anyone play with a buttkicker?
- Thread starter Aekero
- Start date
I built mine myself, but it's difficult to quantify how much it adds... it's yet another sense that increase immersion, but probably dollar on dollar it's really the last step after (in order): a Hotas, a VR headset, rudder pedals.
Using the BK gamer, wouldn't fly without it. Perfect companion for VR, it's also built like a tank, have had mine for years. If it broke I think i'd stop using ED until a replacement arrived.
Even something as simple as landing on a Pad, it's not the same as a subwoofer, you can literally feel hundreds of tonnes of ship coming to a rest.
http://www.thebuttkicker.com/gamer2
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Agreed, I couldn't play without one.
That would depend upon the chair itself, and how high you want to dial it up.
And anti slip, rubber mats on the floor would also work as an isolator.
And anti slip, rubber mats on the floor would also work as an isolator.
They can be noisy depending on the signal you feed it - my amplifier has a low pass filter, but some sound always end up being heard through the shaker. It doesn't help that Elite doesn't seem to have proper subwoofer output, and I ended up sending all channels to the same shaker and then just filtering on frequency.
As for vibration, I have carpet on the floor so no problem.
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My whole rig is placed on two layers of rubber mats, not entirely sure if it is necessary, the villas out here are built solid, the flooring is thick. Am slightly worried about the houses I've seen here in London, the floorboards seem really thin, I reckon it might cause vibrations for anyone below. I doubt I'd be cranking things up if I moved back here.
The transducer still works nicely at low settings.
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I use an XRocker pedestal gaming chair. I absolutely love it, but can't use it when the wife and kids are a sleep or sometimes even when their home.
I have to crank it up for the base boost and motors to kick in the way I like.
I've never heard of these buttkickers until now. I'll have to look into these as well.
I have to crank it up for the base boost and motors to kick in the way I like.
I've never heard of these buttkickers until now. I'll have to look into these as well.
I played with a Buttkicker LFE kit and I will say that I will never play without that as part of my setup. It adds a level of immersion that is hard to understand until you experience it. When you come in the mail slot and lower the landing gear, you will feel the gear lock into place, you will feel the ships engines winding down after you set on the pad. I don't have VR (xbox), but when I do, there will be no other experience out there that could beat it. They could be a bit noisy if you don't have the chair isolated and it starts to bottom out. The isolation feet are a little pricey, but worth it.
Yes, I sent an email to the company just this morning, they are still looking at getting a restock in mid spring. I would go to buttkickergear.com and sign up to be notified when they are back in stock. Be ready to hit buy, because they usually sell out quickly and take a LONG TIME to come back in stock.
I got a backpack style subpac for vr games. I was putting it on in the chair but it was a bit uncomfortable so I decided to get a AuraSound AST-2B-4 Pro Bass Shaker and Dayton SA70 amp from parts express to power it. I filed and drilled out some spots on a thin square piece of wood so I could put it flush against the bottom of the metal part of my chair and epoxied it there, then I mounted the aurasound to that so that way it has a solid fit to the chair and I can always take it off fairly easily when the chair wears out). It provides plenty of shake although the amp sucks balls, the cutoff does almost nothing and some treble sounds come through (luckily I mostly play with headphones or up so loud I don't notice it).
If I had to do it again I would have not bought the subpac... I would have bought a different amp that could power two of them (probably not a dayton given my experience with that one), I would have still bought the aurasound shaker it's a cheap diy sort of kicker but it's definitely plenty good for gaming, but I would have bought two and I would have put one on the bottom of the chair and one in the mid back.
Anyway in terms of what they add... they are really cool. They aren't the end all of gaming but they do make the sound seem a lot more cool. You wouldn't believe the sensation of bass they give, then you stand up and just hear a mild vibration, you sit down and it's like there's a sub in the room. I will admit the aurasounds dont simulate the full range of bass like the subpac I have does...that thing is practically musical, but all I care about in game is the womp of the FSD and cannons and things like that. Basically if you have a little extra money and time they are a fun project and very enjoyable. I wouldn't put them up there with getting a hotas/thruster or a solid computer rig with a really good monitor though.
In addition to what I described, I also bought a few banana plugs (male and female), speaker wire, and connectors I needed from monoprice. The reason I got the banana plugs is because I glued the females to the bottom of my chair so that I can just plug and unplug the speaker wire when I want to move my chair away. I have VR and cats so I don't necessarily want to just leave my chair in the way with wires hangin' off it all the time, and the bass shaker has those standard sort of speaker clamp things so they weren't as convenient to plug in as banana plugs are.
