Model Boat Mayhem
Mess Deck: General Section => Chit-Chat => Topic started by: tonyH on March 07, 2019, 11:46:18 am
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Can I recommend watching the James May programme on Hornby that was on BBC4 last night (Wed 6th) at 9.00 pm. Not for the models but for the modellers.Some of the comments are quite telling!
:o
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if not on catch up, on again Sunday 10th
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Hi
Have it recorded will wait until the second one has been shown then sit back with some coffee and box out. :-))
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I liked the ex-employee working at the museum / old factory.... {-)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m00030wh/james-mays-big-trouble-in-model-britain-episode-1
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link=topic=62638.msg661428#msg661428 date=1551989099
I liked the ex-employee working at the museum / old factory.... {-)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m00030wh/james-mays-big-trouble-in-model-britain-episode-1 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m00030wh/james-mays-big-trouble-in-model-britain-episode-1)
What , the one whose expletives about the previous management they had to keep covering up ?
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O0 {-)
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I watched and enjoyed it, and saw myself amongst the mass of bodies at the Telford SMW event last November!
The previous management do seem to have shot themselves, and many modellers too, in the foot. More power to Simon Kohler in trying to get Hornby back up and running.
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It's all too easy to let rip into a subject like this, but James May's programme had a certain undercurrent of affection and humour which was a delight to see.
I took the grandson to the Glasgow model train expo a couple of weeks ago, and we had a great time. Not that trains are my thing, but the attention to detail and in-depth knowledge of those present was plain to see. Not a bad thing in a world of soundbites, fake news and celebrity trivia.
... Blinkin' expensive stuff, tho'. :o
Andy
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Went to the Museum some years ago and found it really interesting.
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still prefer the Hornby Tin Plate ones!!!
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Hi it's John V the trouble with tin plate clockwork it does not run very long .I think I will stick to my N gauge .it takes up less room cheers John V
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I saw the programmes - it's a classic case of clever new management screwing the company over - they moved to swanky new offices at enormous cost when they had plenty of office space in their own building and they scrapped all their moulds when there was plenty of free space to store them - deliberate slash & burn policy. Now they are running up debts. Amazing. No-one could have seen that coming. No chance of re-issuing 'classic' ranges at zero tooling cost. I'll bet the management contracts awarded themselves obscene bonuses for ruining a perfectly good company. I've seen it so many times. Hornby need to dramatically slash their outgoings just to survive.
Also - WTH was the weirdo 'sound man' doing wasting days sampling real engines and then replaying them from the equivalent of a phone-speaker? What was the point? Cat sounds? Seriously?
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I saw the programmes - it's a classic case of clever new management screwing the company over - they moved to swanky new offices at enormous cost when they had plenty of office space in their own building and they scrapped all their moulds when there was plenty of free space to store them - deliberate slash & burn policy. Now they are running up debts. Amazing. No-one could have seen that coming. No chance of re-issuing 'classic' ranges at zero tooling cost. I'll bet the management contracts awarded themselves obscene bonuses for ruining a perfectly good company. I've seen it so many times. Hornby need to dramatically slash their outgoings just to survive.
Also - WTH was the weirdo 'sound man' doing wasting days sampling real engines and then replaying them from the equivalent of a phone-speaker? What was the point? Cat sounds? Seriously?
The "new managment" refered to was, of course, the old new mangement. The real new management shows signs of care and competence,
If you are going to use sound effects commercially, they need paying for. Collecting your own live ones gets round that, and if its sound from the required loco, so much the better. Same applies to model boat sounds, sell units with built in sounds and you enter the world of potential litigation and ita associated costs. Collecting your own avoids this.
The Hornby empire doesn't just cover trains, while the cat sound is silly in that context, it might be very useful in the future on something else.
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while the cat sound is silly in that context, it might be very useful in the future on something else.
Like when building a catamaran...? ;)
Colin
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If you are going to use sound effects commercially, they need paying for.
No - I was talking about the quality - why bother getting loads of similar samples when the playback system will make a dogs-breakfast of any fine nuances of the sound? I had an old mechanical sound maker in an old engine from the 60s and that sounded just the same as the expensively developed digital sound.
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Model rail sound systems tend to be listened to at quite close quarters so detailed sound becomes appropriate. Modern systems do perform a lot better than the size leads traditionalists like me to think they should. The better the source, the better the end result can be. A poor start will result in something sounding like a bent spring sctratching over a gear wheel with most of the teeth missing.
On a 00 gauge layout, 64 feet is one mile, a real steam train would be all but inaudible at that distance apart from the whistle, but very few layouts are that size anyway. Many rail fans want to be close enough to see the valve gear working, and that is close enough to hear the small speaker. And they are likely to spot the difference between a small 2 cylinder loco and, say, one of Gresley's 3 cylinder jobbies with a bit of wear induced syncopation. And, of course, they all had different whistles. Thinking of the DMU driver who came past the end of my street a lot of years ago. He played "Ilkley moor baht'at" on his two tone to let his family know he was almost home.
In our world, at 64 feet (about 1/2 mile at 1:32) on open water, you probably want to hear a model boat, but there is usually more room for more traditional speakers to shift the required amount of air. Engine? Maybe. Horn? Definitely.