Spent much of yesterday and this morning with the Loksound 5 decoder and Lokprogrammer software. Some conclusions:
1. Loksound 4 sound files can be converted to Loksound 5, Loksound Select file can not be converted.
2. LS4 to LS5 converted files will take up only up to 1/4 of memory, due to the LS4 32Mbit chip is 1/4 the size of the 128Mbit chip found on the LS5.
2. Sound slots 25 to 31 will be blank on converted files. 'Random sounds' will go into sound slot 32 by default. It is assumed that slots 25 to 32 on 'real' LS5 files will be reserved for the 'new method' of storing each random sound individually so that their playback frequency and characteristics can be individually tweaked.
3. Writing a LS4 converted file to a LS5 decoder only take about 5-6 minutes (vs. 30-35 minutes on LS4) due to the improvement in write speed. Writing a full real LS5 128Mbit file (in theory, no true LS5 files exist yet) should take about 25 minutes.
4. LS4 converted files sound about the same on a LS5 decoder as they do on the older LS4. As mentioned above, it is likely that we will need to wait for ESU to release 'real' LS5 sound files or record your own sounds such as bells and horns.
5. Overall not much has changed as far as the creation of custom sounds go... can just refer to older ESU video tutorials, no new video really needed to explain things.