two questions about pinball noise

[cooldan]

ok so i finally managed to get a pin in the house, on the condition that it's not too noisy. so i have TSPP but it's right under my two year old's bedroom, so i have to keep the noise down.

Q1 no matter how much i turn the sound down, even to zero, the majority of the noise still comes from the solenoids bashing the plungers into the endstops, clack clack clack. is there anything out there to reduce this? some special rubber endstop, or some funny egg carton type material to put inside the cabinet to deaden the sound?

Q2 just now while i was playing at minimal volume (of music, callouts etc) it suddenly boomed out at 150 decibels for about a second or two. made me jump it did. wtf was that all about? i can't have that, the missus will string me up. that was so loud that i expect it could be heard not just next door but two or three doors up - even if only for a second. can anyone explain? the only thing i noticed that was even slightly possibly relevant is that maybe perhaps the door had slightly started to open, as i'd been having a great ball with loads and loads of multiball action - could it possibly be some security feature to alert the operators that someone just opened a coin door?

cheers fellas

 

[Spandangler]

My mate filled every conceivable vacant space inside the cab with some special acoustic foam egg box looking stuff which music studios use. The way he banged on you'd think it all but muted it!! Me!! I couldn't really tell the difference.

No idea about the random high volume though dude. Bet it was funny to see you jump through the roof though

 

[Nedreud]

I'd always kinda wondered why end-stops were metal rather than something softer and quieter like rubber, but thinking about the absolute pounding they get I doubt anything softer than metal would last very long.

I think you have to accept that the nature of pinball machines is to be loud, brash and noisy. It's part of their appeal. If you want something quieter to do in the house why not take up knitting?

 

[Chris P]

Is it possible the loud sound was the noise it makes when you earn a free game? If it is you can turn it off under the settings, I think it is called knocker from memory.

My missus doesn't really like the loud noise either so I usually play my pins in the afternoon when it won't bother too many people including the neighbours.

Pinball is not the same without the music and sound effects

 

[Wizcat]

If you close all the doors and windows, then use a vacuum pump to take all the air out of the room. That would be pretty quiet. Would probably make the game play a bit faster too
Let us know how it works out.

 

[kevlar]

Theres a mod available for tspp which stops the upper playfield flippers flipping unless theres a ball up there. Some french ( i think! ) guy makes the mod which is actually a circuit board that goes in the backbox. Its supposed to make that particular machine slightly quieter but its still going to be pretty loud whatever you do.

 

[replicas]

You're not going to quiet the machine down by much but you would have a better chance of sound proofing the little guys room.
Just another option to look at.

 

[Replay]

Tip. If you make lots of normal noise when young un's in bed, they get used to the noise and sleep better. The quieter you get the worse sleepers they become. So play pinball and after a while they don't notice. The wife - well, that is an entirely different story

 

[cooldan]

Cheers fellas for the responses. I'm still intrigued about the sudden loud noise - it wasn't the knocker and it wasn't anything I'd heard before, but I can't believe I'm the only one who has heard that before.

Someone will happen along who knows what I'm talking about and will know what it was caused by and how to stop it happening again. I may even resort to posting on the yahoo group about it, as a lot of the old schoolers hide there as they don't trust change.

 

[Moonraker]

Someone will happen along who knows what I'm talking about and will know what it was caused by and how to stop it happening again. I may even resort to posting on the yahoo group about it, as a lot of the old schoolers hide there as they don't trust change.

Possibly some part of the volume control circuit on it's way out...

 

[Dave Bishop]

Had this happen on a TOTAN recently. Was sitting in attract mode and suddenly a massive BBBRRRBBB sound, was very loud, hasn't done it again since.

Software issue

 

[johnwhitfield]

Used to be able to play when I got back at night as my next door neighbour was stone deaf. Sadly she died which was bloody inconsiderate of her......

Found out a couple of years ago that there had been a long running dispte between the middle and upper flats next door regarding the noise that the children had been making in the top flat. One letter from the solicitor cited "a noise like a fairground" was being caused by them. Pretty certain that will be my TAF then

You're pretty stuffed with the solenoid noises as they carry especially if you have wooden floors. The headphone socket on JJP machines demonstrates this pretty clearly good for the player, crap for everyone else is the room.

Keep playing and think of it as payback for the nighttime crying and the endless crap TV that your wife is bound to watch.

 

[DABYX]

As I've found out the solenoid noises isn't actually them hitting the stops, it's the electromechanical pull through the coil.

So yea, afraid there's no way to reduce that. Even made a makeshift box before and that noise still carries through the topside of the pf.

Weekends at daytime hours only for me

 

[Johnnyo]

Lets face it Dan the pins are too noisy your totally screwed back to the Tikki Hut for you my friend

 

[cooldan]

your totally screwed

probably. but i posted on the yahoo group here and got a few new insights. like @Wizards_Hat pointed out it's a lousy choice as the sound goes up by default during Alien Invasion ..... and Martin and Ewan said they'd come across the issue as well .... and Gary Flower even said it had been a recognised bug that got fixed ......

but i'm using the latest ROM, and so i have no idea what it was all about. anyway, never mind as it's time for a change of house pin anyway. hmmmm, what shall i put in next?

 

[replicas]

Whatever Martin is bringing.

 

[Carl Spiby]

Sneak ear plugs into Tracy's ears?

 

[cooldan]

As I've found out the solenoid noises isn't actually them hitting the stops, it's the electromechanical pull through the cool.

This sounds odd (but possible) to me, looking at low-friction sleeves, mushroomed plungers and mashed end stops, so I was gonna test it by using a video camera to film a flipper plunger with playfield up - but then I remembered that I don't have a good enough camera to get very slow mo with sound.

Has anyone got the machinery, skills and time to have a go at this project?