapter $5-10 to generate the 1.5 Volts from accessory power or a suitable wall-adapter.  Something to look for with MP3 players is how it deals with a Play button press. If a single .MP3 file is stored on the player and you momentarily press Play (or presumably a wired-in fascia push button in your case), does it play the sound just once? Or does it repeat it over and over – which I don’t think is what you want.  

 

If your sounds are short, you might get by with a voice memo recorder – about $10 and speaker included.

 

 

The recorded sound plays just once in response to a button press. Note that if you have a digitally encoded sound (.MP3, .WAV) on your PC, you transfer it to the recorder by playing it “analog” into the built-in mic of the memo recorder so some fidelity is lost. 

 

An inexpensive solution in that you might have one sitting in the garage is an unused digital telephone answering machine.  Some have a single-button to review your outgoing greeting message over the built-in speaker. So you’d just record your layout sound as the greeting message and wire your fascia button into the “review greeting” button. The recorded sound plays just once in response to a button press.

 

Devices which offer tens of seconds or a minute or two of sound generally have poorer audio quality than even the most basic MP3 player.  The details get a bit nerdy so I’ll leave it at that. So as it appears you need several of these, try one out and make sure it meets your needs before placing the big order for multiple units.

 

Depending on what you're trying to do, the stereo capability of MP3 players can create rather interesting effects in a model layout such as tricking an observer into believing something is moving by panning the sound from the left to right speaker.