LFE ⮕ FFB

Screenshot

Overview

This app has the capability to redirect iRacing’s LFE (Low Frequency Effects), which is normally used with a bass shaker (such as the ButtKicker), to your force feedback wheel.

This is done by converting the audio signal intended for your LFE device, into a FFB signal instead. As expected, there is some loss in detail as a bass shaker is normally able to play back a 300 Hz tone, which is much higher than the frequencies we normally send via FFB to your wheel (typically 180 Hz or less).

Also, there is a teensy bit of latency – somewhere between 1/60 and 1/30 of a second. This latency is due to the process to record the LFE signal into an audio buffer and playing it back.

You will need to install a free device driver called VB-CABLE for this feature to work.

Generally, the process is –

  1. Download and install VB-CABLE
  2. Configure VB-CABLE
  3. Configure iRacing
  4. Configure MAIRA

Tips and Tricks

Here are some tips and tricks using the LFE ⮕ FFB feature –

  1. You can use SimHub to create custom effects to vibrate your wheel using this feature.
  2. You can use this feature to increase the wheel slip feeling by turning up the wheel slip slider.
  3. You can select a microphone or webcam and make the wheel vibrate with your own voice.

VB-CABLE

VB-CABLE is a free driver that you can install onto your computer, and what it does is it allows us to feed any audio output (speakers) into an audio input device (microphone) that can be sampled by the app.

Installing VB-CABLE

  1. Visit the VB-AUDIO website and download their free VB-CABLE device driver here –
    https://vb-audio.com/Cable/
  2. Install the VB-CABLE device driver by extracting the contents of the zip file you just downloaded, and then running the VBCABLE_Setup_x64.exe application as an administrator.
  3. Reboot your computer after installation.

Configuring VB-CABLE

If you have a LFE device such as a ButtKicker, and you want to have iRacing’s LFE signal go to both your bass shaker and your steering wheel, then you need to do this part. If you want to feel the effects in your steering wheel only (or if you do not have a bass shaker) then you can skip ahead to the next section (Configuring iRacing).

First, hit your Windows key and type “sound settings”. Click on the “Sound settings” option to run it.

Next, click on the “more sound settings” option.

In the dialog that pops up, switch to the “Recording” tab, find and select the “CABLE Output” sound device, and then click on the “Properties” button.

Switch to the “Listen” tab, enable the “Listen to this device” checkbox, and in the options for “Playback through this device” select the audio output device that your bass shaker is using.

Configuring iRacing

In iRacing you only need to do one thing to set up this LFE feature. Head on over to the Misc tab on the options screen, add a tick to the Enable LFE checkbox, and select the CABLE Input (VB-Audio Virtual Cable) device as your LFE device.

You may also want to adjust the various sliders for LFE. I normally leave everything as default, but you might not want too many things to vibrate your wheel. You can play around with these sliders. I think the slider that would be of importance to most people would be the wheel slip one.

Configuring MAIRA

Device

This is a list of all of the recording devices (like webcams and microphones) connected to your computer. You will need to select the CABLE Output (VB-Audio Virtual Cable) device.

Scale

This slider allows you to control how strongly to mix in the LFE signal into the force feedback signal. This slider goes from 0% to 100%. I recommend setting this to around 25%, but it depends on the volume of the LFE effect you have set up in iRacing, and whether or not you have the -10 dB cut feature enabled in iRacing.

You want this effect to be subtle – not overpowering. So turn it up just enough to feel it in the wheel gently without making the wheel go crazy. It makes a world of a difference in terms of immersion.

LFE Scale Increment / Decrement

These buttons can be mapped to a knob on your button box or steering wheel. This way you can increase or decrease the LFE scale while driving around the track.

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