I’m doing a law enforcement diorama (Border Patrol), and I was wondering if there existed technology which would let me record some dispatcher/agent radio traffic so that people looking at it could push a button, and “hear” what is happening in the diorama. This would add a little more realism, I think. I don’t want anything fancy or expensive. Any help would be appreciated.
I’m making it in HO scale. There is a train in the background that aliens will be jumping off of, and in front of that there will be a U-haul truck that is being stopped that will have either aliens in it, or narcotics, I’m not sure yet. I’m about 50% done. Thanks, in advance!!
Head to a good Record/Sound shop and ask for movie background/sound effect discs, or simply record from a TV or DVD.
I got a few with a selection of sounds that I used for the very same purpose.
Keep the sound track short and the volume low, been to a show where a guy had a Gojira Dio and every 10 seconds a very loud Gojira scream could be heard echoing accros the Hall. He was kindly asked to turn it down and keep it off.
What would you use to play them? A CD player?
I’m not aware of any soundchip technology available for your purposes. You COULD get a very cheap mp3 player and hook it up to some cheap portable speakers…
The technoolgy is available has has been for many years as I used it some time ago.
Most people used to use a small dat tape player with a short endless loop tape, granted you can’t play the sounds on request they are more like a permanent background noise.
What I suggested to ned is to have a look at the digital voice recorders out now, they might fit the bill.
There was a TV show here in the UK where someone built a model railroad and in one episode he installed sound effects using a self contained unit that recorded whatever sound you had. Thing is I cant for the life of me remember the shows name or what the unit was called. Railway enthusiasts use sound effects a lot tho so maybe trying some of their forums might help.
I know Verlinden did a Dio in a book about Tigers and one had some sort of Audio chip in it to simulate welding, grinding, basic shop noises for a repair scene in a garage, but I don’t know how he did it and would love to know. I assume with today’s technology and flash memory cards and readers, a person should be able to make a fantastic 4 or 5 minute continuous roll of audio relatively cheaply.
Check out walthers.com. Model Railroaders use that stuff pretty extensively and I’m sure they have all of the stuff you need.
I was at my parents place in Ohio over X-mas and stopped at the LHS where the guy working there did just what you are asking about. He recorded a bunch of his own sounds and could play them by remote control through little speakers in his diorama. All it basically was was a little sound card with a memory chip. Then he hooked it up to small speakers throughout. The microphone was in his remote. Pretty cool…
if your doing a railroad car make an extra one closed off and stick the audio device in there… i too suggest a railroad modeler forum, although be warned cuz they’ll probably think about making the train whistle sound which is, just that, a whistle. and at a show, with a whistle going all the time u’d want to pull a van gogh…hope this helps!- DJ