| Building model railways has been a popular hobby | | | | headphones in just about any store. You will use these |
| since the early 20th century, and as train sets and | | | | speaker elements to feed the sound into your model |
| accessories continue to become more and more | | | | railway. |
| complex, the opportunity to get more and more | | | | To create more realistic sounds, rather, sounds that |
| creative with model railways continues to grow. | | | | seem to emerge from the natural environment, you |
| Although often thought of as a hobby for children, in | | | | can imbed the speakers within your landscape. There |
| reality a good portion of model train hobbyists are | | | | are many excellent sites online that give diagrams and |
| adults who enjoy creating a realistic model world with | | | | video tutorials on how to achieve this. In addition to |
| lots of bells and whistles. | | | | getting your sound system set up, you will have to |
| One of the places that a model railway hobbyist can | | | | decide on what types of sounds you want to include. |
| really 'show off' is in the use of sounds. Not only can | | | | One type that can be used to enhance the scenery of |
| you incorporate train sounds into your railway, but a | | | | your railway is what is called 'environmental' sounds. |
| wide variety of special effect sounds as well. There | | | | These are the types of things that you hear in the |
| are many different ways to use sound, and most do | | | | environment around you daily. For example, you might |
| not require a great amount of technical knowledge. | | | | want to include cricket or frog sounds in a country |
| One of the simplest ways to get sound into your | | | | scene, or traffic sounds in a city scene. As for the |
| model is to use your computer and a cassette | | | | sound of the trains themselves, there are several |
| recorder to make a continuous loop tape of the train | | | | different options for obtaining different sound tracks. |
| sounds you want to use. You can find many free | | | | Many manufacturers produce locomotives that have |
| audio files online that are designed to be used for this | | | | train sounds already embedded. But if you prefer to |
| purpose. You can choose the audio files, and edit them | | | | add your own sounds, you can use the Internet to find |
| on your computer to create a natural sounding mix. For | | | | much of what you need. If you want realistic sounds to |
| example, it is a good idea to include some variations in | | | | match your type of train, put in the name of the |
| volume, as well as a few quiet seconds here and | | | | specific train model and search for audio files. Trains |
| there, just as occur in real life. After you have edited | | | | make many different sounds - whistles, exhaust |
| your sound mix, you will need to move it over to | | | | sounds, horns, the sound of the wheels, etc. For the |
| audiocassette. Simply purchase the cords that allow | | | | most realistic effect, you will want to incorporate as |
| you to plug an auxiliary sound device into your USB | | | | many of these different train sounds as possible into |
| port and record your mix. Any cassette player will | | | | your mix. |
| work fine, including the cheap ones that are sold with | | | | |