BBE sonic maximizer ...what do they do?

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primerib

primerib

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I've seen a few people use them. What the heck do they do? I'm searching and nobody really says what it does.
 
They trick you into thinking you sound good. :)

No...the real answer is it brings out certain frequencies that you normally dont hear. Gives a little boost as well.

They are great for home theater, bass guitar or if you have a low end amp.

I do not recommend them at all...

Certain amps they do OK with and ill admit at first you'll think woa this is cool. But after a while you'll realize it does more harm than good, also they have been known to get you lost in the mix.
 
well i've had one a while back. one of those rack units and what it did was, that it took the signal of my 5150 and what came out was a shitty fcked up solid state sound, lifeless piece of noise.. I loved it..when it was finally gone :D
Now seriously, people use it to boost some of the bass and treble FQs to make the sound bigger i'd say.
I think it's got something to do with guitar cab speakers, it just does not work right with them, it works best with audio speakers that work on separate bandwiths or how it is called. It acted like an EQ pedal of some sort when used within a gutiar rig, but I did not like what it did. However it's a good unit for recording, it's an enhancer of some sort. Once you've got your tracks mixed, you may use it to make the sound fuller and cleaner. Pardon my EN, I am not a native speaker.
 
Turn anything good into garbage. :lol: :LOL:

They were originally made for use with PA systems and basically organize all the frequencies together so they can all be processed evenly. In the 80's it was yet another thing to put in your rack to they started selling them to guitarists.

They can make a solid-state amp sound great. But they kill the dynamics of a tube amp.
 
if used sparingly, it can enhance your tone. by sparingly, i mean don't turn the knobs up higher than 3-4. BBE was used to compensate for crappy speakers. it basically delays the mids, allowing the highs and lows to come through first. if you use any good speaker, then forget about BBE....but if you use Celestion G12T-75's with an old rack mount preamp, BBE is part of your tone.

i have an old Soho QTR-1 preamp that i did a video with and used BBE sparingly, and of course i was using some old G12T'75's.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=UUCez ... detailpage
 
They make for a cool bedroom tone, while killing any chance of being heard well in a live mix. I used one for many years...didn't realize how much harm it was doing until it quit working and I did a gig without it. I apparently compensated with volume...I was able to turn down once it was removed from my signal chain.
 
Different frequencys travel at different speeds through the air. The BBE makes it so the listener recieves all the available frequencys at the same time. I dont think it boost's or cuts anything but that is the perception.

It's also an over rated flavor of the month type device...
 
I tried one with my Carvin head a LONG time ago and it seemed to brighten up my tone and thin it out. It brought out some nice harmonics, but at the cost of making my amp sound almost sterile. Sort of made my tube head sound like a brittle solid state. The sound guy at that show loved my tone with it, so I stepped out front and had my singer play my guitar and I was not a fan. :no:
 
rcm78":1l0sjs2g said:
Different frequencys travel at different speeds through the air. The BBE makes it so the listener recieves all the available frequencys at the same time. I dont think it boost's or cuts anything but that is the perception.
Click to expand...

:D I'm not convinced low and high frequencies do travel at different speeds. Are you sure? ;)
 
sounds great with a vh140c... not so great with a 5150. thats my experience with it. ive heard them sound good in other people's rigs but everybody on the internet says they're garbage. pfft, what do they know, just go try one out lol
 
Another application beyond tone shaping, is they can be put at the end of a long signal chain to retain lost highend and clarity. These units do not have to be set up with extreme settings to perform properly.

I neither need tone shaping from it, or do I have a chain of pedals, so I sold mt Sonic Stomp last month after about a year of in storage for $50.
 
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