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BBE Sonic Maximizer


Nazgul6

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probably the ultimate tone killer for any amp. Its about the most useless peice of {censored} i ever used in a guitar rig. However, i have a rack version too and that works really well with my synth for some reason. It basically just makes it louder and more present in the monitors.

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It's a very widely misunderstood piece of gear. The biggest problem that most people have with them is "user error", by which I mean that they dime the knobs and then wonder why it doesn't sound good. It needs to be used in moderation. By brother has one in his rackmount rig, and when I first gave it to him he didn't like it that much, but when I went over his house the next time, I saw that the settings were jacked up way beyond where they should have been. Once I put the knobs to more moderate settings, it sounded great and he loves it. Most people who didn't like how it made their amp sounded probably didn't have a clue what they were doing, and didn't have the luxury of someone else around that did either.

 

The Sonic Maximizer is just a filter that corrects the frequency smearing that occurs in many amps. It passes the highs and lows through different filters that can be controlled with the knobs on the face of the unit, while your mids remain untouched. So, when someone says that it turned their amp into a mid scooped mushy mess, it doesn't take a team of forensic scientists to surmise that the guy probably didn't have the god given sense to use moderate settings. Instead, he jacked up the highs and lows with the maximizer and then was surprised that his tone was lacking mids at that point. Again, nothing but "user error" going on in this scenario, because moderate settings would not have reduced the tone to midless mush.

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It takes your tone and makes it sound like scooped, flubby {censored}. Avoid.

 

 

Quoted for truth. Even in moderation they suck for guitar. If you absolutely MUST f*ck with your amp's preamp tone/frequencies get an EQ and put it in your FX loop: much cleaner solution.

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Ok..Here is my experience with the sonic stomp.

 

 

It made my Mark V sound like {censored}. (Fake and overly processed)

It made my booteek Morgan MV3.8 Sound like {censored}.

 

It made my Marshall 3130 Artist Head sound AWESOME! It did away with all the muffled muddiness. However, I eventually sold the 3130.

 

So my verdict is: If you have a nice amp..Avoid the sonic stomp. If you have a so-so, meh, decent , ok amp..the sonic stomp will probably do some good. This is why I believe the reviews to be all over the place with this pedal..It completely depends on what amp one is using it with.

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From their own specs, this all that a BBE does:

 

# Maximum Process: +12dBu boost at 5kHz, 0dBu input

# Lo Contour: +12dBu adjustment at 50Hz, 0dBu input

 

 

Therefore any EQ with the same center frequencies and a similar Q can do the same thing, and just about anyone who has ever recorded guitar can tell you that those two frequencies are useless, particularly 50hz which is space that guitar has no business being in.

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I like it on my clean channel. It adds some chime. Avoid at all costs on a distorted channel though. You get a similar, but far more natural effect from an EQ in the loop.

 

 

I can see how the 5khz "process" knob would add sparkle to a clean channel and yea, I would definitely avoid using it on dirt, thats right at the edge of what starts to become fizz.

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BBE's various Sonic Maximizer patents basically describe a system that splits the signal into three different frequency bands: low, mid-range and high. The user can then adjust the gain of two of these bands manually using the "Lo-contour" (bass) or "Process" (treble) controls. In the end of the signal chain the three bands are summed back together. This far you could replicate the Sonic Maximizer's operation with a plain EQ, however, besides manual adjustment, the circuit also introduces dynamic, automatic gain controlling for one or several of those bands (the amount of how many of the bands are controlled depends on the Sonic Maximizer model). So, in essence, the signal's RMS amplitude level will also adjust the gain of one or several of those bands and consequently the overall frequency response. This is something you can't replicate with a plain EQ. Some sonic maximizers also seem to introduce a fair bit of soft clipping to the signal.

 

The BBE's story about adjusting phase relationships by delaying lower frequencies and hence neutralising effects of speaker phase distortion. Well, that's just hogwash technobabble. :lol:

 

Anyway, all that processing makes the signal sound different, and by first impression a lot livelier and less "sterile", than the dry signal. Most people working with that effect have however come to the conclusion that the honeymoon period of being impressed by this processed signal ends pretty fast and after that they actually started to dislike the effect.

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I'll say this, it really depends on the amp. On my Carvin X60B or Peavey Ultra, it really didn't do too much at all and really.

 

On my Yamaha T100C tho, it really tightened it up. That's a somewhat treble heavy amp so it really helped bring the low end out and sound killer.

 

Try it and see if you like it, if you don't then take it back. Simple as that.

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Two points mentioned here ring 100% true, in my experience.

 

-Due to the nature of the effect, it works great for some amps, but not for other amps. So use your ears to decide. An EQ can do similar effects, but it's not quite the same. Again...use your ears to decide which tool will work best for your application.

 

-And secondly, the knobs definitely need to be used in moderation. Seriously, the Process knob should really never need to go past 9 or 10 o'clock. Keep it below that and it really keeps the shrillness away, but still adds a nice little bite. The Lo Contour, you can be a little more generous with as for most set ups, it's effect is more subtle. I've had it as high as 1 o'clock at times and it added some nice punch and thump. I find how much you need to apply here depends upon your cabinet.

 

Bear in mind, I've always used the older, blue 362 rack mount model. Maybe the newer ones are more a bit harsher? Dunno.

 

Currently though, I forgo it in my guitar rig. But I use it to spice up my bass rig a bit. Works great for tightening up fuzzed out industrial type bass tones in a way that most EQ's can't.

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