From brians@extol.sj.unisys.com Thu Sep 1 11:25:38 1994 Date: Sun, 10 Jul 1994 14:27:57 -0700 (PDT) From: brians@extol.sj.unisys.com To: Mike Perkowitz Subject: Re: mr. drum machine :) > oh.. unrelated question: what *is* a BBE sonic maximizer. i mean, what > does it do. i saw one for $100 and played with it a little. sounds like > it boosts the bottom end a little. what's the big deal? :) Shhh... This is one of the best kept secrets of adding presence to otherwise flat sounding mixes! OK, maybe not really a secret, but I've heard really expensive systems with and without a BBE and the difference is incredible if not at first all that obvious. :) I'm not really up on the theory, but I think it was originally intened to correct phase differences between highs and lows that occur as the result of non-coaxial speaker placement within an encloser. I don't know how many people are actually trying to fix this problem when they buy a BBE though. It's not an effect that you would use in the traditional way you think of using effects, but a last stage that your mixed out would go through before going to a two-track master. It adds an 'openess' or maybe I should say it opens the spaces between the individual elements of the music. The only real way to understand is to hear one in and out of a final mix. Boosting the bottom end (as you say) usually only becomes obvious at the extremes of the BBE effect. I think on the 862 (the top end BBE) that there is a separate control for the ammount of low end and another for the ammount of BBE effect. (I don't recall exactly what the parameters are called, but that's the basic gist of it.) I guess it's more of a production tool than and effect. And it's definitely on my list of things to get when I start getting a bit more serious about producing my own music. Hope this helps. Brian