I have a pro audio soundcard so it was not hard for me to use extra outputs on my soundcard for the amp going to the shaker, however there are ways of rigging output if you have onboard sound card... like apps that let you use the surround outputs on your motherboard sound and stuff or using an extra cheap usb soundcard and a program that lets you mirror audio over two outputs.. I don't really know the particulars since I didn't have to mess with any of that but I'm sure you can figure out how people without pro audio cards are sending audio to their speakers/headphones and the amp that goes to the shaker without too much effort.... but that's something to consider and figure out before you dive in so throwing that out there as well.
The subpac I have does wireless but it seems really delayed so it was kind of useless. It also has an amp built in. They also make a chairback model which is probably a lot better than the backpack one I have for sitting in a chair. Also they are like 5x the cost of getting the aurasounds i mentioned above so not really worth it IMO... They are a real good product, but I feel not worth it. Perhaps if you are an electronic musician who lives in a small apartment or somewhere where you can't have a subwoofer, the subpac would be a pretty good compromise for that situation I think.
Anyway that was a bit of a ramble but figuring out all that was a process for me so I wanted to kind of relay it so you could maybe consider some other options without spending years on the internet googling and forum crawling
If I had to do it again I would have not bought the subpac... I would have bought a different amp that could power two of them (probably not a dayton given my experience with that one), I would have still bought the aurasound shaker it's a cheap diy sort of kicker but it's definitely plenty good for gaming, but I would have bought two and I would have put one on the bottom of the chair and one in the mid back.
Anyway in terms of what they add... they are really cool. They aren't the end all of gaming but they do make the sound seem a lot more cool. You wouldn't believe the sensation of bass they give, then you stand up and just hear a mild vibration, you sit down and it's like there's a sub in the room. I will admit the aurasounds dont simulate the full range of bass like the subpac I have does...that thing is practically musical, but all I care about in game is the womp of the FSD and cannons and things like that. Basically if you have a little extra money and time they are a fun project and very enjoyable. I wouldn't put them up there with getting a hotas/thruster or a solid computer rig with a really good monitor though.
In addition to what I described, I also bought a few banana plugs (male and female), speaker wire, and connectors I needed from monoprice. The reason I got the banana plugs is because I glued the females to the bottom of my chair so that I can just plug and unplug the speaker wire when I want to move my chair away. I have VR and cats so I don't necessarily want to just leave my chair in the way with wires hangin' off it all the time, and the bass shaker has those standard sort of speaker clamp things so they weren't as convenient to plug in as banana plugs are.
I have a pro audio soundcard so it was not hard for me to use extra outputs on my soundcard for the amp going to the shaker, however there are ways of rigging output if you have onboard sound card... like apps that let you use the surround outputs on your motherboard sound and stuff or using an extra cheap usb soundcard and a program that lets you mirror audio over two outputs.. I don't really know the particulars since I didn't have to mess with any of that but I'm sure you can figure out how people without pro audio cards are sending audio to their speakers/headphones and the amp that goes to the shaker without too much effort.... but that's something to consider and figure out before you dive in so throwing that out there as well.
The subpac I have does wireless but it seems really delayed so it was kind of useless. It also has an amp built in. They also make a chairback model which is probably a lot better than the backpack one I have for sitting in a chair. Also they are like 5x the cost of getting the aurasounds i mentioned above so not really worth it IMO... They are a real good product, but I feel not worth it. Perhaps if you are an electronic musician who lives in a small apartment or somewhere where you can't have a subwoofer, the subpac would be a pretty good compromise for that situation I think.
Anyway that was a bit of a ramble but figuring out all that was a process for me so I wanted to kind of relay it so you could maybe consider some other options without spending years on the internet googling and forum crawling
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thanks for the info, I feel like I remember checking them out a year ago and same deal, I actually read rumors that they were out of business seeing as noone ever has stock.... strange that they have such long stock/restock times, do they not like money?
Yeah, its the one negative about them. The cutomer service, support, and product are top of the line. Inventory and restocking of them are not good at all.
Yeah, I used a buttkicker simulation kit in my chair - full build diary here:
https://goo.gl/photos/ENbocpJBCVXGW9bd7
Shakers work best when you can mount them rigidly to the seat and isolate everything else. The smaller the bit that needs shaking, the better experience your shaking hardware will give you. My second attempt is noticably better than my first (see pics of both in the link above). Despite being MUCH heavier, the mk2 chair had much better isolation.
https://goo.gl/photos/ENbocpJBCVXGW9bd7
Shakers work best when you can mount them rigidly to the seat and isolate everything else. The smaller the bit that needs shaking, the better experience your shaking hardware will give you. My second attempt is noticably better than my first (see pics of both in the link above). Despite being MUCH heavier, the mk2 chair had much better isolation.
I bought a Buttkicker gamer unit successfully from this supplier on ebay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/ButtKicker-...049727?hash=item281e0fe3ff:g:am4AAOSwax5YuJBM as they are not easily available here in NZ. The price and shipping wasn't too bad, so you might consider this option.
-julian