BBE Sonic Maximizer "Science"

[M0ses]

To quote Musiciansfriend,
"Loudspeakers have difficulty working with the electronic signals supplied by an amplifier. These difficulties cause such major phase and amplitude distortion that the sound reproduced by the speaker differs significantly from the sound produced by the original source.
In the past, these problems proved unsolvable and were thus relegated to a position of secondary importance in audio system design. However, phase and amplitude integrity is essential to accurate sound reproduction. Research shows that the information which the listener translates into the recognizable characteristics of a live performance are intimately tied into complex time and amplitude relationships between the fundamental and harmonic components of a given musical note or sound. These relationships define a sound's "sound".
When these complex relationships pass through a speaker, the proper order is lost. The higher frequencies are delayed. A lower frequency may reach the listener's ear first or perhaps simultaneously with that of a higher frequency. In some cases, the fundamental components may be so time-shifted that they reach the listener's ear ahead of some or all of the harmonic components.
This change in the phase and amplitude relationship on the harmonic and fundamental frequencies is technically called "envelope distortion." The listener perceives this loss of sound integrity in the reproduced sound as "muddy" and "smeared." In the extreme, it can become difficult to tell the difference between musical instruments, for example, an oboe and a clarinet.
BBE Sound, Inc. conducted extensive studies of numerous speaker systems over a ten year period. With this knowledge, it became possible to identify the characteristics of an ideal speaker and to distill the corrections necessary to return the fundamental and harmonic frequency structures to their correct order. While there are differences among various speaker designs in the magnitude of their correction, the overall pattern of correction needed is remarkably consistent.
The BBE Process is so unique that 42 patents have been awarded by the U.S. Patent Office."


Ok. How much, if ANY, of that is legit? It sounds like a load of crap to me...

[bassmanjla]

i know people with fantastic tone that swear by them

[dj5]

I will say that it "cleans up" your sound, so there may be an element of truth in it. It can make your sound brighter and more sparkly sounding. The only disadvantage I've found (on the two units I've had) is a low-level residual hiss, that is unnoticable live, but would be pretty obvious in a recording situation.

[bongomania]

Wrong forum. Answered in-depth in both the Amps and Effects forums.

[capnsandwich]

From what I've gotten from owning one, I've noticed a boost in the highs and lows. It kind of "pushes" the sound from your cabinets in a scooped kind of tone. To me it enhances the highs and lows in a bass rig. I have no idea what it does with oboes and clarinets. I'm a bassist and it gives me a great slap tone. However, a good compressor can do a similar thing, IMHO and IME.

[SpamBot]

It is more or less a boost-only EQ with centers at 50hz and 4khz, nothing more

[M0ses]

Originally Posted by bongomania

Wrong forum. Answered in-depth in both the Amps and Effects forums.

Oh geez, I feel like a dope.

[Jason P Bass]

I do not have any references to cite, but I have read that the Sonic Maximizer is a frequency dependent delay.

The high end passes through untouched, while the low frequencies are given a very slight delay (just a few ms). There may be several different bands with progressive amounts of delay.

The result is that you hear the high frequency content just slightly before the low end. This is where they get all that "phase interference" marketing speak.

I used to keep one in my rack, but I noticed that it was making a very subtle phaser-type effect. I replaced it with an FMR RNC and never looked back.

I think it's one of those things that sounds GREAT when you first flick it on, and it does sound great when you do an A/B test in isolation, but when you're playing with the whole band, the effect is minimal or not good, in my opinion.

If somebody in the Northern VA area wants to try one out, I have it in my basement and would sell it cheap.

[kurotenshi]

From what I know the concept is true (the phasing issues etc) now if the gear really does what they say....

[Deluge Of Sound]

Originally Posted by SpamBot

It is more or less a boost-only EQ with centers at 50hz and 4khz, nothing more

+1.

Annnnnd.....


You would know that if you'd done a search.

