Buttkicker MINI LFE + Simvibe

Hello all ;)

About 3 months ago i have started experimenting with tactile feedback in sim racing games.

During those months, i have searched the internet for some information regarding the Buttkicker Mini LFE tuning and mounting but i could not find any help.
I have realised that most people with Buttkickers are in the iRacing forums and i dont feel like renewing my subscription just for viewing the forums.

So i have decided to make a thread about buttkickers in order to share, with my bad english, my experience in installing and tuning them and also my early knowledge that i have acquired during these days. I will be painting text red in the parts that i have some conclusion.

I can post some pictures of my rig if people are interested in this thread.

So, my setup:
My rig is wooden, its the ricmotech RS-1 , with the add-on for the 3 screens. I have bolted a seat from a Honda CRV on it.
I now have 2 Buttkicker mini lfe's in SEAT and PEDALS mode.

Since it is wooden, it is really heavy, and from what i have gathered, the vibrations go through the wood much better.
Since the vibrations go through different parts of the rig, for best results you must use rubber isolators in order to avoid lost power. I will get back to that.

Amp :
I am using a 2 x 200 W RMS audio amplifier @ 4Ω.
It is a car amplifier, therefore i am using a 20A 220V to 12V converter in order to power it.
This amp has proven more than adequate and after some quick testing, i decided to have its power output at around 40% so the buttkickers wont bottom out .
This is mostly because, simvibe's output is much stronger and sharper than just an audio output, therefore the signal is much stronger. I believe that if i just used sound output from my primary sound card i would need to have the amp at about 70% and not bottoming out the buttkickers.

Mounting:
Well, i am not 100% sure about the positioning of the Buttkicker in my pedals, but i am pretty damn sure that the SEAT buttkicker should go under the SEAT, and i mean ON THE SEAT CHASSIS. I have mounted it really nicely under the seat in the middle of my a$$ and the effect is great. After some testing, i had plenty of vibrations going through the rest of the RIG , so i have used 4x isolators on my seat and it works like a dream ! No escaping vibrations now !
The 2nd buttkicker is screwed tightly on the rig chassis, right behind my pedals. But my rig is so stiff, the vibrations are kinda getting lost so i think ill have to think something better later on.

Software:
As i said, i am using Simvibe. I think this is the best way to do it for simracing games.
My favorite sim right now is Assetto Corsa, but simvibe support is pretty bad right now.
So, i also play Rfactor2 and GSC2013.
GSC2013 has the best support for simvibe at the moment, it is just great.
The aim of buttkickers and simvibe, is not to replace the feeling of motion rigs.
I believe, after some testing, we should use Buttkickers only to enhance the feel and the immersion of being in a car and racing around.

Simvibe has some default setups for these games, but i found them really bad. This is also where i need people's input.
I will post my setups for GSC2013, where all my testing and fine tuning has gone and i would love to know people's opinions.
I have also found out that if you use many different effects in the simvibe software, the buttkickers will obviously get choked, just like the FFB clipping on a wheel.

The effects i am trying to simulate are:
Engine rumble
Gear change kick
Rumble strip feeling
Track bumps

I think these effects will help with immersion and the feeling of speed a lot, and they do in GSC2013.

Here are 2 screenshots of my effects page for GSC2013. Seat and pedals. Since simvibe supports exporting the settings to a file, i can share it with anyone that wants to give it a try. But i am pretty sure that the fine tuning should be done differently for different setups / amps / rigs / buttkicker models.
seat.png pedals.png
I am really happy with these, sadly i cant get the same effect when using same effects in Rfactor 2.
It would be nice if there was a knowledge base telling us which effect does what in each game.

Thanks for reading my post and here is hoping we can all gain something out of this thread.
 
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Ok, I brought SimVibe today for my ButtKicker gamer 2. It states that I need a 5.1 sound card for this to work. My question is what sound card should I buy or will any brand of 5.1 sound card do. Also would a PCIe sound card be better one to get. Thanks i'm not that bright when it comes to computers.
 
