Garden Railway Forum

Chill out with the recently built Garratt as it slowly trundles round, occasionally trying its best to come off when I’m not paying attention — I’ll need to fiddle with it again. Though having to go round very slowly is, of course, fine with me.

As well as embracing ‘No mow May’, I’ve made a half decent attempt at ‘Don’t overdo garden maintenance April’ too, as you can see.

Probably best viewed quite small (resolution and sharpness occasionally iffy)

That's looking great!

I particularly like the overhead shots where you can clearly see the loco flexing through the curve...

The tanker train's looking very good too...

Andrew

Nota dodgy video at all, except for one thing. I know I'm in a minorit,y but to me music is so distracting and unnecessary. The loco and indeed its train, are mesmerising and I didn't notice any tweaking that is needed.
Well done.

Wonderful video, Bertie. Having seen your level of garden maintenance I now feel much more comfortable with my own.
After reading Philipy's comment concerning background sound, I much prefer your music, which is quiet and in keeping with the gentle pace of the train, than watching steam locomotive noises which are clearly out of time with an engine's motion.
I also muted the music to test the difference between the two options and prefer it on.

Great video, the slow progression round the track shows off the engine very well. Not a Dodgy video at all.

Gosh. Thank you all.

Real locomotives (and even many live steam models) might produce sound you actually want to be able to hear, not obscured under other audio — but my efforts don’t. So, I’m afraid, I add both music and train noises. Used appropriately, music can set the pace and tone of the video. Not sure I achieve that too often but that’s the idea.

Another great video. Who'd have thought it would generate a music/sound effects debate?

Are you still using your friend's music? I quite like it - folky and original. I do like loco sounds and hardly notice whether they are synched to the wheels. I do have one loco in my fleet which uses a wheel cam to synch the beats and, to be honest, I prefer my other locos' sounds. The synched sounds seem a bit too staccato whereas the non synched seem more mellow. I'm in the process of editing a video which, by coincidence, uses both types of loco sounds. It'll be interesting to see the reaction.

Regarding music. I used to put a background music track on my early videos but now only use it behind the titles and credits and also when showing still images.

My only comment on the loco sounds is, was it from a real Garrett? I was trying to detect a double beat though Zach tells me (based on his direct experience with Wells and Walsingham locos), the two units tend to become synched with each other.

Rik

Thanks Rik. Yes! I have recently been presented with several instrumental pieces specifically for use in future videos — but this one is from Kevin Macleod, yet again, who I remember you have used in the past as well.

I’m afraid the steam loco noises aren’t of a Garratt. They’re varied edits of my usual, endlessly recycled, heritage railway audio clips (smaller BR Standards, rattling goods wagons and so on). But as you suggest, there aren’t many shots in the video where I’d worry if the sound effects were precisely in sync or not.