Who can tell me what a "sonic maximizer" does?

Re: Who can tell me what a "sonic maximizer" does?

Yeah. It, uh... maximizes your sound so it's like, uh... sonically... uh....

...


... maximized. You know, like the most.

It's a good thing. Really.

Buy it.
 
Re: Who can tell me what a "sonic maximizer" does?

Very subtle. I can't tell the difference.
 
Re: Who can tell me what a "sonic maximizer" does?

Disclaimer. Post #2 is satire. I would hate to be responsible for inadvertantly talking a forum bro into a less-than-stellar purchase.

Not that I have any reason to believe the Sonic Maximizer is less than stellar. In reality, I have no idea what they do.
 
Re: Who can tell me what a "sonic maximizer" does?

Rich_S said:
Disclaimer. Post #2 is satire. I would hate to be responsible for inadvertantly talking a forum bro into a less-than-stellar purchase.

Not that I have any reason to believe the Sonic Maximizer is less than stellar. In reality, I have no idea what they do.
Click to expand...

Hehe, I picked up on it. ;)

I'm not planning on buying one, but I was asked about what I thought about it. I dunno what I think about it because I still don't grasp what it does.
 
Re: Who can tell me what a "sonic maximizer" does?

I always thought it was a compressor or EQ, but just reading the description it sounds like it's a delay/phase corrector?
 
Re: Who can tell me what a "sonic maximizer" does?

It is a phase alignment device. Amplified and recorded music has distortion and the BBE tries to correct crossover distortion. I have used one on my guitar rig and stereo since 1987. Opinions vary widely on whether the effect is good or bad. It is not a harmonic enhancer!

Distortion can be a good and a bad thing. IMO most people who don't like them were using them for the wrong purpose and in the wrong position! If you use time based effects and you have a long signal chain it is best used dead last in the chain or at the board. It does enhance clarity but if overused it can sound woofy or shrill. Using one first in the chain does nearly nothing!

The best use is for someone who has problems with definition, clarity and volume control. The reason why I like it is because it cleans up time based effects revealing their true dimensions and because I can get away with lower volumes while still have clarity and articulation. It is basically salt and overuse can become unpalatable.
 
Re: Who can tell me what a "sonic maximizer" does?

The process knob will increase the apparent amount of high end. The low contour knob will appear to boost bass. But along with this, it enhances clarity and detail.

They're great on synth sounds. They really bring out the sparkle and clarity.

Many guitarists into heavy music like them because the lo contour adds this deep, tight bass and the process control brings out the sizzle, and the whole rig sounds clear and tight. And as idsnowdog said, it can restore the clarity to a signal that's kinda degraded from running through a long chain of effects.

I used to use it on 4 track cassette mixes. The mixes tended to sound dull when mixed to cassette, and the BBE was great for adding a pro-sounding sheen and putting back some clarity.
 
Re: Who can tell me what a "sonic maximizer" does?

i thought it added a slight delay to the higher frequencies in a loudspeaker system. in order for tweeters in P.A. speakers to produce the same spl + audible to a wide area like the woofers they have to use a diffuser. makes it louder but also increases the speed of the wave (because we ARE at Mach 1). because of this you hear the bass after the treble. in other words sonic maximizers are supposed to time align the tweeters and woofers. this is why having one for guitar makes zero sense to me.
 
Re: Who can tell me what a "sonic maximizer" does?

I juse it in the effects loop of amps. Some amps it works nice, some it does little. Worked nice on my Marshall Valvestate, making it sound like Megadeth, but on my Marshall JCM800 and Carvin V3 it thinned the sound so I don't use it any more
 
Re: Who can tell me what a "sonic maximizer" does?

Basically, it's a delay/phase corrector. What it does is seperates the highs and lows, delays each, so they hit the speakers at different times, giving more clarity and definition to the sound. Makes it more hi fi sounding.
 
Re: Who can tell me what a "sonic maximizer" does?

jmh151 said:
Basically, it's a delay/phase corrector. What it does is seperates the highs and lows, delays each, so they hit the speakers at different times, giving more clarity and definition to the sound. Makes it more hi fi sounding.
Click to expand...

This has been my understanding, as well. I used a PA rig ~10 years ago that had one across the main outputs. At the time, I liked what it did with drums and vocals, but felt it thinned out the guitars, so we ended up putting on a subgroup with the drums only, and left the guitars out of it...this was a rack mount version clearly not designed for guitar, however (and note that it was ~10 years ago...so this is clearly not up to date info).
 
Re: Who can tell me what a "sonic maximizer" does?

I prefer it in a high fi system. It cleans up the phase distortion. My old Akia system has BBE technology built in.

In a guitar amp, you might want the phase distortion as it creates warmth.

I hear of a lot of people using them in the FX loop of a 5150 to clean up the sound.
 
Re: Who can tell me what a "sonic maximizer" does?

MikeS said:
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/BBE-482i-Sonic-Maximizer?sku=180913

I am a bit at a loss as to what the benefits of this are, so I figured I'd ask those who do. I can kind of make sense of it, but not as it pertains to the guitar rig.

Lil' help? Just curious.
Click to expand...



Searching for fuzz, i too came across this pedal, and i too tried to figure out what the hell it does ?
I am very glad to see that i am not the only idiot-feeling guy around here...or am i ?

I see that there is a pedal & rack version of this . . .


James
 
Re: Who can tell me what a "sonic maximizer" does?

Rich_S said:
Yeah. It, uh... maximizes your sound so it's like, uh... sonically... uh....

...

... maximized. You know, like the most.

It's a good thing. Really.

Buy it.
Click to expand...


Hey, Mike S, looks like Rich S does'nt know either !

:D


James
 
Re: Who can tell me what a "sonic maximizer" does?

DonP said:
In a guitar amp, you might want the phase distortion as it creates warmth.
Click to expand...

That's sort of the way I felt after reading the description. It seemed to me that the things it corrects are elements that you want in a guitar tone. I guess it's how you view the signal "source" In a guitar rig, I'd argue that it's the speaker and not the amp, because the speaker is every bit as integral to one's tone as anything else in the chain.

But, it's good to hear some opinions of it as it pertains to guitar. Thanks for the clarifications, fellas!
 
Re: Who can tell me what a "sonic maximizer" does?

The first ones were designed for PA systems, and if you have a sub-par PA they seem to help a bit, but also add a small degree of noise. (hiss)
You can reach the same or better results with a good ear, and knowledge of using an EQ.
I don't care for them, either on guitar rigs or PA systems.
 
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