BBE Sonic Stomp

[Aceman]

Yeah - I mean I agree it isn't a "must have" pedal. For whatever reason, I liked what it did for the Acoustic. It made sense4, and it works. I suspect I could do the same with some subtle 31 band use or a decent Parametric.

But - It works for me.

[El Dunco]

Yeah - I mean I agree it isn't a "must have" pedal. For whatever reason, I liked what it did for the Acoustic. It made sense4, and it works. I suspect I could do the same with some subtle 31 band use or a decent Parametric.

But - It works for me.

If it works for you, I can't argue with that. Maybe you could do me a solid and do what all the demo videos just are not doing for me and show me a little demo of just off, then on, both equal volume? I really tried to give it a chance man... All the clips I've tried, once fixing their annoying habit of making sure it's louder when engaged, honestly sound awful and worse than if they didn't even bother hooking it up ( because of COURSE people who don't know better think "I like the second one more" because we perceive louder as better when it doesn't mean it is at all)

[NegativeEase]

BBE SM, I've owned several, usually left with me because someone didn't want it or traded it for my time etc... I've never purchased one at a store.... my experience is that tingling high end when you engage a sonic maximizer makes you initially excited and also ignore what most people realize days later after they are used to the BBE sound and then compare again -and that is that it can be a tone suck and squasher of good sounds in parts of the spectrum as much as exciter of over tones in the spectrum and such...

I think the Aphex stuff is better -especially the old 420 series..

but ALL of it should be used cautiously.

I honestly don't know very many people who have ever kept a BBE sonic maximizer in the rig as an essential thing -but there are people who do.

EDIT I've never used BBE stuff for acoustic stuff -Players I know were using them for big rock tones.

[NegativeEase]

Here is an old but a goody. Recorded in 2013 with an iPhone 4se maybe?

Damn, I'll give you a pass because I know the mic element on a cell phone (especially 8 years ago) accentuates harsh parts of the guitar spectrum that are needed for voice intelligibility in a phone call

.... because ouch -that cellphone is making that guitars intonations jump off the page (That D chord....yikes) and bright top end very harsh.

I'm sure, if listening in the room it sounds good and what you are saying makes plenty of sense though.

[PFDarkside]

I was more familiar with them in a big sound reproduction format. Like reproducing recorded music in huge halls, etc. I assume the attitude of “if it’s good enough for pro sound racks it’s good enough for my rig” took over?

[Aceman]

Damn, I'll give you a pass because I know the mic element on a cell phone (especially 8 years ago) accentuates harsh parts of the guitar spectrum that are needed for voice intelligibility in a phone call

.... because ouch -that cellphone is making that guitars intonations jump off the page (That D chord....yikes) and bright top end very harsh.

I'm sure, if listening in the room it sounds good and what you are saying makes plenty of sense though.

Agree - hahaha. I have a had a few acoustic guys and others at shows go "Damn, that acoustic sounded awesome!"

No doubt there is some eq changes going on though! And that Ovation isn't a great sounding guitar period. It sounds like, an Ovation piezo! Hell, I might have only marginally tuned.

[Dudeman7]

I used to have an Alpine car stereo that had a BBE processor in it. There were no controls other than "On" and "Off". For me, I thought it was incredible and I left it on all the time.

Used in this capacity where it affects the entire mix, it made a world of difference. It is supposed to correct phase issues and resolve standing wave interference in a fixed environment and it seemed to do that remarkably well. In fact, my friends always insisted that we take my car places because the stereo sounded so good.

However, I agree with Mincer that if you need anything like this to make a single instrument sound good, you would be further ahead by fixing the issues rather than covering it up with another piece of gear.

I can't imagine using a Sonic Maximizer in a guitar or bass rig but in a PA rack? Sure.

[NegativeEase]

Agree - hahaha. I have a had a few acoustic guys and others at shows go "Damn, that acoustic sounded awesome!"

No doubt there is some eq changes going on though! And that Ovation isn't a great sounding guitar period. It sounds like, an Ovation piezo! Hell, I might have only marginally tuned.

I hate it when someone shoots a cell video of a stage performance and it's super pitchy -but the board mix recording is great and a real mic recording sounds good too

-it's the same thing -Cell mic element are designed for a 1-4khz boost for vocal intelligibility which is ALSO the frequencies that bring guitars out in you face to the front of a mix -no matter if you are tonally mitigating some with your guitar settings, pedals and amp.

Can't win!

[Aceman]

Yeah. I'll maybe do a vid straight in like the Accfept one now that I remember how to do this.

[El Dunco]

Yeah. I'll maybe do a vid straight in like the Accfept one now that I remember how to do this.

That would be excellent.

[Mincer]

My Aphex was used on an Adamas- an older high end Ovation. The guitar sounded amazing in a room, but those late 80s/early 90s preamps weren't the best. I used it on the low end, which sounded massive through the Aphex. But once I got newer instruments that had preamps designed to sound really great through a PA, I don't need it anymore. I don't use it with my current acoustics at all.

[Chistopher]

I used to have an Alpine car stereo that had a BBE processor in it. There were no controls other than "On" and "Off". For me, I thought it was incredible and I left it on all the time.

Used in this capacity where it affects the entire mix, it made a world of difference. It is supposed to correct phase issues and resolve standing wave interference in a fixed environment and it seemed to do that remarkably well. In fact, my friends always insisted that we take my car places because the stereo sounded so good.

However, I agree with Mincer that if you need anything like this to make a single instrument sound good, you would be further ahead by fixing the issues rather than covering it up with another piece of gear.

I can't imagine using a Sonic Maximizer in a guitar or bass rig but in a PA rack? Sure.

Funny, I never considered that BBE was the same as the BBE in a stereo. In that context it is defined as:

"BBE High Definition Sound compensates for phase and amplitude distortion, restoring the brilliance and clarity of the original content material. The BBE High Definition Sound process begins by applying a linear phase shift across the full frequency range of the signal, which allows the speaker system to reproduce the transients and harmonics in the correct order. The BBE process then compensates for speaker amplitude distortion by progressively boosting lower and higher frequencies, and doing so within the context of the phase correction process. This efficiently creates a fuller, richer sound without excess equalization."

[Aceman]

See - and that makes sense to me the way the Aphex works. You start moving what they call the "frequency" control, which puts things in phase. And if you go too far - it's going out of phase the other way.