Zimo Sound Programmer Tutorial

English version by Paul Chetter

Welcome to this tutorial. This is the follow-up to my Audacity tutorial which is available here: Class 4 Audacity Tutorial.zip

This time, there is no attempt to be interactive, just scroll down to move on.

Any red and white ‘speech bubbles’ that you see are my annotations to help you. They should be viewed as an intrinsic part of the tutorial as their contents may not be mentioned elsewhere.

I have prepared this to coincide with my Hornby Magazine article in issue 41. Although it specifically relates to the creation of an authentic sound file for the BR Standard Class 4 MT Locomotive, you will be able to understand the basic principles that apply to all steam projects. Diesel and electric projects are very similar in most respects, but of course the way the driving sounds behave are quite different.

You may find it useful to resize your browser window when viewing this tutorial so that you have enough space to run it and ZSP side by side. Or use two monitors if you have them.

One further important point; this tutorial was originally accompanied by all the sound files illustrated, along with a customised version of ZSP (basically with all its standard German sound files replaced by English Class 4MT).

Therefore, if you do not have the full package, you will need to take this into account when comparing screen shots.

You can download the complete package from www.zimo.at.

Finally, I have not broken this tutorial down into sections. Please remember your posture, and take regular breaks from your computer. I’ll still be here when you get back!

Ok, let’s get going.

All the sound files you wish to incorporate into your project need to be in the same folder as the project.

Load all the sound files to somewhere on your computer that you can recall easily. If you have the sound files I provided, they are contained in folders with names in English. If you are using the Zimo standard files, they will be in German language. Although the sounds will be of similar types i.e. the Whistle and Pfeife folders both contain whistles, the actual whistles will be different.

(If you have the customised version of ZSP, this will be done automatically during installation.)

When you run Zimo Sound Programmer (ZSP) for the first time, it will all be in German. In fact, even when you opt for the English version, parts will still appear in German.

If you go to the files section of Zimo-DCC@yahoo.groups you will find the English manual, an English help file that you can import to ZSP and some useful additional translations

Extract the file ‘ZSP_Setup_V1_8_4_Class4MT.exe’ from the downloaded package and run it to install ZSP.

If you see this, just click ‘Run’

You will be asked which language you want the installer to use. Note. This does not install the English language version of ZSP. I’ll show you how to do that later.

Unless you have strong preferences and know what you are doing, it will be best to accept ZSP’s suggestions for installation parameters. Click install.

Click ‘Next’

Click ‘Close’

Here’s the first screen that you will encounter:

Click on Create New Sound Project and you will be asked where to create the project file. Navigate to where you saved the sound folders and give your project a suitable name.

(ZSP will open the location where it has loaded the project sound folders, along with the finished project file named ‘Hornby Class 4 MT Release 1.zpr’. If you want to create a project working along with this tutorial, give your project a name which is distinctly different from the preloaded one to avoid confusion or worse, accidental corruption of the original.)

Then hit Save.

You will be asked to select type, chose DAMPF for Steam projects. (The alternatives are pretty clear, Diesel and Electric respectively).

Press OK and the following screen appears:

By opening the Optionen menu (below) ...

...you can select between German and English language.

Assuming that you wish to proceed in English, select it and press OK to save this option. Each time you open ZSP in the future, it will appear in English. (Mainly,at least!)

Most of the TABs and Labels are now presented in English

The page starts to be more understandable now.

I know you want to start building your sound files, but there is an important procedure you will need to know about at some point. Since it is essential if you want to get access to an important, unique, Zimo feature we might as well to deal with it right now.

The team at Zimo are constantly striving to improve users’ experiences with their products. One way is to regularly update the firmware to fine tune existing features or to add new ones.

This sound project makes use of the very latest firmware. It’s so new, it will not be installed on any MX640 decoders presently in stock anywhere. The good news is that ZSP allows you to update all current decoders with a simple, free download.

