Flattening the output from a crossover?

I wanted to get a BBE Sonic Maximizer to "excite" the output from my POD XT going into my Mbox Mini for home guitar recording.

I ended up accidentally getting the BBE Max-X3, which is a sonic maximizer combined with a 2-way stereo / 3-way mono crossover as well. I can't take it back, so now I need to make it work as best I can.

I need to go into the BBE either in mono or stereo from the POD XT (it supports both), and then essentially "flatten out" the high and low output from the BBE such that, when I plug it into the Left and Right Input on the Mbox, I'm not losing any data and the guitar is "sonic maximized".

Any thoughts? Can I just go in Mono, use the High and Low outputs (ignoring the Mid), and set the frequencies somehow such that I'm getting all the lows and all the highs without any loss? Or am I screwed here? Thanks!

theirs bbe sonic max plugins you know...........

basically the BBE should have meter as usuall you just send a level form the pod to the bbe on the input at 0db or bouncing around their, then use the mini's input and make sure its not cliping the pre-amp, if so apply the 10db pad and add gain untill your geting a good level in the mbox, basically youl have to control all the stages at once and balance it all out:)

do it in mono the mini isnt stereo i do believe.

Wait I'm confused - so the BBE Max has Low Gain, Mid Gain, Hi Gain, and XOver Freq for Low/Mid and Mid/High when going Mono. You can't bypass the crossover stage, you HAVE to do it.

Are you suggesting I just set the gains so nothing is clipping in Pro Tools, and then set the Xover Freqs at Noon (250Hz I believe)?

I honestly didnt read this correctly and now i know what your on about. The only idea that came to me was send the cross overed outputs to a sub mixer, something with enough channels for each output in mono or enough to work in stereo with the BBE and POD, so your combining the crossovers back together.

Then record the output of the sub mixer "this is all i can think of". Youl need to set the mixer at 0 on its faders and use the BBE's input and output lights to level the signal so your effecting all the bands evenly. i hope this helps, i hope you find someone with more experience here.

Thanks - this is sort of where I went in my head last night as well...

I have a Mackie 1202 basically not being used as anything but a volume control for my monitors right now. This seems like a good way to put it to use...

Let me know if this sounds right: Basically, what I want to do is go MONO from the POD into the BBE Crossover, turn on the sonic maximizer on it, and then set the Low/Mid and Mid/High knobs both to roughly Noon on the 1K range (since I'm in Mono, otherwise 10k in Stereo, right?), and then take the 3 outputs (Low, Mid and High) into three separate channels on the Mackie.

Then, I'll mix the three together without changing the EQ settings on the Mixer (?), and send them out to the Mbox for recording. The return from the Mbox will go back into my Mixer on another bus/send/return so I can hear the guitar with computer drums/bass/etc. on my monitors.

Does that all sound right? I feel pretty good about sending out to the mixer and recombining the signal, but the part I'm really clueless about is the XOver Frequencies, and the EQ setting on the Mixer, I don't really know what to do there to NOT lose a ton of tone.

okies basicall its POD tone to exciter "the xcross over range doesnt mater its only refers to where the signals split" which doesnt mater AT ALL im presuming. set your desk on the 3 channels to 0db and let the exciter take care or how much levels going to each "might need tinkering later, but forget that for now" and just excite away! record in mono or stereo it doesnt really mater hope this helped

dont effect the signal on the desk unless its desired effect! personaly i would use software EQ later

OK, you totally cleared this up for me now - so where I think I was confused was that a crossover is just splitting the signal at various points along the frequency range, where as an EQ is doing something different to the signal entirely... so you're saying if I just pick two arbitrary spots between low/mid/high, and they all mix together at the next point in the chain, then nothing's lost? That sounds very cool, I will try that (assuming I have enough cabling at home!), and see what happens...

if the manual refers to that xcross stuff as cross over points it really doesnt mater where its set its just the split frequency

Very cool - the manual and the front panel just refer to them as LOW/MID and LOW/HIGH Crossover Frequencies, with a switch for each of the two knobs to set the range from either "X1" (80Hz - 1KHz) or "X10" (same but multiplied by 10). If I go Stereo in instead of Mono, this changes everything to be LOW/HIGH for Left and again for Right, but again it's just crossover frequencies, so I assume everything just sort of merges back together at the mixer...

I'm short on cables, so I can't test any further tonight, but we'll know for sure tomorrow (because now if I go Mono I need 3 to come out from the Xover to the mixer, and then one back to the Mbox... and if that works, I'll be really adventurous and switch to Stereo, which means I need 4 out to the mixer and 2 to the Mbox).