Building a console only rig for my spare bedroom. Best tactile?

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Mayaman

Mayaman

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Hello gents, I have my PC rig and I'm building a spare rig for a spare bedroom at my parents house when I stay there. It will be console only. I know there is no simvibe for consoles so my question is, what is the best way to get zone tactile on consoles?

I was thinking 1 buttkicker gamer in each corner, but how would you connect those? Any help is appreciated.

thanks
 
Not sure about xbox, but there are two ways to do this on the ps3. First is using the multi av connection. You can turn audio on through both hdmi and the audio feed on the multi out. This will only give you left and right though. I have also heard a rumor that you can do the same with the optical audio port. This should give you at least 4 channels, however, this I do not have experience with.
 
Ah this is good to know. I'll be running PS3/360 and also PS4/Xbone

So basically I'll be happy with left and right using 4 buttkicker 2s.
 
Maybe. I know your big into pc racing, and have motion rigs, I'm guessing they don't have audio tactile?
If I may, I suggest skipping the gamer twos, just 4 of the lfe's and a separate amp/eq powerful enough to handle them. This will give you the ability to filter out anything above 100hrz and give enough peak power to avoid clipping, both of which are issues with the gamer 2
 
An AV receiver 4ohms with 5.1 or 7.1 on GT5 will let you use the same number of your chosen Bass shakers. You will need separate amps to power them.
So you can still use the receiver for surround sound with speakers and using pre-outs to the power amps for the shakers.
Latte would tell you exactly the same only he's retired at the minute.
 
Hi Mayaman, I'm not sure that you need 7.1 for tactile - I know Carson79 has experience of it so can comment. 5.1 would probably be enough for a super console rig and I would suggest the following setup.

The seat you choose is critical to how much tactile effect you get - the best effect would probably come from a Kirkey style racing seat (they are made of 1/8th inch aluminium) onto which you can directly mount your tactile transducers and transducer brackets. Assuming you already have 4 BK Gamers 2's spare I would fit them to the seat connected to the right front, left front, right rear and left rear channels - the transducers would be fitted to the corresponding parts of the seat. BK Gamers are mounted to a tube (normally the centre post of an office chair) so you would need flat plates bolted to the seat with tube welded to the plate. If you haven't already got the BK Gamer 2's I would go with Aura AST 2B Pro4 bass shakers which you could mount direct to the exterior of a kirkey style seat.

The seat will need to be fully isolated from the rig with rubber to get maximum shaking. For the front centre channel (which carries a lot of the engine vibration) fit 2 Aura Pro bass shakers - one to the seat below the groin area, the other under the pedal box (which will also need to be isolated). If you are using a shifter, fit another Aura under the shifter connected to the centre channel - 3 is an awkward number of units to wire to an amp channel so get a 4th shaker and experiment with either 2 under the pedals or front part of seat or shifter etc till you get the best effect.

For the .1 channel (LFE or sub channel) fit a BK Advance transducer (or similar) under the seat directly under the buttock area.

Use Behringer 3102 graphic equalisers - each will do 2 channels so ideally 3 units for the 6 channels of a 5.1 system.

I've assumed a generous budget, but with the above setup you would get good results and using the Aura Pro shakers you would save on transducer costs.

I favour using subwoofer plate amplifiers as they are designed specifically to amplify low frequencies. As Carson79 has suggested an AV receiver would process the 5.1 audio. Choose one which is capable of sending low frequencies to all 6 channels - most only send low frequencies to the .1 channel
 
Thanks Mayaman - have to go to work now, but will try and post some links later. What country are you in? If you can order easily from Parts Express (USA) it makes life much easier. If you are in Europe life is much harder for the tactile enthusiast.
 
I agree with Sick, the only thing I'd say is the front left and right shakers and your centre would be far better on your pedal section. Like this you'll feel the curbs rumble in each corner, and engine vibrations would be more realistic.
5.1 is good I did use it myself 7.1 is better, because then you've got 3 shakers on the pedals left, centre, right. 5 on the seat Surround left and right, rear left and right and your sub/BK Advance.
The set up I'm currently using is 9.2 lol with two extra shakers behind the inverted CVP V2's.....Awesome! With 1500w sub and a bk advance
I use one of these to amplify the signal http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00777ZLOY/?tag=gtplanetuk-20
One of Latte's tips
Oh another thing is instead of buying an amp and a Graph equaliser just buy one amp that does both. That ultra graph will cost nearly as much as an INuke DSP1000 here in the UK. http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?partnumber=248-6702
 
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The INuke DSP1000 suggested by Carson79 looks very interesting - I note it has delay options - some tactile enthusiasts set a delay within their system. This is beyond my level of experience and understanding, but I am sure Carson and Logiforce know about this.

The BK Gamer transducers probably won't be powerful enough for you - I know Mr Latte has recommended using the BK mini LFE units instead.

Greekbull has used BK Gamer and Aura Pro bass shakers and commented that he got a better effect with the Aura Pros.

I've experimented with the Aura Pro bass shakers and found them to be excellent. I've also got four Sinus Live Bass Pump 3's (a European cut price alternative to the Aura Pro, but not quite as good) and a BK Advance.

Tactile is a field which can be addictive (witness Carson and Mr Lattes setups!) also we don't yet know what GT6 will be like from a tactile standpoint so I would err on the side of caution at the moment. Some GT5 cars provide excellent tactile feedback (notably the Mercedes Benz V8's and the Audi R8 V8), however many of the cars in GT5 provide almost no effect - so all you get are kerb bumps. GT6 might be better, exactly the same or worse.

My suggested approach would therefore be to make sure what you get is easily upgradeable and be cautious with the spending until we know more about GT6. Also, build or equip your rig with multi-channel tactile in mind even though you might select just a mono setup for now (shaker under the seat and pedals adds a lot to the immersion) or stereo (2 shakers under the seat and 2 under the pedals. Isolation is key to good tactile and especially multi-channel tactile - isolate the rig from the floor, the seat from the rig, the pedals from the rig and the gear shifter from the rig. The better the isolation, the less power you need which can allow you to use smaller amps and cheaper tactile transducers. Also the medium is very important - that is why I suggested a kirkey type seat. I have a metal framed chair with which I did a lot of testing and one Aura Pro 50W shaker was enough for a great effect. I use a wood framed seat for console racing (wife won't let me have a full rig!) and even with 4 shakers I get less effect - hence upgrading and adding a 300W BK Advance.

Some of the things you implement on your console rig will be applicable to your PC Simvibe rig - my understanding is that simvibe works off data not audio with the result that you need to add audio to get a full tactile effect (stereo audio tactile would add curb thump and collisions).

I've just edited to add - what games are you going to play on the consoles? There will be people who use this site who will have tested the tactile effect on each game on PS3 and Xbox. I've only tested GT5 - variable car effects, good offroad and kerb effects. Dirt 3 was very poor - no tactile effects noticeable.
 
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