[scotch]

I've been known to be outspoken against these things + there are plenty of threads about them already,.. but...

a) I used to own one when I first started playing "seriously". Brought it to my first session & the engineer quickly demonstrated how to essentially duplicate my "BBE tone" using a graphic eq. It was hard to argue against!

b) While there apparently is some sort of frequency dependent delay happening, it is fixed & not actually adjustable via the front panel controls. The BBE published specs even back this up. You're basically getting front-panel control of a low & high shelving boost-only eq.

c) My own experience, and experience of many colleagues has led me to the conclusion that 99% of what BBE users are actually hearing is less midrange content as they turn up the knobs. More bass + more treble = less mids. Simple as that. Which it totally fine, btw! But let's not pretend that the "phase-alignment" is more perceptible than it really is.

d) The front panel controls are purposefully labeled to ambiguously mislead the user/consumer. "Lo Contour" & "High Process"... really? It's just low & high eq, folks. And boost-only at that.

This all has led me to the conclusion that learning how to effectively use eq entirely negates the need for BBE's offering. Many poorly set-up pa's or lower quality pa's seem to sound better with a "sonic maximizer" in use- but, again, I think 99% of the benefit is coming from the removal of too much midrange content (often perceived as "muddiness"). Nothing a little experience with a graphic cannot cure!


So.. if you use & love your Sonic Maximizer - great! I'm not harassing you! I promise.

For me, the professionals I've worked with, and folks that just used one for a while anyway- Sonic Maximizers tend to be one of the first "effects" you buy... and inevitably one of the first you learn you never really needed.

[bassmanjla]

i've never used one.. probably never will.. but and you wouldn't use one for any sort of "non_live" playing... but like I said before.. i know some guys with GREAT tone, that swear by them.

end state is, find someone who has one for sale for cheap... or borrow one and then experiment.. as you would with any effect or amp or cabinet.

[Eric Perry]

Originally Posted by scotch

I've been known to be outspoken against these things + there are plenty of threads about them already,.. but...

a) I used to own one when I first started playing "seriously". Brought it to my first session & the engineer quickly demonstrated how to essentially duplicate my "BBE tone" using a graphic eq. It was hard to argue against!

b) While there apparently is some sort of frequency dependent delay happening, it is fixed & not actually adjustable via the front panel controls. The BBE published specs even back this up. You're basically getting front-panel control of a low & high shelving boost-only eq.

c) My own experience, and experience of many colleagues has led me to the conclusion that 99% of what BBE users are actually hearing is less midrange content as they turn up the knobs. More bass + more treble = less mids. Simple as that. Which it totally fine, btw! But let's not pretend that the "phase-alignment" is more perceptible than it really is.

d) The front panel controls are purposefully labeled to ambiguously mislead the user/consumer. "Lo Contour" & "High Process"... really? It's just low & high eq, folks. And boost-only at that.

This all has led me to the conclusion that learning how to effectively use eq entirely negates the need for BBE's offering. Many poorly set-up pa's or lower quality pa's seem to sound better with a "sonic maximizer" in use- but, again, I think 99% of the benefit is coming from the removal of too much midrange content (often perceived as "muddiness"). Nothing a little experience with a graphic cannot cure!


So.. if you use & love your Sonic Maximizer - great! I'm not harassing you! I promise.

For me, the professionals I've worked with, and folks that just used one for a while anyway- Sonic Maximizers tend to be one of the first "effects" you buy... and inevitably one of the first you learn you never really needed.

I bought, owned, and used one for a while. Still have it in my rack, actually.

I agree with those that have said it's essentially just a boost-only eq that scoops the mids. It's nothing more. The scientific "data" is snake oil, as far as I'm concerned.

[BigOldHarry]

I had one - used it for about 6 months... realized it didn't do squat for my bass tone... sold it.

I think it's a silly idea for bass. You get more value out of putting that money into a better amp/cab or even lessons (in my opinion).

