Musings on sound decoders, A.K.A. "Silence is not always golden"

I am a somewhat regular participant on a certain prominent model railroad manufacturer’s forum. Said forum is notorious for having a few key players debate the finer points of a straw man argument for literally days on end until the average reader/viewer is nearly driven to breaking his or her computer keyboard across someone’s teeth just for stress relief. One of the more common arguments that resurfaces every couple of months, usually when some unwitting newbee to the forum asks a simple question, pertains to the proliferation of sound decoders.

One camp has its foot steadfastly in the “silence is golden” mantra. Members of this demographic tend, more often than not, to be older fellows who have been in the hobby for decades. They tend to vehemently decry the use of sound decoders in model locomotives, usually citing the perceived “poor” quality of sound. They maintain that the sound produced by the latest crop of sound decoders, both aftermarket and factory installed, sound nothing like the real thing, especially in the lower midrange and bass frequencies. Not even once do they consider the practicality of such a concept (or the fallacy of their argument); if it were even possible to wrangle 120 decibels of EMD 645 prime mover sound out of that tiny 2” speaker, what would it do for the dishes in your cupboard? Or for your relationship with your neighbors (and the local police force, for that matter)??? 

My response to the “silence is golden” camp is as follows: Don’t talk to me about a ‘lack of realism’ when your trains are all dead silent. Mediocre sound is better than no sound, I say, without apology. When was the last time you heard the prototype glide quietly by? Especially at a grade crossing.  I’ll up the ante and state that you CAN’T operate your trains in a prototypical manner without sound. (How’s that for throwing gasoline on the fire? Tee hee.)

The second camp is quite the opposite of the first, they love the idea of a sound decoder in a model locomotive and they can’t get enough of it. The lions’ share of their roster, or sometimes even their entire roster will be equipped with sound decoders, usually of one specific brand. These are the folks who usually start the Soundtraxx Tsunami versus Atlas/QSI portion of the ‘Legendary Recurring Sound Decoder Argument’….. “Tsunami is the greatest, the Atlas/QSI systems sound like washing machines” one of the more prominent members of this camp likes to say. Yet another member of this camp recently remarked that the QSI decoders sound like “a UFO from a 1950’s science fiction film” in comparison to the Soundtraxx decoders.

Now, I’ve spent a sizeable portion of time listening to the Soundtraxx Tsunami decoders. They certainly do SOUND great, and more realistic than the competing Atlas/QSI product. I’m perfectly willing to concede that. 

BUT, can you make them operate realistically? That is the 64,000 dollar question, and this is usually where the humming and hawing from the pro-Tsunami camp begins.  Cruise on over to Youtube, enter “Soundtraxx Tsunami” into the search box, and count how many videos you watch of a model locomotive making jackrabbit starts and stops. Last I checked, there were a lot more videos of that variety versus videos of Tsunami-equipped locomotives starting out smoothly and stopping in a slow and heavy manner, realistically simulating the behavior of a prototype locomotive.

Or, to state my argument to this camp another way, “What good is top-quality sound if I can’t OPERATE it realistically?” Sure, it can be done, I’ve seen at least one guy manage to program his Tsunami's for realistic momentum effects, but given the relatively rare occurrence with which this seems to actually be accomplished, makes me question just how complicated it really is.

Consider this. I can easily coax very realistic operation out of the Atlas/QSI-equipped Gold locomotives with 2 minutes worth of adjusting CV’s and using my Lenz 100 DCC system.  The first thing I do whenever I purchase a new Gold locomotive is to place it on the track, fire up my Lenz 100, and adjust CV’s 3, 4, 23, and 24 to some non-zero value depending on how much friction is in the locomotive mechanism. Some locos are maxed out at 255, whereas some (usually MP15DC’s, for those of you keeping score) are in the 75 to 80 range. I then program the roadnumber into the locomotive using the CV 17 and CV 18 workaround as detailed in the Atlas manual. Then I set up the Lenz handheld to recognize 128 speed steps with that particular locomotive. Using the large throttle buttons on the Lenz handheld steps up or decreases the speed in 16 step increments. Doing the math we find that 128 divided by 16 is 8, or eight throttle notches, plus an Idle (0 speed step) notch.  In other words, just like a prototype locomotive. Using the large throttle buttons in conjunction with the modified momentum settings, I get realistic drift and acceleration, along with a realistic speed curve.

In closing, my locomotive fleet is about 50 percent sound decoders, with all but one (an Athearn SD45-2) being of the Atlas/QSI variety. I standardized on these units not because I think the sound is the greatest, but because they represent a middle ground in acceptable sound and ease of programming/operation with my Lenz 100 system.

Sometimes it pays to consider an argument from another angle...