BBE Sonic Maximizer Plug In right before the Waves L2 popping problem

[BlueFire]

Originally Posted by wado1942

But considering it's designed to compensate for time shifts created by large speaker columns, you're not using it correctly. That's what it does, it delays certain ranges of frequencies to compensate for 3-way passive crossover networks in PA systems.





Thanks for catching my typo. I meant 99% of the stuff you've heard has been made WITHOUT any spectral enhancing. In the 70s, you might have heard a track here or there with an Aural Exciter. And I mean TRACK (like a Fender Rhodes or vocal), within a song, not the whole song itself. That fad was very short lived. Another trick was to record a vocal track with Dolby NR but play back without it. But again, that's one track. I have a couple enhancers in my arsenal believe it or not, but it's been years since I've even plugged in one of them. The last time an Aural exciter was used on a project I touched was for a Fender Rhodes track two or three years ago to bring out the high end instead of using EQ. I don't even have a BBE unit because it's noisy, unpredictable and if I wanted to ruin the phase coherance of a song, I could do it with a crossover.

You may not like what we're saying here & attribute it to arrogance, but it's the truth. You'll find that either your recording needs some work and when you figure out what you're doing to create such dull sound, you won't "need" the BBE anymore or that your masters will sound very harsh against other masters. Just like how one time a guitarist said he recorded all his stuff direct and even though he felt his recordings were good, he wanted an extra edge into sounding more professional. About six different people said he should try recording his instruments with amplifiers and microphones but he said that was too time consuming and that nobody can tell the difference between his DI recordings and mic'ed anyway. We assured him his issues were in how he was recording his music and he never returned. Well, sometimes people tell you things you don't want to hear. It's not to be beligerant, it's to help you get better. That's the purpose of these forums. If you don't want to learn, don't ask for advice. Anyways, sorry if I sounded like a bunghole. I was just trying to drive home a point that Sonic Maximizers don't belong in the studio. They don't even belong in live venues anymore but they keep festering, holding back promising engineers with their addictive damage.

I welcome all constructive advice as well as criticism but i'm getting some feedback that won't help my problem. No matter what u say I'm going to use this device. It is amazing in my opinion. My problem was the popping noise on the kick with the BBE on the master bus. I wanted to know why this was happening. Instead of giving me a solution about the issue I was having, you beat your chest and force fed me some info to veer me away from the plug in all together. I obviously considered not using the plug in but I wanted a solution to prevent me from giving up on it. Thats it. I wanna make a note that I am using the BBE D82 Sonic Maximizer software plug in.. You're under the wrong impression thinking that the BBE ruins the phase coherence of a song. The BBE corrects the phase shift and distortion that happens naturally when sound is reproduced by speakers. When used moderately, I can't see how anyone can say it has a negative affect on a mix.

I wanna make something very clear......... I don't "NEED" the Sonic Maximizer like I NEED Eq, Compression, Limiting, Food, Water and a great set of ears. I WANT the Sonic Maximizer like I want a shot of Jack and a bitch on my lap...

[BlueFire]

Originally Posted by OMNIFEX

The BBE does make good mix sound worse and, I own two (one sitting in the corner and, the other used only as input indicators) which I thought were great 15 years ago.

Of course, I am speaking on the hardware and, do not own the software. However, since the software is designed to emulate the hardware...

Nevertheless, if the emulation meets your standards, continue using it. I'm quite sure many who disagree with you are not using the same devices as your self within the audio chain.

Cheers!

Exactly....

[OMNIFEX]

Originally Posted by BlueFire

Exactly....

I apologise for overlooking your question.

What I would suggest is to use some type of device to increase output of the BBE so, you can still use in a manner you like without clipping the emulation to point of clicking.

I am not familiar with Cubase, however Wavelab offers “Tools One” which is a form of amplifier. You merely reduce the BBE’s output level by –6dB and, use the Tools One to raise the gain back by +6 dB.

In my example, you’ll see the URS Equaliser’s output @ -6.2 dB, followed by the Tools One module bringing the gain back to + 6 dB (0 dB) with an additional +6 dB gain. The signal is then sent to “LoudMax” to prevent overshoot beyond –0.8 dB.




I’m more than certain you can envision the scenario using your plug-in emulations.

Cheers!

[BlueFire]

Originally Posted by OMNIFEX

I apologise for overlooking your question.

What I would suggest is to use some type of device to increase output of the BBE so, you can still use in a manner you like without clipping the emulation to point of clicking.

I am not familiar with Cubase, however Wavelab offers “Tools One” which is a form of amplifier. You merely reduce the BBE’s output level by –6dB and, use the Tools One to raise the gain back by +6 dB.

In my example, you’ll see the URS Equaliser’s output @ -6.2 dB, followed by the Tools One module bringing the gain back to + 6 dB (0 dB) with an additional +6 dB gain. The signal is then sent to “LoudMax” to prevent overshoot beyond –0.8 dB.




I’m more than certain you can envision the scenario using your plug-in emulations.

Cheers!

I think I see what your saying but unlike the hardware version of the bbe the software plugin has an output fader that you can lower.....i've tried lowering it and the clipping sound would only go away at extreme low levels. I've even tried it your way but I used another L2 to compensate for the gain loss. What I am doing now to fix my problem is creating an aux bus with just the BBE on it and sending every thing to it EXCEPT THE KICK. It works like a charm but its a bit of a hassle because I have like 6 or 7 busses now. Not a huge problem though. Thanks for the feedback ....

[73*]

Originally Posted by BlueFire

...i've tried lowering it and the clipping sound would only go away at extreme low levels. I've even tried it your way but I used another L2 to compensate for the gain loss...

Wouldn't that possibly indicate that the cliping is occurring at the INPUT to the BBE? You may want to try going into the unit at a lower level and increase the gain with another plug after, as was suggested.

[bmdaugherty]

Why not use a crossover to hi-pass the signal to the BBE and insert the low end post BBE but pre L2? There are numerous ways to accomplish this depending on your DAW. Since the sparkle is what you want, why put the low end through at all?

[BlueFire]

Originally Posted by 73*

Wouldn't that possibly indicate that the cliping is occurring at the INPUT to the BBE? You may want to try going into the unit at a lower level and increase the gain with another plug after, as was suggested.

If that were the case wouldn't i get the clipping sound when the bbe was bypassed as well?

[BlueFire]

Originally Posted by bmdaugherty

Why not use a crossover to hi-pass the signal to the BBE and insert the low end post BBE but pre L2? There are numerous ways to accomplish this depending on your DAW. Since the sparkle is what you want, why put the low end through at all?

I've never used a crossover but it sounds cool. My DAW's are Logic9 and Protools 8. What I did to remedy the problem was create an aux bus with just the bbe and have everything going to it except for the kick. Worked out perfect but I'm very interested in this crossover thingy you were talking about. Please explain more.