I agree that there is a solidity and presence with systems that go down to 20Hz (or lower) that is just absent with systems rolling off higher up. I built myself a sealed 160L sub with a Dayton RSS390HF-4 driver many years ago, drive it with a decent class-d power amp and rely on Audyssey processing to align it. A couple of years after I built the sub I bought a couple of Aura bass shakers and fixed these to my couch - these are driven by a separate amp channel fed by my receiver sub output. I dial in the bass shaker level so it's hardly noticeable except on really intense transients, or earthquake type moments (the start of Prometheus is brilliant). Used this way, the bass shakers simply add to the palpability of the sound and increase the atmosphere.
I agree. There is no real setup standard for leveling the shakers to your sub(s) and in my experience people get greedy on the levels of the transducers which ends up distracting you from the rest of the system.
I am also curious as to whether the shakers introduce phase problems in the LFE. Most everyone I know just Y-jacks the LFE. One goes to sub, the other to the shaker's amp. Well at that point you can't delay the signal to the shakers to match when the sound wave from your sub (which is farther away) reaches you which I would guess might take something away from the sub, smear it's sound or something like that.
The duration of a single 20 Hz wave is 50ms. If you are within 12.5 ms distance, the sub response is within 1/4 wavelength. It really doesn't matter though, as the tactile shaker is not making sound, so it can't "smear it's (the sub's) sound or something like that", since it's phase is not audible.
Sound travels faster through the earth/cement/wood than through the air, so you would actually feel T-Rex footsteps before you would hear them, a tactile shaker leading the audio output is actually correct for many LF sound effects.
I don't know about that. Depends on where T-Rex was in relation to you and the surface he would have been walking on.
To me, I see it similar to having two subs. Placement is everything so that phase problems are minimized. Ideally, your shaker would synch with the sub when starting a wave. This is what I mean by phase. Timing maybe I should say instead. Having the two sources line up would add to the effect and be more accurate in reproducing how it was mixed.
I don't know of any wide release movies mixed using tactile transducers, so any use of them will not be accurate in reproducing how it was mixed.
There are some rides that use tactile transducers and subs, it really does not seem to matter much whether the shaking exactly corresponds to the sound waves in the air.
But whatever way you want to shake your booty is your choice
Quite surprising that this down to earth, very practical post has received no comment. That says a lot.
Surprising? That's kind of like someone who had a job in film production coming in and telling us that movies aren't real life.
Not really much to say.
I listen to a lot of TV using headphones in deference to the rest of the household. It is surprising just how many on- and off-set noises are present in many programmes and movies. Granted, it's more common in series rather than movies. (I was watching a UK crime drama a couple of years back, a scene shot in a kitchen, and during the climactic "dramatic pause" the refrigerator started up...)
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