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 <map@cs.washington.edu>
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