Jul 08, 2009 09:35 am Which unit is it?
sonic maximizer
Posted on Jul 08, 2009 09:00 am
Adam Mutschler
Abomb Muchbaby
Member Since: Jul 02, 2009
Hey guys,
I have a sonic maximizer and have honestly been thinking about selling it. I am really unsure of how to use it for recording or if it's even worth using. can anyone shed some light on this or should I just sell the thing? thanks,
Adam
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Jul 08, 2009 09:45 am It is a BBE 882i? I know that they had 2 different ones when I bought it, I think one was mono and one was stereo. I opted for the stereo one. I was going to use it for live sound, but haven't really been able to play out much. Is something like this actually even used for recording though?
Jul 08, 2009 10:05 am You could, but there really shouldn't be anything you would 'need' to use it on. It's one of those things that if you like what it does to your sound, then you use it, if not, y'a don't... a question of personal taste, really.
That said, I use one in my guitar rigs effect loop to help 'sharpen' the sound up a bit.
Jul 08, 2009 10:33 am They're good for 4x pancake transfers and the occasional bass player who's too lazy to change his strings.
Jul 08, 2009 10:45 am Quote:
... and the occasional bass player who's too lazy to change his strings.
I don't know why I find that so funny... but I do.
True, too!
Jul 08, 2009 11:09 am If you don't mind me asking...What's a 4x pancake transfer? I Googled to no avail.
Jul 08, 2009 11:21 am Hahahaha omg, that bass player line is golden!!! I guess it goes for guitar players as well, but our 7$ strings tend to get changed more often it seems :)
Jul 08, 2009 01:45 pm I do have to say though, like running a cd through my mixer or something, the thing does make a big difference. It sounds like it's good for enhancing well mixed music here and there, but probably not all it's cracked up to be by the salesman at guitar center...
Jul 08, 2009 02:14 pm I've been pretty strongly opposed to the use of Sonic Maximizers in the recording process. It's a personal and largely unsubstantiated bias on my part, so take it with a grain of salt.
They can help make a guitar, bass, or mix sound livelier in a room when played live, but as far as I can tell they tend to make it much more difficult to record an instrument when they're in the chain. Maximizers fiddle with the EQ, they fiddle with delaying certain frequency bands, and those things tend to make it more difficult to nail down the tone that you're hearing in the room when you stick a mic in front of your amp.
They have their use, but I think that the cardinal sin with those things is to become too reliant upon them. It seems that a lot of people are using them as a crutch or a quick fix for complex problems. The novelty wears off pretty quickly as far as what they buy you, and one day you'll forget to hook it up in your chain and think to yourself "why does my rig sound so good today?". :D
Jul 08, 2009 11:32 pm Quote:
If you don't mind me asking...What's a 4x pancake transfer? I Googled to no avail.
At first, I was surprised. But then I though, Google wasn't really around when high-speed cassette duplication was popular... Now, I don't even think it still exists. Less popular than vinyl (which is on a big comeback).
I tried "bin-loop" and came up with this: www.audiodups.com/manufacturing.html
32:1...? Holy crap! 4:1 was bad enough!
Quote:
I do have to say though, like running a cd through my mixer or something, the thing does make a big difference. It sounds like it's good for enhancing well mixed music here and there, but probably not all it's cracked up to be by the salesman at guitar center...
The big problem is that it *does* make a *big* difference -- And to the (generally untrained) ear, that difference sounds "kinda nice" at first. 20 minutes later, after it's peeled a layer off your ear drums, you don't notice it anymore. So you turn it up a bit more. Then later, a little more, etc., etc.
Harmonic excitement isn't exactly unpopular - but it shouldn't take "trying" it -- It should be a very obvious "Hmmm... This needs a little harmonic distortion in the top end" decision - or it should stay off. Something needs to "ask" for it. If it's not asking, IMO, don't offer it.
That ("aural exciter" type processors) and maul-the-band compression are probably responsible for trashing more recordings than most other processors put together.
Jul 09, 2009 09:21 am ...So I'm staring at this BBE 362 Sonic Maximizer in my project studio and I'm thinking to myself, "This sounds nice to me". I got it in a Craigslist deal packaged with some stuff that I actually needed (DBX160a, DTR-2000, Power conditioner, 4u rack). Right now I'm testing out the maximizer at the end of my effects chain right before going to my mystery tube amp.
I can certainly hear that the top end is MUCH more defined, not obnoxious to my ears, but certainly more defined. That said, and I'm too inexperienced to say for sure, but I may see where Massive is coming from. I loved the sound of my amp before, and now the sound is different. To me, it sounds GREAT. I've read reviews comparing it to "taking a blanket off your amp". This describes my perception of the effect well...but the blanket would muffle highs while lows would travel through it, removing the blanket would give the "blanket removal" perception by boosting highs I imagine...the lows are fatter too. It's certainly a difference I like while paying alone...but I'm wondering if the plain vanilla might sit better in a mix. Next electric guitar recording I make I'll try it both ways and see what happens in the final mix...being inexperience is such a pain in the butt...the 362 is an alluring siren...damn you, 362.
Hey Rob...are you out there? What's your experience with Sonic Maximizers in a live setting? This tone can't be ALL bad can it???
Jul 09, 2009 11:46 am Not to answer your question for Rob, Quincysan...
It's my understanding that a 'Sonic Maximizer' works by sepparating a predetermined span of frequencies,(highs, mids, amd lows? Or is it highs, and lows?) by some 40,000th of a second... an imperceivable amount of time to the human ear, thus allowing the ear to hear the material in an order of 1-2-3, as aposed to all at once, which is where the sense of 'clarity' comes from.
If this is indeed the way it works, then I would be inclined to reason that through a mono sound source, the listening fatigue that Rob was talking about would be somewhat lesser, but still something that would indeed occour after a while... the more the process is employed, the quicker it comes. Just over-do it sometime with one, and see how long it takes for you to reach back to the knob and turn it down... compelling, isn't it? ; )
As mentioned, I use one in the sterio fx-loop of my Flextone amp. The two knobs that set the levels of the process, are each set at different possitions, as it seems that when you're making the adjustments to, say the two 'low' knobs, placing them at the exact-same possition does some really undesireable things to your sound... the same goes for the other set of knobs that control the 'process'. I can only guess that this may have something to do with some form of phasing... overlapping the freqs between the left, and right of the loop.
These harmonic exciters are weird to me. I like what they do to a certain extent, but I can really see how the line of good and bad can be ill defined without listening to determine that border within it's application.
Jul 09, 2009 11:53 am I have a sonic stomp and use it at the end of my guitar fx chain. I like the sparkle that it gives my amp...
Jul 09, 2009 10:25 pm I keep a pair of older ones as I don't really care for the sound of the newer units. An 822A and 422A, the 822 has XLR. AS MM stated I mainly used it for the hi speed tape transfer but as well on some guitar rigs over the years.
I have used it as well for transferring tape to digital when the tape is a bit on the old side. Also some poor quality vinyl transfer as well. It is good at what it does but not a real tool to be used for anything other then a boosting effect if that is desired.
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