When sound first started to be added I thought that you could have your loco programed on a DCC system then operate it on DC with limited function. What do you get when running a sound equiped loco on regular DC?
Basically, that's how it is. With just DC, you'll usually get the background sounds for a steam loco, like chuff, plus perhaps any automatic sound that might be programmed into the board, like brake squeal on slowdown, reverse lever clank, etc., if the board has such capabilities. Operator controlled sounds like bell, whistle, horn, coupler crash, horns, etc., will require special controls, either from a DCC system or a DC Analog Control adapter such as MRC's "Black Box" or Tech 6. BLI also made a couple of control adapter units that would work with their sound boards, but the controls were pretty limited.
Bill in FtL
The Bell and whistle/horn can also be contolled by changes in the speed/voltage on some decoders, some tsunami's can be controlled like this.
I'll look for the instructions I think the whist/horn blast requires a quick slow down in speed to get it to blast, I'll look for the documentation and post it as soon as I find it.
NM-Jeff