Archive for July 9th, 2010

BBE Sound Sonic Sweet

Sonic Sweet is a collection of three plug-ins designed to make your mixes clearer and louder, and it follows in the 'enhancer' tradition of BBE's famous Sonic Maximiser hardware range, including an emulation of their mysterious processing.

All three plug-ins are designed to be used as channel inserts. The Sonic Maximizer was BBE's flagship device back in the '80s. "We're not sure what it's doing… but we like it!" was a common reaction.

It wasn't as excessive as the alternative, the Aphex Aural Exciter, which could make things overly fizzy. BBE's box brought a clarity to the top end and fatness to the bottom, and today there are a range of hardware Sonic Maximizers to choose from.

The company have long maintained that the devices "correct" phase shift and distortion, while sceptics claim that the process is in fact much less esoteric. But whatever they do, the Sonic Maximizer D82 plug-in emulates it.

Artificially enhanced

You get three controls: Lo Contour, which enhances unspecified bass frequencies; Process, for doing the same to the treble; and an Output knob. Simple but effective.

Essentially, it works like a fancy tone control or a variable 'loudness' button, but there's no doubting that it does something pleasing to both individual sounds and whole mixes.

There's a danger of overdoing it and losing all your mid-range content, though - the controls go up to ten, but you'll probably live to regret straying anywhere above four! In our audio example below, the Lo Contour was at 2.7 and the Process at 1.3 and that's already quite extreme.

The Harmonic Maximizer H82 is perhaps BBE's more direct answer to the Aphex Aural Exciter, although there's no BBE hardware equivalent. It's a bass enhancer, synthesising bass harmonics, and a high-frequency exciter. The idea is you tune it in and add harmonics to the desired range.

Even more so than the D82, this is dangerous in the wrong hands and easily overdone. It's ideal for livening up poor recordings but is often too much for other uses.

Like the H82, the Loudness Maximizer L82 has no hardware counterpart. It's a multiband limiter with fixed bands and two controls: Sensitivity (ie, threshold) and Release, plus an output level. There's no gain reduction meter to let you know how hard you're pushing it and, despite it being multiband, we experienced a fair degree of pumping from the kick drum at a low push.

Multiband dynamics units are only really broadly useful when you can adjust the bands and know what you're doing.

Stand by for exciter!

Exciters have been around since the '70s and were all over the place by the '80s, when every new record had to be brighter than the last one to the point where some of the releases were almost unlistenable due to the ear-searing presence and treble. Just remember how kick drums sometimes ended up as little 'blips'!

Whereas a high-frequency EQ boost simply turns up harmonics that are there to begin with, exciters generate sympathetic orders of harmonics that aren't already present. As a result, they can sound edgy and unnatural, even with small amounts of excitement.

But of course, highly unnatural sounds are very much a part of music production, so exciters can certainly work their magic in a mix. Focusing on the very high end of the frequency range to add 'air' is usually the most successful route, while generating extra bass harmonics can add perceived weight and thump.

Overall, there are better alternative individual plug-ins out there. The H82 isn't something you'll use on every mix and the L82 is a bit of a lemon.

The D82, however, is great for adding thump and sparkle - if you get the pack mainly for this one, you shouldn't be disappointed. Just tread carefully with the 'enhancements' and remember to compare to commercial mixes while you're at it, so you don't overdo it.

(2 pages; go to page: 2)

BBE Sound Stomp Ware

Guitar stompboxes have always been the punks of the effects world. After all, subtlety is usually the last thing on a guitarist's mind - when you put the pedal to the metal, you want the audience to know about it!

Here we have plug-in emulations of eight hardware BBE pedal effects, many of which are themselves inspired by vintage stompboxes of the '60s and '70s.

They come as discrete plug-ins, with no all-in-one pedalboard view, so to change the order, it's a case of dragging inserts around in your DAW - easier in some hosts than others. You'll typically run these pedals in front of amp sim software such as AmpliTube or Guitar Rig.

The Green Screamer is presumably an Ibanez Tube Screamer imitation, giving an overdriven valve tone. The depth, warmth and body aren't so far off the real thing and it's far more convenient.

The transistor-based Free Fuzz is a Big Muff/Fuzz Face-alike, but in truth, it's more fizz than fuzz and not as unruly as it should be.

Mind Bender is a modulation effect with simple Speed and Depth knobs, and a switch to flip between chorus and vibrato modes. It adds a rich creaminess to any sound but is best used in moderation unless you want a sound that's straight out of the '80s - like cornflour; just a touch is all you need to thicken.

Opto Stomp is an opto-compressor based on soft-knee units from the '60s. It's the most subtle of the lot but once you know how to set it and can hear that it's giving a constant 'in-your-face' level to your solos or vocals it's not one you'll forget. An invaluable back-room boy that's great because of its transparency.

Sonic Stomp is a pedal version of BBE's Sonic Maximiser hardware. It's got two knobs: Lo Contour adds fat low harmonics, Process lends excitement to the treble. Treat it as an EQ with bells on and you'll find it's perfect for bringing out the best in a sound.

Back to the more extreme: Soul Vibe is a vintage phaser-type pedal for sweeping rotary effects. It has a lovely, dense tone to it, though we'd prefer it if the Speed knob had a greater range, so that we could set it to go slower.

Twice the fun

Two-Timer is a stereo delay pedal that does what it says. The long delays are warm, resulting in a rich effect akin to tape delays of old. The other stereo effect is Tremor, a syncable tremolo effect with panning and volume modulation.

All modulation and delay effects can be tempo-synced, and all the plug-ins will work on stereo signals when inserted on a stereo track, though you won't hear any stereo tricks like filter panning in the Soul Vibe, for instance.

Mix 'n' match

In the real world, you can come across all sorts of signal level incompatibilities when trying to use guitar pedals for non-guitar sound sources. In software, though, it takes a second to throw on an insert and hear the results, and so anything you fancy can be subjected to the rudeness of these snazzy stompboxes.

The key is in mixing and matching the pedals in a similar way to how a guitarist would build their sound. For example, the Green Screamer adds balls and 'bite'. Team this up with the Sonic Stomp to add some really fat low end and rich harmonic overtones.

Chain that to the Opto Stomp and the compression puts the sound right up close and personal. Throw on the Two-Timer at the end of the line for some atmospheric delay and you have an authentic dirty lead setup that can be applied to a synth or even a vocal for extreme effects.

This is a set of guitar pedals in a very literal sense. The way you interact with them, the way they behave and the results from them are all much like the real thing, with that extreme, dirty quality that makes pedals so endearing.

Given the power of software, though, it almost seems a waste that the designs aren't taken further, but then again, that might flummox guitarists.

(2 pages; go to page: 2)