Railworks America

Is there an audio controller name for slack? You know, like when the locomotive takes off and the hear the drawbars CLANG as the train stretches out, or as the slack bunches in?

What exactly does the "Impact" controller name do?

There isn't that I know of... I have some awesome recordings of slack running in and out from the cab but since there's no controller to speak of, I can't do anything with it.
You could use absolute speed and set it to oneshot when the value is changing a certain degree that is higher than standard acceleration, but the time I did it it made my ears hurt.

There is some way to do it, because Krellnut's sounds have slack running in and out.

I got some great impact and slack sound on the HMCR. Since the recording was on a short line in the middle of no-where, there is no other noise interference. Want to try to use them. Might be a scripted way to get this done using the accelarometer.

Have a look at Krellnut's wagon sounds pack, that's exactly how he does it.
Not with a script, though, IIRC in his sound proxy file he uses a controller based on speed and/or acceleration.

He uses brake cylinder pressure for run in and initiating movement for run out. While it sounds nice, it isn't exactly accurate. What my intentions were was to use it for when you come out of throttle too early and you actually visually see the slack run in..

There is a controller called "Acceleration". I don't know the parameters for this, but it sounds as if it could be used to provide a slack-run out Triggered Oneshot if the amount of acceleration surpasses a given value in the BP.

EDIT: Ok, preliminary research into this is that it will work best if you put the parameters in the Coupling Audio Controller. I'm working it now, and it seems to be giving the desired result. More later.

Chacal wrote:Have a look at Krellnut's wagon sounds pack, that's exactly how he does it.
Not with a script, though, IIRC in his sound proxy file he uses a controller based on speed and/or acceleration.

Yep. I don't know how Krellnut does it, or maybe someone on his group of volunteers figured it out, but if you go to the middle or back of a train with his sounds, the slack sounds are a low "clink" when accelerating slowly away and a louder "bang/crunch" if you leave too quickly or couple to hard.
I was once in the middle of a train with the camera, checking out open top car physics, when I noticed the slack sounds running in or out while the train crested a grade.
Not that a engineer is supposed to be hanging around mid train...

I don't have any more time to work on it tonight, but i've got a bit done on the subject.

Here are the values that I am using in the Coupling Audio Controller to trigger slack. Putting it there allows you to use the "Acceleration" controller to tie the sound to the actual coupler movement.



A few things to note. One is that that no matter what the Trigger Type, the sound will always trigger when the coupler moves past the Trigger Value. The reason is that no matter if the train is speeding up or slowing down, the coupler is accelerating when it moves. So in reality you only need one sound for both stretch and bunching. The second thing is the Trigger Value. Set it below .1 and you will have some very undesirable machine gun firing effects. You have to play with it to get both the stretch and bunching to work right.

Now, I just need to find a few modifiers to make the sound get louder as the slacking approaches the car you are standing nearest to and then fade as it passes.

The tests were conducted from 0 - 10 mph. Don't know how going faster will affect it.

Hmmmmm...
Me thinks Jerry is becoming a slacker...

Becoming? Dude, I defined the genre!

Ericmopar wrote:Hmmmmm...
Me thinks Jerry is becoming a slacker...

JerryC wrote:Becoming? Dude, I defined the genre!