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I'm actually running Simvibe off the integrated sound on the motherboard (Realtek). If you have the same, or similar, you could use that too. The choice of soundcard for the audio would then be down to you. Which motherboard do you have?
 
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Simvibe needs a dedicated sound card, can be from your motherboard or an extra external one. A bit modern motherboard comes with 5.1
i'm running simvibe from the motherboard and use the secondary soundcard for the audio (as that one sound much better).
Actually a stereo soundcard would be enough run simvibe on 2 channels.
As in front/back setup..
 
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That looks to have onboard sound:

"Intel® High Definition Audio subsystem in the following configuration: * 10-channel (7.1+ 2 independent multi-streaming) audio subsystem with six analog audio outputs w/optical S/PDIF out port"

It will be sufficient to drive Simvibe. In terms of soundcard recommendations for Audio, I'm a little out of touch with what's current. I have an ASUS Xonar D2x fwiw.

To get it set up correctly, I would recommend watching the Setup Tutorial from InsideSimRacing:

 
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This is the sound card I got: PCI Sound Blaster 5.1vx.
Do I need to do anything in windows (win7 64) to get both sound card & onboard sound working together or does SimVibe reconise (see) the PCI card when plugged into it with my speakers plugged into the onboard sound.
 
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Drivers will obviously need to be installed for both the onboard sound and additional card. Either can be used for Simvibe. The soundcard to use for Simvibe is designated/configured within the Simvibe software. See 4:30 in the video for clarification. You are likely to want to run 'extensions' mode for one channel.
 
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Well I have tried everything with this sound card but I can not get my computer to reconise it. It's a sound blaster 5.1 vx. I have been into bios and all I can do there is disable onboard sound, and if I do that I have no sound at all coming either sound source so what it a person suppose to do now, can't get SimVibe to run only on onboard sound. Anyone know what other steps I can do to it running.
 
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I'm assuming you have installed the drivers / software to go with the Soundblaster card and motherboard.

In the start menu, right-click on My Computer. Choose Properties. Choose the Hardware Tab. Click the Device Manager button. Look under/expand "Sound, video and game controllers". Do you see both onboard and Soundblaster controllers in the list?
 
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Yes I did all that, checked in device manager and there was both the sound car plus onboard Realtek sound but my computer would not recognise it. Can I install two PCI/PCI-e sound cards and disable onboard sound. If so I might get the asus xonar dg cards. Or is there other things I can do?
 
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You can add another card but it would be sensible to establish the issue with the existing setup. If both sound devices are listed, it should work. Can you elaborate on what you mean when you say 'my computer doesn't recognise it'?

Have you tested that sound is output from both devices through speakers? You'll need to change the default sound device for each test for that to work (right click on the speaker icon on the task bar, select playback devices and choose the appropriate output).
 
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Have you tested that sound is output from both devices through speakers? You'll need to change the default sound device for each test for that to work (right click on the speaker icon on the task bar, select playback devices and choose the appropriate output).

I have done all the above. As for computer not recognising it, there is no sound coming from this card and SimVibe sees the card but nothing is working. So the card is installed. Will download the drivers from sound blaster to see if that makes any difference.
 
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So I downloaded the drivers for this sound card but still nothing, can see it in device manager, so it is installed right. Maybe it's a faulty card only cost $30. I will buy another one ( Asus xonar dgx) and see if it will install. Should I disable onboard sound before I install this new card?
 
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Well I ended up getting a new sound card ( Asus Xonar dgx PCI-e) which I installed without any problems. Go SimVibe working with Race07. I can not seem to get Game Stock Car Extreme working, Everything is recognised but it just won't work, tried setting up gear shift, engine vibration and bumps but just nothing. Setting up one at a time not together. Have got SimVibe setup in extensions mode as I only have one ButtKicker. Can anyone help in some way with this.
 
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I checked for the plug-in .dll in GSC and it's there but still no joy at getting it to work with SimVibe. Race07 works great but I seem to be having problems with GSC, Grid Autosport and AC. Any help would be helpfull.
 
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