If you have the full tutorial download package, you will find the new firmware is already included.

If you are not going to load this project to a decoder yet, you can skip this part, but please remember that updating will be essential when you decide to do so.

You must have a Zimo programming interface, MXDECUP or MX31ZL connected correctly to your computer to be able to update or programme sounds to your decoder.

So, let’s get updated.

Open the Decoder menu and select ‘Update decoder software’.

This dialogue box appears.

Click on Comm Autodetect, and ZSP will search for the Comm Port that MXDECUP is connected to.

A successful connection will show the following confirmation.

Programmer an COMM 1 gefunden – Programmer found at COMM1

Click on Weiter (More) to move on.

These files have been installed on your computer with the customised ZSP, so there is no need to go online to download them.

Locate your decoder model in the list and click to highlight it. The project files can be used for all current Zimo sound decoders, whatever their model number.

Click for More, and the next dialogue box looks like this.

Click where the mouse pointer shows to start the update.

There will be a confirmation that your decoder type has been detected, and do you wish to go ahead with the update.

Click ‘Yes’

The panel turns to orange during the updating process...

...and changes to green when completed.

Click on ‘Beenden’ to close the box.

Your decoder now has the latest firmware installed.

No sound files have been loaded to the decoder during this process. You can perform this at any time and your loaded sound files will remain as they were.

If you have skipped the update process, here is where you need to pick up again.

Compiling Your Project.

Different aspects of the sound file require separate approaches to bring the appropriate sound files into the project correctly. Here’s how.

If you have created your new project in the same location as the sound files, this is more like how the screen will look. (I deliberately suppressed the sound files in the similar screen shots earlier for clarity.)

Double click on the ‘Chuff Sounds’ folder to view the contents.

To load the exhaust beats (chuffs), highlight your selection then drag and drop to the appropriate sound slot in the driving sounds schedule – in the yellow area.

If you want to check before assigning, double click to hear the sound.

Notice the importance of correctly naming each individual chuff within its own sequence to allow the programme to allocate them correctly.

Continue to build up this Steam Set by assigning the sounds of the loco when it is working at more moderate loadings into the ‘M’ slot.

Complete this section by assigning any deceleration sounds you have available. These will be played when the regulator (throttle) is closed. We don’t want any of that non-prototypical ‘Chuffing to a Halt’ that the ‘train set’ brigade seem to tolerate, do we?

Ha Ha, How pompous am I? (It’s just a little joke – no offence intended!)

Next is a feature unique to Zimo. The chance to hear your running sounds before loading onto a decoder. In fact, you don’t even need a decoder to hear what it will sound like. ZSP’s interface may not be as pretty as its rival, but it is more functional.

The label ‘Prelisten Steam Set’ may be a poor English translation, but the functionality is top class.

OK that’s the first driving sounds installed, now let’s have a look at loading some other types of sound.

First we need to close the ‘Chuff Sounds’ folder ....

...then select another type from the list.

Any steam locomotive that has been stationary will accumulate water in its cylinders as they cool and steam condenses. If the loco is started like this, the virtually uncompressible water will cause considerable and expensive damage. To avoid this, the cylinders are equipped with drain cocks which the driver (engineer) opens prior to movement and allows steam to purge the water from the cylinders. This is the rush of steam heard before the loco departs.

Cylinder draining is therefore an essential part of the authentic sound scene. Zimo sound decoders all have the ability to play these sounds automatically, each time you move your loco. (Special provision is made for shunting (switching) operations within the CV set).

So let’s do that next.

When you ‘drop’ the selection, the following dialogue box opens. It’s here that you will tell the programme what type of sound it is so that it knows what type of event will trigger it to play. You will also be able to give the sound a name that you will recognise later when assigning sounds to keys etc.

It always opens with Pfeife kurz (Short Whistle), and there is a drop down menu for selection. Unfortunately these have not been translated to English. Most can be worked out, but try Zimo-DCC yahoo group if you need help.

