Sound File Editing

[zdierkes]

Hello,
I got this crazy idea to attempt to edit the horn sound for the GP7 on the Horse Shoe Curve. To me it sounds like it lacks the natural ambient reverb or echo that a typical horn would create in the real world. So I have this Creative Wave Studio program that came with my Sound Blaster sound card, and thought I would take the horn sound file for that locomotive and add some reverb/echo to it, put it out in the file library (That way I can say I contributed something! ) and enjoy a more realistic horn to play with as I drive along. Sounded easy at first. BUT...where is that file at? Im still baseing my minimal experience with MSTS on this, and each loco had individual files for specific attributes of the model. i.e. cab view, sound, horn, etc.
So based on what I want to do here, I think my "Wave Studio" program might be able to do the task...but ...Ive never actually used it before, so actually I dont know what it can and cant do...Im just assuming here. But if it cant do what Im trying to do, Ill find another program (free) to do it, and in advance, does anyone know of such a program that would be able to edit sound files? (free)

[SMMDigital]

I dont know anything about editing the sound controller for locomotives, but a good FREE sound editor is Audacity. (Audacity.sourceforge.net). If you ever decide to upgrade to a payware equivelent, then Adobe Audition (formerly Cool Edit Pro) gives professional results.

[Hawk]

then Adobe Audition (formerly Cool Edit Pro) gives professional results.

I shudder at the sound of that name. Personally I avoid any and all Adobe products like a plague.
Of course, that's just my humble opinion.

[krellnut]

Actually, I have both of them, and I use Audition3 for recording, and Audacity and Audition3 for editing and such. Both are excellent programs.

[SMMDigital]

I have to agree about the Adobe part - to a certain extent. Their stuff is the best you can get, but just way to expensive if you aren't using it in some sort of business where you can recoup the money it costs to buy the software.

I have the last version of Cool Edit Pro, the one before Syntrillium sold out to Adobe. Audition is basically the same program, save that at last check is was near $400. I've made some multi-track sax music recordings with nothing more than a good mic, a computer, and CE Pro. With the effects and mixing you can add with the program, you can hardly tell it wasn't mixed in a studio.

ADDED: The files that you are looking to edit on the GP9 are named T_AIR_HornEnd.dav, T_AIR_HornLoop.dav, T_AIR_HornStart.dav. They are located in the railworks\Assets\RSC\GP9Pack01\Audio\RailVehicles\Diesel\GP9 folder. A .dav file is the format Railworks uses for sounds; wave source files are converted to .dav files during the blueprint export process. I don't know how you would convert the .wav produced by your audio program to .dav or vice-versa, unless the ability to output that format is native to Audacity. You could always change the .dav reference in the GP9Horn.proxybin file to .wav and get it to work (maybe).

ADDED 2: Check this forum page to see if this .dav converter will work for you. http://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewtopic. ... 23&t=78992

[Hawk]

My issue with Adobe is, most of what I've seen is way to bloated - kind of like Microsoft stuff, only worse - plus some of their stuff - like Flash Player, Acrobat Reader, and their PDF creator - have serious security issues.
Granted, Adobe does release security updates occasionally, but IMHO, if they designed their software better, neither of the to issues should be an issue.

I'm not sure if they still do it but they used to install Adobe Air whenever you installed something of theirs, whether you wanted it or not. No telling what else they install. I simply don't trust them.

[SMMDigital]

The freeware version of Primo PDF does a pretty good job of printing and converting Word or other format files to PDF format.

[Hawk]

OpenOffice and LibreOffice also have the ability to create pdf files from doc and odt files. Both are also free.

Sumatra and FoxIt Reader are both good pdf readers.