KIND Enginesound

KIND Enginesound assets are locomotive enginesounds.

There are three types - Diesel, Electric, and Steam.

Diesel enginesounds are formed of a number of separate wave files. These are 'steady state' sounds (one for each runlevel from 1 up to 8) and 'transition' sounds (used when going between one runlevel and the next one up, or next one down).

Electric enginesounds play one wave file, but pitch shift it to produce a continuously variable sound linked to the speed of the train. (Note: If your electric needs it's enginesound linked to throttle position rather than train speed, it's better to use a 'diesel' style 'ramping' sound).

Steam enginesounds play a number of individual 'chuff' files at low speed, and switch to a series of pitch-shifted loop sounds at higher speeds.

Random note: How does Trainz know that a specific enginesound is a 'steam' enginesound? Because it's tagged for use on a steam loco...

KIND Hierarchy

Parent Classes

• none.

Child Classes

• none.

Supported Tags

kind "enginesound"
speedup 2.2
isramping 1
isfading 0
number-slow-sounds 4
number-cylinders 2
number-power-strokes 2

speedup

Type: Decimal

Desc: Controls the rate of pitch change for an electric type enginesound. A value of 1.0 would mean the top frequency used is as much again as the base frequency - in other words, the frequency of the sound played would double over the speed range of the vehicle.

isramping

Type: Boolean

Desc: 'Ramping' diesel enginesounds have transition sounds between each level state.

isfading

Type: Boolean

Desc: For diesel engine sounds, 'fading' sounds do not have transition sounds between each level state - instead, one sound is faded into the next to 'fake' a transition. For electric enginesounds, 'fading' sounds are quieter at low speed and louder at high speed - whereas 'non-fading' sounds are more constant across the speed range.

number-slow-sounds

Type: Integer

Desc: Number of 'chuff' sounds available in a steam enginesound.

number-cylinders

Type: Integer

Desc: Number of cylinders in the locomotive the steam sound was recorded from.

number-power-strokes

Type: Integer

Desc: Number of power strokes in the locomotive the steam enginesound was recorded from (should generally be left at the default, 2).

Example Config.txt

Diesel

Sample config.txt file for a diesel type 'enginesound' asset, with the Standard Tags excluded for brevity:

kind "enginesound"
isramping 1
isfading 0

Electric

Sample config.txt file for an electric type 'enginesound' asset, with the Standard Tags excluded for brevity:

kind "enginesound"
isramping 0
isfading 0
speedup 4.0

Steam

Sample config.txt file for a steam type 'enginesound' asset, with the Standard Tags excluded for brevity:

kind "enginesound"
number-slow-sounds 4
number-cylinders 2
number-power-strokes 2

Wave file naming

Diesel

In a 'fading' diesel enginesound, the following sound files are used:

idle 1.wav (engine idle / notch 1 sound)
idle 2.wav (notch 2 sound)
idle 3.wav (notch 3 sound)
idle 4.wav (notch 4 sound)
idle 5.wav (notch 5 sound)
idle 6.wav (notch 6 sound)
idle 7.wav (notch 7 sound)
idle 8.wav (notch 8 sound)

In a 'ramping' diesel enginesound, the following additional sound files are also used:

start.wav (engine startup)
stop.wav (engine shutdown)
up 1 - 2.wav (transition between notch 1 and notch 2)
up 2 - 3.wav (transition between notch 2 and notch 3)
up 3 - 4.wav (transition between notch 3 and notch 4)
up 4 - 5.wav (transition between notch 4 and notch 5)
up 5 - 6.wav (transition between notch 5 and notch 6)
up 6 - 7.wav (transition between notch 6 and notch 7)
up 7 - 8.wav (transition between notch 7 and notch 8)
down 2 - 1.wav (transition between notch 2 and notch 1)
down 3 - 2.wav (transition between notch 3 and notch 2)
down 4 - 3.wav (transition between notch 4 and notch 3)
down 5 - 4.wav (transition between notch 5 and notch 4)
down 6 - 5.wav (transition between notch 6 and notch 5)
down 7 - 6.wav (transition between notch 7 and notch 6)
down 8 - 7.wav (transition between notch 8 and notch 7)

Electric

The one sound file for an electric engine is named engine_loop.wav.

Steam

loco_stationary_fast.wav
loco_stationary_med.wav
loco_stationary_slow.wav

These are background sounds for when the loco is stationary. The fast will be played when the loco has just stopped, and if it is left for a while, the sound will progress down to 'med' and then eventually 'slow'.

piston_stroke1.wav
piston_stroke2.wav
piston_stroke3.wav
piston_stroke4.wav

... and on up to the number specified in the 'number-slow-sounds' tag. These sounds are the low speed 'chuff' sounds.

smoke_stack_hiss.wav

This is a background hiss noise that appears to be played continually.

steam_loop_30RPM.wav
steam_loop_35RPM.wav
steam_loop_40RPM.wav
steam_loop_50RPM.wav
steam_loop_60RPM.wav
steam_loop_75RPM.wav
steam_loop_90RPM.wav
steam_loop_100RPM.wav
steam_loop_125RPM.wav
steam_loop_150RPM.wav
steam_loop_175RPM.wav
steam_loop_200RPM.wav
steam_loop_250RPM.wav
steam_loop_300RPM.wav
steam_loop_350RPM.wav
steam_loop_400RPM.wav
steam_loop_500RPM.wav
steam_loop_600RPM.wav
steam_loop_700RPM.wav
steam_loop_800RPM.wav
steam_loop_1000RPM.wav
steam_loop_1200RPM.wav
steam_loop_1400RPM.wav
steam_loop_1600RPM.wav
steam_loop_2000RPM.wav

These loops are played as the loco picks up speed. They are individually stretched or squashed in length (also incurring pitch shifting in the process) to match the wheel rotation speed so the audible 'chuffs' within the loop maintain synchronisation with the drive bogie animation.

It should be noted that unlike the earlier steam loop, which was based on track speed, rather than wheel rotation speed, this system enables sound files to be shared between locomotives with different wheel sizes. 30RPM on a 2 cylinder loco will produce one chuff per second irrespective of wheel size - the only difference this makes is what speed the train will be doing when the loco is running at 30RPM.

Any individual file can be omitted from this set - the system will use what files are available and use adjacent files to cover for any missing files.

It is anticipated that a sound creator will pick and choose which wave files are used based on what recordings are available, and that a released enginespec will not have all sound files present - particularly the higher speed ones, which are likely to be irrelevant for most locos, but are provided just in case...

Downloads

Attach sample files here?