Tactile Sound Technology in a driving cabinet?

[DeLuSioNal29]

Just curious... has anyone used a Tactile Sound device in their driving cab?

http://www.amazon.com/Aura-Sound-Pro-Bass-Shaker/product-reviews/B0002ZPTBI/ref=pd_cp_e_1_cm_cr_acr_img?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

Basically Tactile Sound is a subwoofer that physically vibrates with the lows instead of producing sound.  It gives that extra punch of realism without the volume.

Thoughts?

DeLuSioNaL29

[MonMotha]

That's what beatmaniaIIDX uses in its shaker platform.  It's too cool.  No, really, it's freaking awesome.  I hadn't thought about using one in a driving cab, but it should be neat.  50W is plenty of power to massage two players standing on the stage of IIDX, so I'd think it should be more than enough for a driving cab.

It has a resonance around 40Hz or so, and it really hits big time at that point, but it's good down to about 20Hz or so before it drops out.  This is lower than most small subs (and even some larger ones), so it can complement even a system with a sub.  Just be aware that some cheap amps can't go that low without rolling off substantially.  You could potentially compensate with a pre-eq stage if necessary.

[bkenobi]

Cabinets that have these from the factory are designed to take the vibration.  If you install something like this in a Hard Drivin cab, I bet you would end up with a pile of Hard Wood splinters after time.  Cool idea, but make sure the cabinet is held together well enough to take the vibration.

[Beretta]

cook idea, ya i think it's doable i dont think you'ed have a problem with the cabinet falling apart unless you had it cranked up, you could always reinforce areas where you put it.

apparently it's especially effective if you mount it under the seat, infact i think a few "gaming" chairs do this.

[versapak]

These are a very common addition to driving cockpits, and I have never heard anything but great things about them.

Buttkicker seems to be the goto name for them.


You can probably find out a lot more about their use at some racing sim sites, as they are where you will find most people that invest in building a driving cab/cockpit.

I know I have seen a lot of mention of their use at http://www.gtplanet.net .

[syph007]

+1 on the buttkicker.

It's been used in at least one project on this site.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=57479.msg568514#msg568514

[ChadTower]

One guy took the shakers out of a bunch of Xbox controllers and put them in the seat of his cockpit driver.  LOTS of custom work but I bet it works really well. 

[jasonbar]

A friend of mine makes the subwoofers that go under a sofa leg--perhaps these would do the trick.

http://www.crowsontech.com/

-Jason

[bkenobi]

So you would set those under the leg levelers?  I guess you could make a clamping device and put it inside the cab too.   

[whines]

The full-sized home theatre Buttkickers can shake a couch with several people on it in disturbing ways, and will be more than powerful enough for any reasonable application. Note that they need 400 watts of amplification minimum (and can take up to 1500!). I'm confident that one could make a cockpit cabinet walk across the floor if properly amplified.

I haven't tried the smaller Aura Pro shakers, but I'm told they're far less powerful. Much cheaper, though, 50$ or so at Parts Express.

[Xiaou2]

 I mounted 2 of them under my pc chair.  At full power level,  the vibrations were
so strong that you couldnt see the monitor very well.  My eyes were vibrating, making
the picture all messed up   heh!

 Whats great... is that unlike a subwoofer, you do not need a lot of power and
high volume levels...   Yet you will feel like there is an earthquake going on.

 To get that same level of feeling, most people would have to have their subwoofers
at seriously high decibel levels.

 The base shakers output vibrations.  (Not air that causes vibrations)

[Turnarcades]

I don't really see the point too much of having a dedicated type of technology or speaker type to achieve this effect - anyone who has built in-car systems will tell you this effect can easily be created using a carefully-planned acoustic setup and high-quality speakers setup in the correct way. Setting a system up with an amp that allows high-pass tuning means you can direct higher-freqency sounds like mid-range and treble to satellite units, whilst directing the low-frequency bass sounds to a properly-applied bass enclosure. I'm working with a few designs to create my ideal driving cabinet using these ideas, which would basically mean a ported sub-enclosure under the seat or just behind it for lengthier, rumbling controlled bass, rather than an active sub or enclosed sub enclosure which would need high power and create punchy bass only at higher volume.

