--> About Us - Model Sounds Inc. - The Ultimate in RC Sound Systems

About Us

Find out who we are, where we are located, where we have been and where we are going!

What's New:

October 23, 2023

Model Sounds Inc. is now closed permanently for the retirement of its principals. We thank all of our very loyal customers for their support over the last 18 years.

About Us

In the Beginning:

Our first product, the SFX4 sound module was conceived in summer 2005. Product development and company creation resulted in the formation of our predecessor company, Model Solutions of Canada Ltd., in October 2007. The corporation is a Canadian Federal Corporation located in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada's National Capital. The corporation's directors and shareholders are David and Sandra Harrison. The SFX4 was a great start and is still in use in many model boats, but could play only one sound at a time, and was large and heavy as it used all through hole components and was manufactured by hand.


The Growing Years:

In 2008, our second generation SFX5.3 product was a radical departure from the former SFX4.
It used surface mount technology and was manufactured using automated machines in an assembly plant. It had a powerful 40 Watt Class D amplifier on board and was very suitable for model airplanes due to its increased audio output power, small size and light weight. However, despite its two 8 bit micro-controllers, it was still able to achieve only 8 bit sounds at a relatively low sample rate.


The World's First CD Quality RC Sound Module:

2009 saw the introduction of our third generation product, the SFX6 sound module. This used a powerful 32 bit microcontroller and was able to play multiple sounds at better than CD sound quality using 16 bit samples at 46875 samples/second. It was the ONLY RC sound module to feature two completely independent throttle controlled engine sounds. The much lower distortion and higher sample rate meant that these RC sound modules were the finest sounding in the world at the time. They were surpassed only by our latest ShockWave 2 sound module.


Company Name Change:

In December, 2011, the corporation's name was changed to the simpler "Model Sounds Inc.". This change of name better reflected our core competencies and product interests and also made our company name much easier to remember and find on the Internet.


Our Previous Flagship Product:

In January 2012, we announced our next generation SFX7.0 sound module. This was the first and only RC Sound Module to offer stereo outputs enabling different sounds to be played on right and left output channels. Using a microSD Card for sound file storage, it offered unparalleled duration of recorded sounds and ease of use. The huge storage space offered by a microSD card allows it to use very long sound clips with natural tone variations to give even more realistic engine sounds.  It features even better sound quality than the SFX6 by using a dedicated low noise DAC (Digital to Analogue Converter) chip external to the processor chip.

In November 2012, we re-branded the SFX7.0 sound module as the "ShockWave" sound module. The new name evokes thoughts of a high powered sound wave which is exactly what it can give you.

In September 2014 we introduced our previous model, the ShockWave 2 which used a different amplifier chip giving the same output power at maximum voltage, but is also able to operate on lower voltages down to 4.5 Volts. This makes the sound system available to modelers operating on a 6 Volt lead battery or a 2S LiPo.


ShockWave Registered Trademark:

Effective July 03, 2018, ShockWave® has been a Registered Trademark in the United States of America covering "Portable sound reproducing apparatus", "Sound Boards" and "Computer software for control and configuration of sound reproduction apparatus". Also covered is our "On-line retail store services featuring Portable sound reproducing apparatus, Sound Boards and computer software for control and configuration of sound reproduction apparatus".

The ShockWave® Trademark is owned by the owners of Model Sounds Inc. and is used by Model Sounds Inc. under license.


Our Newest Flagship Product:

In February 2019 we introduced our current model, the ShockWave 3 which uses a more powerful ARM Cortex M-7 processor chip. This allows much faster and smoother response to throttle stick movements and enables the introduction of groundbreaking new features.


DopplerFX Registered Trademark:

Effective July 23, 2019, DopplerFX® has been a Registered Trademark in the United States of America covering "Computer software and firmware for providing enhanced audible Doppler Frequency shift. Portable sound reproducing apparatus.Sound boards. Sound reproducing apparatus"."

The DopplerFX Trademark is owned by the owners of Model Sounds Inc. and is used by Model Sounds Inc. under license.


DopplerFX Accessory Board:

In June, 2020, we released our revolutionary DopplerFX accessory board providing enhanced audible Doppler Frequency shift making the model sound much faster than it is really going.


Team Biography:

 

Our co-owner and Product Design Engineer is David Harrison, a professional electronic and software engineer.
David has 60 years experience in electronic hardware and firmware/software design and development, ranging from designing silicon chips to architecting enterprise level software applications. David is responsible for all technical product design and development, parts procurement and interfacing with our assembly plant for production batch manufacturing. Important business decisions are made jointly with Sandra Harrison, our co-owner.

His 1st Class Honours B.Sc. degree in Electronic Engineering is from University College, University of London, England.

Our co-owner and Executive Assistant is Sandra Harrison, who
has many years of office administrative experience in both the high-tech and medical fields. Sandra is responsible for all office administrative tasks, invoicing and bookkeeping, order fulfillment and order packaging.