[tdub0199]

This is how I understand how a sonic maximizer works, the frequency signals coming from your instrument are srambled as far as the lows, mids and highs so what the Sonic maximizer does is unscramble your frequencies and sends a cleaner signal to your amp, it time aligns the frequencies.... here is a video on how it works...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6fatjizjyU

about 1:00 minute into the video is where it is explained...

[Eric Perry]

That is the most ridiculous explanation I have ever seen. Sorry, dude.

[bassbombs84]

sounds like what the "enhance" knob on eden amps does...

[James Judson]

Sonic Maximizer is not an EQ. What it does shift the bass (low contour) and high (high process) frequencies to align with the mid frequencies. Yes it sounds a little like an EQ because it does effect different frequencies. Now why would you need this you say???

The speaker is a coil of wire (inductor). An inductor passes lower frequencies better than higher frequencies. In fact it shifts the frequencies (time constances) and can be calculated. Your signal path in you amp uses many capacitors. Capacitors pass higher frequencies and block the lows. In fact it shifts the frequencies 180 degrees out of phase from the inductors. You can see how the capacitive time constants interacting with the inductive time constants can start to become a jumbled mess. What you put in the amp is not what you get out (yes the frequencies are all there just time shifted). The BBE Maximizer comes along with a solution to all that. Lets shift the lows to align with the mids and lets shift the highs to align with the mids. It can be very subtle. Not an effect for everyone. Most here do not understand it (sounds like EQ to me). Todays amps need it less and less. Makes instruments sound "live". Most dramatic on amplified acoustic instruments.

YMMV

[James Judson]

That video is a very poor explanation of how this thing works. But listen to the end where he demonstrates. With it off it sounds muddy. Like the recording mike is in the next room. When he turns it on it sound like a live band. Could an EQ do the same thing yeah sorta.

[scotch]

Originally Posted by James Judson

Sonic Maximizer is not an EQ. What it does shift the bass (low contour) and high (high process) frequencies to align with the mid frequencies. Yes it sounds a little like an EQ because it does effect different frequencies. Now why would you need this you say???

The speaker is a coil of wire (inductor). An inductor passes lower frequencies better than higher frequencies. In fact it shifts the frequencies (time constances) and can be calculated. Your signal path in you amp uses many capacitors. Capacitors pass higher frequencies and block the lows. In fact it shifts the frequencies 180 degrees out of phase from the inductors. You can see how the capacitive time constants interacting with the inductive time constants can start to become a jumbled mess. What you put in the amp is not what you get out (yes the frequencies are all there just time shifted). The BBE Maximizer comes along with a solution to all that. Lets shift the lows to align with the mids and lets shift the highs to align with the mids. It can be very subtle. Not an effect for everyone. Most here do not understand it (sounds like EQ to me). Todays amps need it less and less. Makes instruments sound "live". Most dramatic on amplified acoustic instruments.

YMMV

Take a look at the Sonic Maximizer's manual, as well as BBE & DBX's white papers. The Sonic Maximizer's front controls do nothing (other than blend in more of the delayed siganls mix) to change any alignment parameters. The delay is fixed. In fact the manual even details the controls frequency center and boost amount. Sorry, but sounds a lot like an eq to me!

I'm not saying that the BBE does not incorporate some phase alignment specific to a certain frequency band. They bought this technology from DBX years ago, as I understand. But I still stand behind my conclusions. The vast majority of users are only hearing less mids.

Additionally, when did a perfect harmonic alignment ever equal better tone? I guarantee that what's coming out of my pickups isn't aligned.

BBE=Snake Oil? No, I don't think so. But they are making things seem much more "scientific" than needs be. Mix is muddy? Most likely dialing out mids will help. Voila! BBE Sonic Maximizer does exactly this as you turn up either knob (well, technically boosting the other bands, but the net result is essentially the same).