Quiet Horns on Sound Decoders?

[tehachapifan]

Is it just me, or do a lot of sound decoders' horns seem really quiet as compared to the other sounds produced by the decoder? I only own one (MRC) sound decoder so far (installed in a caboose normally coupled to the loco) and the horn is pretty darn loud and seemingly on par with the other sounds. However, when I watch videos of other decoder installs, the horn seems ultra-quiet (almost inaudible in some cases) but the prime mover and other sounds are nice and loud. Is this a limitation of the video recordings or is this actually a shortcoming of a lot of sound decoders out there?

...Also, when I listen to some sound samples at sound decoder manufacturer websites, it sounds like the horn recording is often taken from inside the cab. Perhaps this is part of the issue(?), as it seems like it would be louder if taken at trackside.

[jdcolombo]

I don't know what videos you are watching, but here are two with ESU LokSound decoders.  The first is a steam whistle from the ESU Heavy Steam Collection file; the second is my RS3, with a Wabco "duck" horn (you hear it at the 28-second mark of the video).  Neither seems awfully quiet to me!

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The sound you hear depends a lot on the speaker installation; poor speaker installation = lousy sound, no matter what the decoder. 

John C.

[tehachapifan]

Thanks, John. Your installs certainly sound great with very loud horns & whistles.

[Packer]

Soundtaxx is notorious for having certain horns being quiet...

[jagged ben]

In my opinion it's all the other sounds that are too loud.   On my BLI PAs I turned the horn up all the way and then turned the master volume to about 10%.

[peteski]

Most sound decoders allow volume control of all the individual sound effects.  It is not just one recording with all the sounds combined.

Tweaking the specific volume-control CVs, you can fine tune volumes of each sound effect (like horn, bell, engine sound, compressor, poppet valves, etc.), then you also have master volume control to set the overall volume.  That allows for a fine adjustment of all the sounds.

I agree with previous posters: if the horn volume is too low, increase its volume, then decrease volumes of the other sound effects. Once you have the sound balanced to your likings, adjust the master volume to suit your taste.