The story behind...
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June 25th, 2005 Its hard to believe that less than a month ago Bob Scheffler and PRICOM Design were effectively strangers! He was an active member of the Yahoo! layout sound group and seemed like a fairly smart feller. He held his own with the 'bit brains' there, but it was his willingness to jump in and help, and encourage newbie's as he answered questions that first caught my eye. I should tell you that I have been working professionally with layout sound for some 25 years. Along with my wonderful wife Christie, and under the auspices of our 'RailRoadies' custom scale sound design services, we have designed layout sound for hundreds of layout scenes all over the world. I knew exactly what I needed to satisfy every request my clients ever asked of me, and while CD players worked ok, I dreamed of a simple circuit that could play CD quality (44.1/16) stereo, that could be cued externally, that could be set to loop seamlessly, and that had no moving parts (other than electrons:). That single piece of gear (and possibly a few little trick ancillary pieces) was all I needed to do everything everyone ever dreamed of... and over the years, it became known by almost anyone within earshot as 'The Dream Circuit'. I made the mistake of announcing that we were going to make a run at building my dream circuit in the Yahoo! group... the mistake being that the list immediately started lobbying me for all kinds of 'whistles and bells' that I knew were completely unnecessary! Bob contacted me off list and made an extremely intelligent and impassioned plea for a couple of those whistles and bells. I told him that while my ideas of what I needed to satisfy everything my RailRoadies clients custom work demanded were not likely to change, I wanted him to go ahead and make one last run at me before I hauled off and built it... I thought if anyone might be able to sway me, it might be him. I also told him to prepared for my entrenched defense. I should also tell you that Bob is as fluent in hardware and software design as anyone I have ever met in 35 years as an audio engineer. He has a strong background in big, big projects, and already has several products he is selling to the Hobby. He's fast too, "300 miles an hour with my hair on fire" as he describes it. One thing this Hobby teaches us is patience, I've been waiting for my dream circuit for years while the component parts became readily available and cheap enough... but since working with Bob I too have been doing 300mph... and I have more hair:)! This impeccable little fellow is nothing short of inspirational and I am delighted to call him friend. To make an incredibly short story shorter, our back and forth was lively... and amazingly fruitful. We started spending hours on the phone late at night after our families had settled in, and within a few days we had mapped out the dream circuit. Bob's incredible fluency in both hardware and software design and engineering had not only realized my dream... but quite honestly improved upon it. He did this with such simple elegance of design that it is now a quantum leap better than I had ever dreamed... while remaining the minimalist gear I had originally specified. The Dream Player not only listens, but also talks to the world around it... as it speaks to the air in a pike. And it is smart, it can learn any new trick we need to ask of it! More important than the engineering involved... is the working
relationship that has evolved. We have decided, quite belligerently,
that we will not let reality keep us from realizing this dream...
everyone's layout sound dreams! Our policy, engineering philosophy,
and design and marketing strategy is based on a simple set of
priorities (and necessarily in this order): Laugh if you like, but we are model railroaders and have benefited from this amazing Hobby in so many ways that we are dizzy with excitement at the potential to make a real contribution back. Moreover, we are tickled and delighted to be at the forefront of layout sound as it becomes an accepted legitimate model railroading medium... and one of the most fun ever. The Scale Magic™ Dream Player is a reality, and now we're getting ready to share it with you! Its the perfect marriage of audio and electronics engineering, not just a player, not just a soundtrack... but a single product where player and sound are engineered specifically to be user friendly. All of the practical problems of layout sound are already engineered out. The Scale Magic™ Dream Player is a way to enable every model railroader to have wonderful sound... we hope it makes layout sound a legitimate medium for everyone in our wonderful Hobby! -James R. Wells |
Along with the terrific help and guidance of model railroaders Nick Thompson and Ken Lunders!
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Robert Scheffler 2755 Slocum Rd |
Jim Wells 695 Crescent Avenue - B |
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Questions? Join our lively new Layout Sound discussion group at Yahoo!