We need Zylinderventil. (See, it sounds a bit like Cylinder ventilation which is close enough to cylinder draining as to make the meaning clear).

Now give the sound a name in English.

Click OK, and it will appear in the User Samples area

Following a similar method, I’ve put in some brake squeal.

And the guard’s whistle.

Now we’ll add some background steam sound.

And continue by adding the rush of steam that happens when the boiler pressure overcomes the springs in the safety valves. They lift to allow steam to escape and reduce pressure to safe levels.

I want to give this steam set a useful name for future reference, so right click in the yellow area and select Rename Steam Set.

Notice also that you can Clear the allocated chuffs from the entire set, or remove the set completely. (But partial clearances or removals are not allowed).

The following dialogue boxes appear...

...and new name is typed in.

Click OK.

Now it’s time to add some coal shovelling sounds.

Click OK.

Now from the main screen (not shown here) open the ‘Cap controlled’ Tab. Here is where you assign sounds to function keys.

To fit in with my usual sound scheme, coal Shovelling is allotted to F6 (function key 6)

Oh, I’ve just mentioned locomotive whistles again but we’ve not loaded any yet.

It’s time to do so now, perhaps.

You should know how this is done by now, so I’ll just show you the dialogue box completion so you’ll recognise the German.

Certain types of sounds, typically whistles of horns, can be played long or short depending on the controller’s wishes. Basically, this is achieved by placing markers in a suitable sound file to denote a loop. This is the part of the sound from the mid-section that will be played over and over as long as the function is switched on. This can stretch a short sound in to a loooooooonger one.

But what about those sounds I mentioned that are played automatically by the decoder, triggered by specific events – remember automatic cylinder draining?

Open the Decoder Controlled tab.

Not all of the possible settings here are appropriate to steam locos. (For example,very few in my experience are equipped with pantographs!)

One of my old DCC controllers is unable to access F keys above 7. Leaving Zimo’s default F8 in place for sound on/off would mean that I could not switch the decoder sounds on at all.

I therefore put the vital sounds and functions to the lower F keys, on/off always being F1, and the more optional ones higher up out of the way.

Random Generator tab

Some sounds appear, to the casual observer, to be entirely random. This is seldom the case, usually arising from some action or inaction of the loco or its crew.

To simulate these types of sound, ZSP has a ‘Random Generator’. You programme in the appropriate parameters, and the decoder does the rest.

There is one special case, however, and ZSP can deal with that quite efficiently.

When the brakes have been applied the operating pressure (or vacuum) in the system is depleted. The air pump to restore this (often call a Westinghouse pump) is usually one of the first sounds that commences after a stop.

Let’s put one in now,

The CV tab is where you can view and edit CVs, either individually or in any multiples.

Remember that whatever is set here when you ‘Save’ you project will be stored along with the sound file settings.

Of course, all CVs can still all be freely amended on the track (main or programming) but it makes operations smoother if you can get them right before loading to the decoder.

I will now show you a brilliant Zimo sound decoder feature which takes advantage of their superior memory size.

This is the ability to hold up to 32 different sets of driving sounds at the same time, easily selectable by changing CV#265. (In fact Zimo sound decoders all come with 5 steam and 1 diesel sound set preloaded.)

Now, just think about that for a moment or two. What possibilities can this open up for us operators?

I’ll let you ponder that for now. I’ll return to it later.

We’re now going to create another steam set, this time with two speed related steps.

I’ve allocated all the same chuff files to each of the slots in step 1 as we saw when I showed you Steam Set 1. I want the chuffs to continue with the same timbre when the loco is close to maximum speed, so I will allocate the acceleration sounds to the ‘M2’ slot as well as the ‘H2’ slot.

So now, hopefully, the loco sounds will change timbre between accelerating and ‘flat’ running except at maximum speed when there will be no difference in timbre.

