what horn do you have on your boat ?

[BartW]

When thinking of playing them over a laptop's speakers, it all pales into feebleness with the lower tones almost disappearing. Listening to them live is the only real option.

But, any suggestions for recording them would be really gratefull received.

do you believe that playback a horn sound through a laptop speaker is more limited then playback techno or rock music ?

I sugest to do a recording with a high SPL mike (such as a DPA),
use a high quality mike preamp for the recording
and then use a good maximising sofware to compress the dynamic range and maximise the frequency spectrum (such as Waves L3 and Maxxbass)
alway's willing to help with that

 

[Piers]

do you believe that playback a horn sound through a laptop speaker is more limited then playback techno or rock music ?

I sugest to do a recording with a high SPL mike (such as a DPA), use a high quality mike preamp for the recording and then use a good maximising sofware to compress the dynamic range and maximise the frequency spectrum (such as Waves L3 and Maxxbass) alway's willing to help with that

Sounds good (no pun intended!). I'll pass the info to marketing to see could be done.

If you boat is 70' long, you really need the next size up fropm the K380.....

 

[davidej]

It's called a Marine Safety Blaster Horn: Super loud. It floats. It's rust-proof. Mouth-operated and blasts at a screaming 120 dB of sound that can be heard over a mile (1.6 km) away. Here's another one of the same type.

http://DSP.imageg.net/graphics/product_images/pDSP1-9669343dt.jpg

Thanks for the info.

I have now found them for sale in the UK. The original one seemed to be Italian and I could only find it available in Italy

 

[MapisM]

Well, nowadays it doesn't make much difference.
At 15 Eur, you can purchase the original one online here, for instance.
For that kind of price, I wouldn't bother saving a few quids for some chinese version...

 

[kimhollamby]

do you believe that playback a horn sound through a laptop speaker is more limited then playback techno or rock music ?

I sugest to do a recording with a high SPL mike (such as a DPA),
use a high quality mike preamp for the recording
and then use a good maximising sofware to compress the dynamic range and maximise the frequency spectrum (such as Waves L3 and Maxxbass)
alway's willing to help with that

Hi there - I work with Piers and Toby doing some of the techie work for Kahlenberg here in the UK. Thanks for the info on recordings.

At the moment the sounds are recorded across at the manufacturing facility in the US, they tend to have a greater space and more tolerant neighbours over there than we have in the UK especially when sounding off the larger air horns. Although apparently even the neighbours in Wisconsin can get a bit tetchy with a 140dB 130Hz piston horn!

We've just asked for the original sound recordings as opposed to the edited and compressed MP3s but depending upon what these are like we might well have a crack at setting up some of the smaller units ourselves. Not sure how close you are to Newbury but will PM you if we set some units up for recording.

Glad you like the Zero-series - I bought a set of D-0As for my boat, Formanda, a couple of seasons back (pictured). They have been tuned to precisely match the harmonics that they are designed for and my 45-footer now sounds like it a small ship.

For anyone on this thread - if you, like me, enjoy rifling through stock and have half a reason to pass our HQ at Newbury then get in touch and we'll happily show you some of the units discussed here and the fittings and accessories that go alongside them. Or if you are near Haslar one weekend and want to see (hear when QHM isn't listening) Formanda's D-0As and have a natter and a coffee you'd be most welcome. We've also got a set of K-380s in a small flightcase for demonstration. We've gathered quite a lot of info on the subject of sound signalling kit and as anyone that knows me can testify I need no excuse for a chat about anything to do with boats.