ButtKicker Gamer Mounted in my Race Frame

After reading a bunch about "bass shakers" I decided to check out one of the most straight forward and inexpensive ones. Inexpensive because I bought the ButtKicker Gamer with a $50.00 refund, straight forward because it comes with everything you need (amplifier included).

Installation

Since most race frames (mine included) don't have vertical posts like a chair does, I had to be creative about my mounting. I use a real car seat in my frame and I couldn't mount the BKG directly to the car seat. The seat does attach to 2 pieces of wood that then attach to the main frame. I securely bolted the BKG to the front piece of wood using 3 good size bolts, washers and lock washers. I'll keep an eye on it to see if all that shaking loosens up the bolts, but I don't think it will as the mount is very sturdy.


Securely mounted to cross member.

The cross member in place. I used rubber pieces to keep the shaking in the seat and not to be wasted shaking the frame. Not sure how well that works, but I wanted to raise the seat anyway.

The seat back in place on the frame.

The race frame out from underneath the desk.

Everything in place ready to try it out.

Trying it Out

I was surprised at how much shaking the BKG produces, being a very small shaker and only being powered by 100 watts. At first I used it set for the most dramatic effect and made sure that the clip light didn't come on. This was very entertaining, but not very realistic for driving. The reason being that the differences between shaking a lot and shaking a little were way too big as the RPM changed.

The unit really depends on the sound you feed it and how you set up the front panel controls. After the "gee whiz" factor wore off (and after reminding myself that I wasn't trying to make a motion platform :), I found that the best settings where those that gave a more subtle but consistent effect throughout all RPM ranges.

Example: one car in rFactor started and felt great, but as soon as I drove away the effect started to diminish way too much. What was happening was that the low frequencies in the engine start sound were much more present than in the regular RPM at idle. Also, the faster the RPM, the less low frequencies there were. This was particular to this car's sound but by adjusting the front panel controls I was able to even out the response. Evening out the response consisted of reducing the overall strength of the effect by adjust the volume and the filters. At first reducing the effect may sound like a bad idea, but in the end it really made the overall effect feel more realistic and balanced and therefore more worthwhile.

The BKG stands out with loud gurgling, popping engines that you imagine are jumping around trying to break off of their engine mounts (like big V8s) and less well with smooth engines (such as in an F1 car). You can get the effect from a smooth engine, it's just more subtle and even.

Notes on some sounds in rFactor

The legends Vette mod was my favorite with the BKG. At all engine RPMs there is enough bass (and more importantly, an even amount of bass) to make the setup of the BKG front panel controls easy. Same goes for the Porsche mod.

The trainers don't have much low freq sounds so the effect was minimal. One nice effect was when you let off the accelerator you could feel the pops out of the exhaust as they have a fair amount of low frequencies in them.

Force feedback, BKG and rFactor curbs!

The most amazing effect is running over the curbs in rFactor. You get completely engulfed in the feel of the curbs because it is coming through the FF of the steering wheel and through the BKG. Amazing!

Complaints

Many have complained about the fan in the amplifier being too noisy. I really can't comment on that as my computer is so loud that I can't hear the fan in the amp. If you have nice quiet computer (I sure hope to have on someday), maybe the fan in the amp will bother you.

Summary

The BKG is very dependent on the sound you feed it and how you set up the front panel controls. Rough engines (such as racing V8s) come across better than smooth engines (such as F1 engines). It is not a set and forget piece of equipment. You will be adjusting it for different cars and different sims (and that's ok.)

Although sometimes the effects aren't real (for example, since a bump in the road makes no sound, you won't feel it,) I believe that this is yet another decent addition for immersing yourself in a driving/racing sim. There are other things I'd buy first to increase the immersion factor of sim racing (such as a Track IR or a Fresnel lens,) but at a discount the BKG is a nice addition and I am glad I picked it up.

Side Note

Could sim writers improve the BKG performance without the BKG changing? One thought I had was that sim writers could add sounds for bumps at the sub audible level so you wouldn't hear them, but the BKG would respond to them This could possibly be done for other effects also such as flat spotting a tire (for sims that model that), a flat tire or suspension damage. Sounds plausible to me, but who knows?

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