The volume may still alter, of course, depending upon how CV#275 and CV#276 have been set.

Just a note of caution here; the settings you made on the various tabs, except CVs, for Steam Set 1 are not carried over to any other set. This means that you will need to do it again for all sets you create.

I’m now going to make some changes to Steam Set 1so that I can illustrate further features of ZSP.

I want to avoid the loco sounds changing to acceleration sounds as Light Engine does not have to work so hard as when pulling a train.

So I‘ll put the medium sound to both ‘H’ and ‘M’ slots, by overwriting the ‘H’

It’s about time to save all this hard work if you’ve not done so already. I’ll just show you the screens, it’s all pretty obvious, but please be aware that there are different file types possible.

File type .zpr

This saves all the project settings, but not the sounds themselves. It needs to be in the same folder as the original sound folders to open correctly. It does allow the user to edit all of the settings.

Best to use when you may need to make further amendments.

File type.zpp

‘Ready to Use’

This does save the entire project including the sound files, so is much larger. It cannot be opened for further editing and needs to be loaded onto the decoder ‘as is’. CVs can still be changed, however.

Only really useful for finalised projects.

This asks if you want to overwrite an existing project

There is a special routine for the Ready to use files

Now that your project is in a workable state you can load it onto any Zimo sound decoder.

You will need either a Zimo MXDECUP programming interface or a Zimo MX31ZL which has the interface already built in. The future Zimo MX10 base station will also have the interface included.

And a loco equipped with a Zimo sound decoder, of course.

Before attempting to send the project to the decoder, I routinely use the ‘Ask decoder name’ option. This checks that everything is connected correctly and there is a receptive decoder waiting for instructions.

If all is well, you will get a message similar to this.

If you have updated your decoder with the firmware provided, the Version number will be 28.3.

There’s always chance to add more sounds provided there is enough memory available, so I’ve added a couple of fun items,

We can have a last listen to all we have loaded before sending to the decoder.

This is not absolutely necessary, but sending a large project to your decoder can take 20 minutes or so. I prefer to give it one final check over; with so many variables to set it’s easy for an error to slip in undetected.

Right click in the yellow and open ‘Prelisten Steam Set’. You can listen to the Light Engine sounds and all the other sounds you have included in the project.

We now have another Steam Set to listen to. Move the slider to its right and the ‘Heavy’ set is available. Use the ‘Speed’ slider to listen to each set in turn.

Click on any of the green buttons (except under the speed slider) to hear the sounds.

You can make some final adjustments to individual sound levels to achieve a good overall balance.

Note, these adjustments do not ‘stick’. You will still need to change them on the appropriate tab as before.

This is it, the final hurdle. ‘Load sound to decoder sends your project with all the sounds used, all the settings made and all the CVs stored. Go and make a cup of tea whilst ZSP carries out its ultimate role.

When you see this dialogue box, IT’S TIME TO PLAY TRAINS!!

As a final thought, consider this. Your Light Engine moves up to a train of heavy laden trucks (cars), couples up, then struggles away with its load on the hook.

What would this sound like? Light chuffs, coupling sounds, then heavy, hard working chuffs as the load is hauled along.

If only we could reproduce this sound sequence.

Well, with Zimo you can. If you’ve viewed my YouTube video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1j_2Ap_8zs you will know how quickly I changed German sounds to British.

Here’s how.

Set up two Steam sets as we have in this project and use Zimo’s unique ability to switch between them instantly.

All of this is included as part of this project.

Before you start to run the loco, just make sure that CV#265 is set to the value of 1.

So, run Light Engine, then, after coupling up, press function key 5 on your DCC controller. That’s it; your loco is now ‘Heavy’ so you can pull away with hard acceleration chuffs. Brilliant!

That’s the end of this tutorial. I have tried to explain why you would want to use a feature, not just how to do so. I hope you enjoyed it and found it useful.

Kind regards,

Paul Chetter,

Lincoln UK

10/10/10