I've often commented in my reviews and articles that many FS
add-ons are lacking when it comes to their audio impact on the end
user. It is very difficult to imagine flying an aircraft if the
sounds being emitted from your speakers do not match it. Flying a
747 would be no-where near as much fun if the sound-set was that
of a Cessna.
There are many developers, both freeware and payware, who help to
improve our immersion within our flight simulators by producing
3rd party sound-sets which can be installed into our favourite
aircraft to help them sound better than before. Let's face it, the
default offerings from Microsoft are not the best.
History
AWG Simulations are one such developer and are a relative newcomer
to the developer community having only being formed in July 2011
by 3 'flight simulation geeks' (their words not mine). Since then
their development team has grown to 7 with more waiting to join.
They wrote to Mutley's Hangar a short while ago and asked if we
would be interested in reviewing one of their latest add-ons, the
Boeing 737 Classic CFM 56-3 sound-set.
The CFM engine is one of the most popular in the aviation world
with over 20,000 units being built over 4 variants, the majority
of which have found their way onto the classic Boeing
737-300/400/500. Combined these engines have now flown over 53,000
years of flight hours which goes to show both their reliability
and popularity with airlines.
Purchase & Installation
The sound-set can be purchased for $9.99 directly from the AWG
Simulations website and will only take up 50mb of hard-drisk space
once downloaded. The initial version which I downloaded was
version 1 and I was disappointed with the manual as the
installation instructions were very unclear. I spoke with AWG who
walked me through the process, took on-board the criticism and
have now amended the manual in Version 1.1 to show clear
installation instructions. The documentation isn't as polished as
some that I have seen but it does the job, after all you only
really need to know how to install the sound-set.
Features
● Sounds recorded from the real
aircraft
● New realistic touchdown and gear
sounds
● Autopilot/Autothrottle disconnect
sounds
● Take-off and landing roll sounds
● Custom cockpit sounds
● Custom flap and lever/switch sounds
● FSX Sound Cone Technology
Going For A Flight
When I reviewed the Wilco Classic 737 PIC Evolution Deluxe at the
time I thought that the sound could have been better, which made
it an ideal candidate for the AWG CFM56-3 sound-set. Installation
is relatively simple; back-up the current sound-set and replace it
with the AWG sound-set.
Default Wilco Start Up | With Soundset Start Up | Default Wilco Taxi | With Soundset Taxi |
It is always difficult to review a product which is based solely on sound, which is why I have included some before & after videos showing the various stages of flight. The best improvements for me were the start-up and take-off sounds that are miles ahead of the sounds which are included with the Wilco 737. That's not to say the originals were poor, just that they are not as good as these. The roar from the engines is exactly as I remember them from a recent flight to Prague on a 733 and the hum during cruise is very close to how I remember the real engines sounding too.
Default Wilco Take Off | With Soundset Take Off | Default Wilco Climb | With Soundset Climb |
Default Wilco Cruise | With Soundset Cruise | Default Wilco Descent | With Soundset Descent |
During a conversation with one of the development team at AWG I mentioned that I thought the sounds in the cockpit were louder than I would imagine them to be, considering that the cockpit is quite a distance from the engines. The reason for this is that getting access to a cockpit during flight to record the sounds is practically impossible in the UK. All sounds had to be recorded from within the passenger cabin itself, which makes perfect sense. I assume that this is also the case for other add-on developers too.
The overall experience after installing the CFM 56-3 Sound-Set is fantastic and improves the flight experience even further. You do not need to own a copy of the Wilco 737 in order to buy these sounds, they can be installed into any aircraft (just be sure to keep a back-up of the original sounds should anything go wrong). I've flown a lot of flights over the last few weeks since installing this sound-set and really enjoyed each flight as it almost feels like you are right there in the aircraft during flight.
Default Wilco Approach | With Soundset Approach |
Verdict
If you regularly fly in the classic 737 series of aircraft
(payware or freeware) this is a sound-set which you should
strongly consider purchasing. For $9.99 it can be installed into
any aircraft you own and will add another dimension to your
flights. I hope that the included videos are enough to whet your
appetite.
Mutley's Hangar Score
● Improvement over the original
offering 8/10
● Ease of installation 10/10 (after
update)
● Documentation 7/10
● Quality of sounds 9/10
Overall Score: 8.5/10
Rob Scott
Review machine Spec: Intel i7 2600k @3.40GHz | 8GB DDR3 RAM 1600MHz |NVidia GTX570 1280MB GFX Card |Windows 7 64bit Home Premium