SimVibe Community Q&A

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Welcome to our new question & answer style forum. We hope this new format will help you to rapidly find answers to common usage and configuration questions. 

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Hardware for Simvibe

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Kermit Gentry

I am looking to activate the 4 mini butkickers on the stage 4 simxperience motion rig

It already has them at the 4 corners.

Can anyone recommend what I need? 

an amp? (channels, watts )

Pcie sound card (Internal) 5.1 or 7.1?

what else might I need to get this part of the rig going?

Thanks

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Kermit Gentry
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Thanks,

Will try these out.

Motion is awesome with the simvibe it will be outstanding. 

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Mbulu Nug
Best Answer

Will SimVibe work with external USB sound cards?

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Bernard Villers Jr
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SimVibe is meant to work with a PCIE sound card that you install on the motherboard inside your PC. That said, a USB sound card can work, but there are some limitations.

-We gain performance by utilizing the hardware buffers on a PCIE sound card directly.

-Since SimVibe wasn't designed for USB sound cards, it doesn't detect if you plug or unplug a USB sound card it is running. You will need to make sure the USB sound card is plugged in before starting our software and that it stays plugged in while the software is running.

-You will be limited as to how many distinct channels you actually have. Most USB sound cards simply lie about their capabilities. Very few actually have 5.1 sound and would be capable of SimVibe chassis mode or 4 independent channels in SimVibe extensions mode. Assume that you can get two distinct channels from a USB sound card.

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Bernard Villers Jr
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You would need a 4 channel amp with 100watts or more per channel to drive four ButtKicker Mini LFE's. We use this on the Stage 5 and it has been flawless for years: BasX A4 Four-Channel Power Amplifier – Emotiva Audio Corporation


You'll also need reasonably heavy gauge speaker wire and a second PCIE sound card in your PC that's specifically for SimVibe. For example: Amazon.com: Creative Sound Blaster Audigy FX PCIe 5.1 Sound Card with High Performance Headphone Amp : Electronics

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