Sound engineers..need help for my project.

You may want to look at this long thread.  Many of our electronics gurus chimed in on a project to add remote controlled sound to a Boxcar.  

The sound modules designed for greeting cards are probably not going to have good enough sound quality.  You would do better with one of the MP3 player modules as was used in this thread.  The one used would play 15 selectable tracks.  

Most MP3 modules will have a repeat track function.  You may need to buy 2 modules, one set up as single play, and the other set up as repeat.  Avoiding a pause between repeats might be a challenge.

Bob

I think these are kind of neat.... We have a crossing bell hooked up to the MTH GATES AND  a squealing  flange sound in a box car activated by a post war whistle relay. Got'em years ago... I didn't go through all  the sounds available. Nice guy to work with and I believed he advertised  with OGR at one time.. Maybe he still does?

http://ittproducts.com/

Hi Willygee,

     If you have a smart device with Bluetooth (cheap Android tablet, under $60) you can use a free Android app

https://play.google.com/store/...eator.free&hl=en

that is a sound board application.  It will allow you to play several sounds at the push of a button on a touchscreen through to a Bluetooth speaker on your layout (or a speaker on / in a moving piece of rollingstock), and you can have the sound file repeat as long as you'd like.

Audacity is a great free program for Windows that will allow you edit your recordings.  If you get clean enough edits, when the file loops, it can sound seamless. 

http://sourceforge.net/projects/audacity/

I don't know if the looping from the free Android app has any kind of a split-second delay between looping, but there are other sound board apps for smart devices, some free.

If you don't mind the Android being tethered to the speakers, you can skip the Bluetooth thing.

Good Luck!

Take care, Joe.

 (edited for typos)

Here is one with repeat and continuous playback..Is this the same as looping?

http://www.electronics123.com/...ecording-module-5320

Yes, that's the same as looping.  But as the guys point out seamless "looping" has two issues.

1. Can the player re-start or loop back to the beginning of the sound without a gap?  If you make an inquiry to the manufacturer you need to be sure they understand the question. Even a gap of a fraction of a second will be noticeable though to each his own on what counts as an acceptable hiccup.  I see the module is also sold on Amazon and there is a pretty good Q&A in "native" English from actual users.  You might pose the question there.

2. Does you particular recording lend itself to seamless looping?  After 30 seconds of recording the ambient sounds may have "drifted" or the rail-joint clickety-clack cadence may have "drifted" or whatever.  So when you seamlessly loop back to the beginning, even with no gap in play, the sound may appear to jump or hiccup.  Again to each his own on what is bothersome.  However, most if not all sound-editors (on your PC) let you seamlessly repeat a segment of sound so you can hunt around and choose a good looping segment before transferring it into your player module.

Separately, while most if not all MP3 players allow you to repeat or loop a song or .MP3 sound-clip, the digital compression used in MP3 makes it tricky to perform seamless looping without that fraction-of-a-second gap.  It's technically easier to seamlessly loop WAV files as your module apparently uses but again you need to confirm your player can do so. 

This is probably over-the-top for anyone but a hardcore DIY'er but one workaround for MP3 is to take your 30 second recording and use a sound-editor to create a 1 hour (or whatever) sound clip.  So you'd find a 30 second segment that repeats well when placed end-to-end and simply cut-and-paste 120 of those segments to make a 1 hour sound clip.  Then save this sound as an MP3 file.  So when played in repeat mode on a typical MP3 player you would only hear the hiccup once per hour which I'd think is acceptable.  They rub is a 1 hour sound-clip on an MP3 player uses only a speck of its ginormous memory capability. 

Actually a minor gap while looping is fine with me...does not have to be perfect.I all ready have engine sounds via a wireless FM transmitter off a GP35 ps3 speaker leads that ends up at a powered sub woofer in the center of my layout that would camouflage any imperfections.

The module in this link has a loop switch but only records 10 seconds.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ISD182...4:g:f58AAOSwF1dUSPkk

I am thinking of something of better quality...i will keep looking

I used Audacity to create a five hour long recording for my sound module demo.  It's very easy to dup and append a sound clip, and you can also fade in/out if you need a better transition.

Yes joe rampolla mentioned that using android.

I still like the one module with the mic included approach.looks simple.

I think you will be disappointed by the fidelity of the modules with the built-in mic that use the ISDxxxx family of chips.  That's even if you find one with 30 sec or whatever.  When you see references to recording "voice" that's code for low-fidelity.  While I get the simplicity of that module I think it will be a hassle to take it into the field and record your short sound clip correctly on the first try without editing.  That is I think you're better off recording several minutes of sounds with the recording device positioned in different orientations and then back at home using Audacity or whatever to select a suitable 30 sec clip.

Most smartphones have a audio recording app with settable parameters - so you'd record with maximum fidelity (sample rate or quality setting) and transfer file at home into Audacity (or whatever).  Even if your only recording device is the video mode of a digital camera, I think you'd extract better audio from that movie file than from the greeting-card style modules with built-in mic.

Seems to me the 300 sec USB module ought to do the job.  By the time you program the module for maximum fidelity which cuts down the available time, I'd think it can handle your 30 sec repeating clip plus the short one-time clip.

Thanks all for the "sound" advice

I wish there was a service where you e mail your personally recorded sound files and someone could create the control module to install in a 2 button box with a 1/8 audio jack out.

Per gregs reply i may contact,

http://ittproducts.com

Depends on how much you're willing to pay for the service.