ScotRail Class 380

This was my first time working on an EMU, my first loco work being the Rotem cab & passenger cars for the release of TSW4

I learnt a huge amount developing this and had so much fun implementing all sorts of cool details & functionalities

Stuff I want to show off:

Traction Motors:

I'm really proud of what I was able to achieve with the traction motors and learnt a huge amount while editing & implementing them. I also experimented a bit to see how elaborate I could make them!

All of the traction motors were edited & implemented by me, from the raw recordings we had. A lot went into them!

If you know me, you'll know that I love getting into detail... and these traction motors weren't an exception!

I used Spectral layers to map out and extract the individual harmonics that I identified within the motors. This has resulted in a highly accurate system that allowed me to control on a per-frequency basis, as opposed to if I were to just cut out and use segments of the motors that included multiple harmonics in one.

I did this as I noticed some frequencies were rising faster than others as well as harmonics coming and going as you change speed. I felt that this was the best way to do it, since it allowed for the most flexability, and I think the effort paid off!

Here's the sound cue I set up for the traction motors:

Transformer:

I put a lot of effort into programming the transformer functionality. After having some discussions, I was able to map out the conditions that would trigger each state of the transformer. I'd separated it out into 4 states:

Idle
Powered
Power draw
Power draw + Cooling fan

These states are affected by remote supply availability, reverser setting & traction motor power draw

Look at the size of this beast! Purely just the transformer logic... Was good fun to program though

Rattle zones:

One thing that I quite like to do, is adding rattle sounds around the train.

For the Rotems, I did this for the cab. However for the 380, I thought it would be cool to add to the passenger experience as well by making areas of the passenger cars rattle!

The cab has rattle sounds on the driver advisory system screen that's to the front-right of the cab and the door to the right of the driver

The carriages have some rattling shelves, luggage racks, tables & toilet doors that get selected at random to rattle.

Another thing I did to enhance the immersion with the rattles was to make a rattle trigger when you go over points. It just makes sense!

I actually recorded all of the rattle sounds myself, in my flat.

Glass Shelf

This sound was actually the sound of me rattling the shelf inside my fridge, with a tube of tomato purée on top making the rattle sound.

Metal Rack

This was the sound of my resting a couple of radiator drying racks against each other and shaking them slightly

Door

This was just me rattling the door to my office area in my flat

Cab Heater:

I had to add sounds to the cab heater, I feel like it's one of those things that despite being completely unnecessary, really adds to the experience when you realise it actually works!

I programmed some heater logic that allows you to control the sound of the heater using the fan speed & temperature dials to alter the sound to suit you. If you want it on, that is.

AWS variants:

There's actually 2 different AWS sounds that you can hear on the 380!

There's a clean version that you'll hear most of the time, however, there's a worn out version that your train will have 33% of the time.

I added this quite early on as I'd been going through the reference videos that had been recorded by our art team on a depot visit, and noticed that when the driver keyed into the cab and the AWS alarm went off, it sounded so worn and battered... Nothing like the clean version I'm used to hearing.

I literally just put the video into Reaper & edited the alarms from it since the videos were recorded by our team. Result!

(Clean) AWS Clear

(Worn) AWS Clear

VCB:

Super basic, but I just really like the sound it makes.

Matthew went on a recording trip to record the 380's door sounds & while recording some internal running ambience, accidentally recorded the VCB opening and closing a few times, as it turns out he was sat near it

They trigger when remote supply is lost and gained.

VCB Open

VCB Close

There's also some really nice internal joint sounds.

I can't just list out everything I like about the 380, I'll be here all day summarising the entire loco!

I had a great time working on it and really hope everyone in the community enjoys it! I've seen a huge amount of positivity surrounding it so far so can only hope that continues, enjoy!