It's not to say these systems wouldn't be good, but I'm just saying the same effect can be created with many normal speaker systems if correctly setup, giving you a wider choice of speaker systems to work with.

[Xiaou2]

 Sorry Turner... but your Very mistaken.

 A typical bass or subwoofer does not produce nearly as much effect as a
real transducer.  Not even close.

 A way to compare:

   Terminator 2 - Gun Recoil    -vs-   Subwoofer Sound Effect  instead

 What do you think will give more feel?   Do you Really think a Sub will produce
the kinds of sensations the actual coil gives off?

 A Transducer is basically just that.  Its a monster vibration device.  It uses a
typical speaker setup... but with no air movement.   Instead, it moves a weight.
This produced massive vibrations that no subwoofer can easily replicate....
Unless maybe that subwoofer is cranked to "Neighbor Call the cops" Levels.
And even then... its more sound related and less pure vibration level.

[versapak]

Sorry Turner... but your Very mistaken.

 A typical bass or subwoofer does not produce nearly as much effect as a
real transducer.  Not even close.

 A way to compare:

   Terminator 2 - Gun Recoil    -vs-   Subwoofer Sound Effect  instead

 What do you think will give more feel?   Do you Really think a Sub will produce
the kinds of sensations the actual coil gives off?

 A Transducer is basically just that.  Its a monster vibration device.  It uses a
typical speaker setup... but with no air movement.   Instead, it moves a weight.
This produced massive vibrations that no subwoofer can easily replicate....
Unless maybe that subwoofer is cranked to "Neighbor Call the cops" Levels.
And even then... its more sound related and less pure vibration level.

Exactly.

[Turnarcades]

Sorry Turner... but your Very mistaken.

 A typical bass or subwoofer does not produce nearly as much effect as a
real transducer.  Not even close.

 A way to compare:

   Terminator 2 - Gun Recoil    -vs-   Subwoofer Sound Effect  instead

 What do you think will give more feel?   Do you Really think a Sub will produce
the kinds of sensations the actual coil gives off?

 A Transducer is basically just that.  Its a monster vibration device.  It uses a
typical speaker setup... but with no air movement.   Instead, it moves a weight.
This produced massive vibrations that no subwoofer can easily replicate....
Unless maybe that subwoofer is cranked to "Neighbor Call the cops" Levels.
And even then... its more sound related and less pure vibration level.

OK, I stand corrected as I'm not really familiar with this technology - I would have thought though that any such rumbling effect will depend largely on that native game's sound output and type anyway so is it really viable? For example, some games have constant bassy sound effects (ie. a 'ground rumble' on rally games), but many games do not put out many low-frequency sounds as they didn't originally have good subwoofers that would reproduce the sound effectively, so with those low frequencies missing, how well would this type of sound system work?

It could be great on games like GTI club which had nice bassy crunches and rumble effects (but which isn't emulated anyway) but on many classic driving games those types of effects are not present in the game's sound library. Would it be possible to set the response of the vibration device to a certain frequency that would cover more games?

[Xiaou2]

Transducers can vibrate at a good deal of frequency rangers.. unlike
subwoofers, which are pretty much locked to only low frequencies.

 That said.. you are going to feel the low frequency vibrations much
stronger than the higher ones.

 You will be surprised to see how many things come to life that
do not have a ton of apparent bass.    And even more surprised at
things you knew had bass... but didnt realize how much feeling you
would get from it.

 For example... Gyruss.   When you fire... the bullet travels deep into the
screen.  The further it goes... the deeper the sound.  So, the vibration
levels go from mild, to violent.  Its Awesome   : )