1:160 Scale Furniture

[MK]

Well, I guess the many folks (and several clubs) who have bought it and love it because it is realistic are wrong. I should have just threw some random flashes and an unrelated sound file together. Could have saved a lot of time.

Don't let anyone discourage you.  This is TRW, home of the     

[IronPenguin]

Regrettably... this is true. Best laid plans and all that...

The truth of the matter is that the vast majority of people don't understand how physics works. Even professional sound engineers--look at all the movies and TV shows where the thunder is exactly synchronized to the lightning flashes. The very same principles are at work for fireworks displays, yet all too often the booms are synchronized with the flashes. People who accept this as realistic just aren't paying attention to reality.

TRW is perhaps unique in that there's a number of us here who do understand these things and who do pay attention. We even have @GaryHinshaw, our very own rock star scientist!

Wait, you do understand that the thunder is NOT "synchronized" with the flashes, right?  I`ve lived the past 30 years in the south Georgia / north Florida area where thunderstorms are a daily occurrence. I have a pretty good handle on what they sound like and the lag (which can be used to calculate distance from the strike) between the lightning and the sound. That's why there's a lag in the simulation between them. And why it's more realistic than simultaneously. 
Maybe the term synchronized is the problem . It doesn't mean simultaneous,  just coordinated with the lightning.

[DKS]

Maybe the term synchronized is the problem . It doesn't mean simultaneous,  just coordinated with the lightning.

But that's the thing we've been trying to say... they're not even coordinated. Given that lightning can occur across the span of a miles-wide storm, the sounds you hear only relate to the storm by virtue of its gross proximity, so the sounds will be louder or softer according to how far away the storm system is. Otherwise, the lights and sounds will be entirely uncoordinated. That is, seemingly random. In other words, make some random flashes and play some random thunder sounds, and you'll pretty much hit the mark!

[IronPenguin]

But that's the thing we've been trying to say... they're not even coordinated. Given that lightning can occur across the span of a miles-wide storm, the sounds you hear only relate to the storm by virtue of its gross proximity, so the sounds will be louder or softer according to how far away the storm system is. Otherwise, the lights and sounds will be entirely uncoordinated. That is, seemingly random. In other words, make some random flashes and play some random thunder sounds, and you'll pretty much hit the mark!

I'm sorry, but that's silly. If you are standing in one spot, say a golf course, and a thunderstorm is nearby, there is most definitely a direct correlation between the strikes you see and the sounds you hear. We've all had that "oh sh*t" moment when the light and sound are only seconds apart.  This is a  simulation is of storm with identifiable, distinct strikes, (using bright whites) but also some lesser distant rumblings (simulated by warm whites) to try to convey some distance and size. It's compressed, as is everything on a layout.
No, isn't a "surround sound" middle of a storm , immersive experience of a live storm. You'll have to go to Disney for that. It is a very nice model railroad simulation, as attested by quite a few folks who have actually seen (and purchased) it.

[nkalanaga]

I'm certainly not going to complain about it.  As you said, it is a very small storm, so all of the flashes should be at about the same distance, and the sound delay should be about the same for all of them.

Trivia:  Probably the smallest real thunderstorms are the ones NASA used to have, and may still have, in the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center.  That building is tall enough that, with no floors to break it up, convection can actually create a thunderstorm inside.  I've always wondered what one of those sounded like.

[Maletrain]

Well, golly gee whiz, you  s are sure giving the IronPenguin a hard time.  It made me actually watch the video on the link.  My impression is "not bad" for a one-ball-of-cotton cloud making a one-cloud storm. 

As he says, in real storms, there is some correlation between the flashes and the thunder, with loud thunder usually coming soon after bright flashes and softer thunder usually coming somewhat later after dimmer flashes.

On a layout, I would want the "cloud" to either be off in a corner, like a storm going by some distance away, or I would want a substantial cloud deck over the layout with the LEDs spread around the layout room.  So far as "timing" is concerned, all I would want is the bright flashes to have loud thunder follow faster than soft sounds following dim flashes.  Maybe the bright flashes could be more overhead in the layout, and the dimmer flashes scattered around the edges. 

There is a layout in the Allentown fair grounds that, during their "storms", has actual water falling like rain in the middle of the layout , where there is a lake (large pool of real water).  Of course, those raindrops aren't "scale."  Their clouds are located only over their lake, so the effect is a little like a storm "just over there" instead of "over head".  It is a crowd pleaser.
 

[johnb]

Wait, you do understand that the thunder is NOT "synchronized" with the flashes, right?  I`ve lived the past 30 years in the south Georgia / north Florida area where thunderstorms are a daily occurrence. I have a pretty good handle on what they sound like and the lag (which can be used to calculate distance from the strike) between the lightning and the sound. That's why there's a lag in the simulation between them. And why it's more realistic than simultaneously. 
Maybe the term synchronized is the problem . It doesn't mean simultaneous,  just coordinated with the lightning.

even when you're right next to the lighting strike...lighting makes a sizzling sound

[railnerd]

You know the lightning is close when your hair stands up even when you are soaking wet, and when the big white flash happens you find yourself face down in a nearby ditch and don't remember how you got there.

Needless to say my wife and I are lucky to be alive from that crazy mountain hike 28 years ago...  or perhaps I'm just living in a parallel universe now.

-Dave

P.S.: Iron Penguin, I like your little demo, even though I grew up in Michigan and was accustomed to doing my own amateur lightning to thunder timing to calm my younger self down.

[nkalanaga]

railnerd:  I automatically start counting when I see bright lightening.  I don't know why, but I do!