Bass Shaker/Transducer ?

Worminator

W
I am interested in these and I know some of you must own these.

Question.

I want to be able to hear game sounds and music through my rift headset at the same time while the bass shaker is only reacting to in game sounds.
Is this possible?
 

Chromezero

Chromezero
With the Vive, there is an option to "mirror" headset audio to another source, like external speakers or in your case, the Bass Shaker. I'm assuming the Rift has something similar.
 

CylonSurfer

CylonSurfer
I use dedicated headphones connected via a 3.5mm jack to the stereo output on my soundcard with the Buttkicker connected via a 3,5mm jack to the soundcards Sub Woofer output. I then set my audio to 5.1 and unselect the rear and center channels in my soundcard control panel to ensure eveything but the sub is directed to my headphones.

You could then mirror that to the Rift Audio if you like but I find that the Oculus Audio Mirroring only mirrors audio from titles launched directly from Oculus home. Hence no third party apps, such as voice attack can be heard through your Rifts headphones - which is why mine are disconnected.

A little off topic, but I then have a self written app which is able to adjust the sub woofer volume to reduce or raise the sub channels volume for certain in game actions. For example, I find the Supercruise \ Hypercruise charge sequence is very noisey and vibrates my Buttkicker too much, so with my app when the SC / HC charge sequence is happening my app lowers the sub volume to compensate and then raised it just when your ship jumps so you feel the "BOOM" of leaving normal space. This allows me to run my Buttkicker at a higher volume for standard ship operation in order to feel the more subtle sound FX through my chair without shaking my home apart during the louder parts of the game. The app even has different profiles for different ships, so you can feel them engines no matter what you are flying.

On another unrelated note - does anyone have a PCI-E sound card (or know of one) which as default has seperate audio channels (Front, Rear, Center, Sub) controlable from the Windows 'Speaker Properties' > 'Levels' tab? My onboard Realtek does, my PCI-E Asus card doesn't...
 
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VR andysonofbob

VR andysonofbob
CylonSurfer said:
Incorrect - the Rift has an Audio Mirroring option. It just isn't very good as it will only mirror audio from content launched from Home.
Click to expand...

Is that a feature request that could be asked to Oculus? Sounds like it is something they might be interested in? Immersion and all that...
 

TorTorden_VR

T
andysonofbob said:
Is that a feature request that could be asked to Oculus? Sounds like it is something they might be interested in? Immersion and all that...
Click to expand...

Well, they snuck that in then.
But again useless for me, since I don't use the hmd's native radio output but my g533 wireless cans instead.

So for people like me who, does we still would need voicemeter banana to do it.
 
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Turranius

Turranius
Just got a mail that the Buttkicker Gamer 2 are in stock again. Grab one fast.

This was the unit I wanted to buy when I was looking for one. Ended up putting it together from different parts instead but this is the easiest way, as far as I know.

http://shakercentre.co.uk/aspbite/products/products.asp?intProductsID=3


Personally, I use the windows "Stereo Mix" device to double the audio so its always in my headphones (And buttkicker) and the rift at the same time.
Set Playback device to your audio out (Realtek High Defenition Audio?).
Go to Recording tab. Right click the background and select "Show disabled devices".
Right click "Stereo Mix" and uncheck "Disabled".
Click "Set default" on Stereo Mix.
Click Properties on Stereo Mix. In the Listen tab, click "Listen to this device" and select "Headphones (Rift Audio)".

In the Oculus Home desktop app, go to settings, Devices and click the Rift headset. Select Audio Output in VR: Windows default.

Tada. Of course, this messes up programs that uses the default recording device as a microphone. In these programs (Teamspeak etc), you now have to select the microphone device to listen to instead of "windows default".

Now you can just take off your rift and put on the headphones for youtube etc without having to change default output device.
 
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Tri Velo

T
As mentioned above, the Buttkicker Gamer 2 is in-stock again on their site. It is also on sale ($149 vs $169) and also free UPS Ground shipping (in U.S. at least) with the SUMMER code. I just ordered one last night since the sale ends July 4th and they were always out of stock. Didn't want to miss the sale, free shipping and going out of stock again. It should arrive on July 3rd for me. I currently use the "Stereo Mix" trick above to get my USB headset to play with my line-out sub-woofer currently. That way I have some "real" bass with the headphones. I'll swap the sub with the BK once I get it. Should be fun immersion in VR.
 

Derek Speare [VR]

Derek Speare [VR]
I split the signal and send one feed to my (non Rift) headphones (prefer my muffs) and send the other to my shaker amp. Works well for low end rumbles.
 

