Tactile Transducers, Exciters & Bass Shakers

I've heard of them attached to drummers thrones or on a rider you stand on or under seats in a home theater. I've never heard of anyone using the buttkickers attached to something to make sound though.

Bolt it to a piece of plywood and go crazy. You'll probably hear or feel something. Look up the frequency response. I think it's for barely audio frequencies and rumble you feel more than hear. And to make really loud 20hz signals probably tales 1000 or multiple thousand watts. Low frequencies take. Ton of power to reproduce.

 

Hook up a bunch to barstools.

 

I used the bass shakers in my car. Mounted to the floor under the front seats they made the floor and seat vibrate a bit and drew the audible soundstage forward because I felt the bass from under me before I heard it from behind me. It kinda bridged the gap.

As far as the bass shakers themselves they just vibrated. When bolted to something they vibrate the surface they are attached to. They don't make anything louder unless they are vibrating your inner ear hairs, in which case you are doing it wrong. Imagine the energy of a speaker at full xmax with no audio. That is what a tactile transducer is.

If you just want to feel more bass forget the tactile transducers and buy or build a downfiring subwoofer with the plate amp. Downfiring will eminate more sound 360 degrees, produce more floor vibration, and not detract from your actual bass tone.

 

I liken them to blow-up dolls. Sure, the blow-up doll is fun and it works for what it is, but it's still not a real person.

Not speaking from experience, of course.

 

Reading the first 6 posts was like listening to someone talking to themselves... It was kinda funny!

 

OP I do believe that you have altogether too much time on your hands.

Many people have tried to adapt home theatre and car equipment to aid in live music production. Pretty much all have failed. They are simply the wrong tools for the job at hand.

 

Pretty sure he nailed it, but if it sounds like a fun project to you, go for it!

 

My understanding from what I've read in the Internet (so it must be true) is that these devices don't reproduce pitch, they just rattle your bones. They basically take all frequencies below a certain HZ and translate them into a single frequency that is below the range where we can perceive an actual note.

 

I've done many tours with in ear monitors. Drummers like them mounted under their thrones and it really does make you think there's a ton of low end and weight in the kick. Early on, I hated IEMs because there was no deep low end making the stage vibrate. For grins, a crew guy mounted a shaker under a flight case lid so I could stand on it and it totally worked....as long as I stayed on the flight case lid

 

Not sure if these are currently for sale in the US...but check it out.

Tecamp Pleasure Board http://www.tecamp.de/en/products/specials/62-pleasure-board.html#overview

Pleasure Pump http://www.tecamp.de/en/products/amlification/40-pleasurepump-500.html#overview

 

The transducers are generally low passed and vibrate at whatever frequency is fed to them rather than translating everything to a single frequency.

 

Surplus vibrators out of game controllers. As Bob-I mentions it doesn't really need to do pitch. Trigger a shaker and your brain fills in the rest. There's a couple of levels of nerves that are sensitive to vibration, some small vibrations, others large. You don't feel pitch unless the vibration gets to bone conduction in the ear, even then 20hz would be the lower limit for young healthy ears where you could easily feel 20hz or lower.

 

I would have to take a double blind test to believe a video game shaker would create the same sensation as a true tactile transducer that is capable of tracking both frequency and dynamics. To my understanding video game programmers put quite a bit of effort into trying to trick these crude devices into creating a believable effect. IMHO, they frequently fall short of the goal.

 

They are only perceptible to a person who is touching them.
They are a supplement to in ear monitors. Not a substitute for subs.