Cliché

Cliché
CylonSurfer said:
I use dedicated headphones connected via a 3.5mm jack to the stereo output on my soundcard with the Buttkicker connected via a 3,5mm jack to the soundcards Sub Woofer output. I then set my audio to 5.1 and unselect the rear and center channels in my soundcard control panel to ensure eveything but the sub is directed to my headphones.
Click to expand...
I just got a Buttkicker delivered last night, and I had read about the problem with USB headphones, so I got my nice old Sennheisers out of the drawer. I first tried following the instructions to use the Y-splitter, but my headphones were only playing on one side, so I abandoned that immediately. So then I plugged the headphones directly into the green jack and the Buttkicker directly into the orange jack. In the Realtek HD Audio manager, I did as you and set it to 5.1 and deselected the rear and center channels. When I'd test the speakers, the headphones worked, but I got nothing out of the Buttkicker. The same in game and listening to music. I've tried rebooting several times, and as Windows kept switching to digital audio playback, I disabled that, as well as the Rift's speakers. Still nothing out of the Buttkicker. In the Win10 speaker config I have mains set to 70% and sub set to 100% (both enabled).

So I thought I'd give the Y-splitter another go just to see if I could get the Buttkicker working. This time I discovered that my headphones cable was failing, and if I wiggled it I could get stereo again. The Buttkicker was working, but I only used it about 5 minutes before I went back to trying to get the subwoofer channel to work. After about another hour I still couldn't get the Buttkicker working.

Any thoughts on what I'm doing wrong and suggestions? Thanks.
 

[VR] Frank_G

[VR] Frank_G
There is a nice free software called Voicemeeter Banana (stupid i know), which handles this excellently. You can select up to three hardware and two virtual audio sources and send them to up to three hardware outputs. You can mix and tweak each channel as desired with a complex equalizer and channel mixer.

I use three transducers (2x50 watts, 1x100 watts), that are wired to an amp which is connected with a 5.1 sound card. I send the computers main audio signal to the standard Rift headphones and a tweaked one (increased bass, more volume and frequencies capped at 80 hz and above) to the sound card.
This way you have full audio on the headphones and only deep bass signals on the transducers.

Voicemeeter also works with USB sources, so you can use any headset you like.
The only downside is, that you have to fire up the program, each time you want to use the teansducers.

I hope this helps :)
 

Cliché

Cliché
I've read (not it detail) that these programs can cause latency, and it doesn't take much to become noticeable.

Btw, do you know if this would work with a USB headset with a built in Dolby 7.1 surround card - and the bass shaker on the analog sub channel? I don't necessarily want to disable the sound card. Also, I can apparently disconnect the sound card and have two 3.5mm jacks for phones and mic, which may be another option. I think Windows has virtual surround these days.

But I'm also wondering if my analog sub channel is defective. I guess I can try hooking up a speaker when I get home.
 

FuzzyWuzzy

F
Cliché said:
I've read (not it detail) that these programs can cause latency, and it doesn't take much to become noticeable.

Btw, do you know if this would work with a USB headset with a built in Dolby 7.1 surround card - and the bass shaker on the analog sub channel? I don't necessarily want to disable the sound card. Also, I can apparently disconnect the sound card and have two 3.5mm jacks for phones and mic, which may be another option. I think Windows has virtual surround these days.

But I'm also wondering if my analog sub channel is defective. I guess I can try hooking up a speaker when I get home.
Click to expand...

I am wondering also how to implement with wireless headphones...
 

Cliché

Cliché
I get home and plug in speakers to the sub output and they work, but the Buttkicker doesn't. After hours of messing with settings, I finally get the Realtek Audio Manager to play a test sound through the headphones and Buttkicker, with center channel enabled, subwoofer disabled, rear speakers enabled (even though they aren't tested), and the center and sub channels swapped! Of course, still nothing in Windows.

So I surrender and decide to just use the splitter with my gaming headset. After all, the amp has the filters. Everything works great. So then I try to set up mic levels again for voice recognition and training, and Windows won't set it up. It's working perfectly with Voice Attack and I can listen to it w/o any problems, but Windows doesn't want to work with it.

Then I read about Oculus Home supporting audio mirroring. Yea! So I put the Oculus phones back on and get that set up and working, but then it doesn't work with ED. [knocked out]

I guess I'll give Voicemeeter Banana a try, but I'm too tired to try it tonight.


[zZzZz]
 
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Cliché

Cliché
Lol, it only took 5 min to d/l and install Voicemeeter (not Banana). ED, the Rift Phones, and Buttkicker were all working - great. Then I quit ED and return to Oculus Home - silence. After restarting Home and VM, I have environment sounds in Home. But when I start a Home game, like the aircar simulator - again silence.

So do I need to set the Rift to default audio and use VM to run ED, and then set the Rift to Both w/o VM to play Home games? [wacko]

Or is there maybe something in the more advanced Banana version that solves this problem?
 

[VR] Frank_G

[VR] Frank_G
I am using the Banana version, but i have the same problem. I havent looked into this issue though, as everything outside Oculus home, including the games launched from OH, are working fine. I will have time to attend to the issue this weekend finally. (I have the transducer setup for two weeks now, so working with Voicemeeter is new to me too.)

I guess, it has something to do with the main audio device set to Voicemeeter in the Win preferences. I will try some different settings this weekend and report back, if i find something.
 
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