BBE 882i Sonic Maximizer Reviews

4.1/5.0 based on 12 customer reviews

Sweetwater Advice

Jeffrey Green

Plain and simple: this product is magic in a box! It is so simple to use; plug it into your signal path and turn four knobs. The outstanding difference in the sound is immediately noticeable and undeniable. Anyone and everyone will hear an enormous difference in the sound.

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Customer Reviews

Jeff Adams
from Easley SC USA
September 2, 2011 Music Background:
Pro Musician

Sonic Maximizer delivers.

The BBE 882i Sonic Maximzer deilvers that finishing touch to your mix on stage and in the studio. No matter how good you think your music mix sounds the Maximizer makes it sound it's absolute best. A must have for every stage or studio rack. It truly delivers music to the max!

from
July 28, 2011

Great secret tool in the mix

A great tool to improve the sound of your mixes.

Harold Scadden
from Virginia Beach, VA
June 23, 2008 Music Background:
Recording Engineer - Live and Post Production Sound

Works great on BOSE L1's

I do sound for mainly Folk, Celtic, Blues and Bluegrass using a couple of BOSE L1 units for Front-of-House / everything as much as possible. I normally will hooked the units up to a mixing console when used. Well even as good as the L1's sound they still have a "dry" feel to them. I was looking for something to add that last little bit to the cake and I found it! I just used Buddy Mondlock as my test subject, and he has played many shows with venues using the L1's, and he stated it was the best he has ever heard. What the BBE did more than anything was to give some life to the units. As stated in some other reviews, you can get stupid with it so use it with moderation! It was kinda like using MSG when cooking ... it helped bring the flavor out in a very good way.

Greg
from Montana
September 22, 2007 Music Background:
pro musician and hobbyist recording geek

Ramp up your solo acoustic rig

I purchased 882 Sonic maximizer to help sculpt my sound for finger style acoustic guitar shows that I do. I put the BBE between my tube preamps and the PA system. In my own words this unit provides variable phase correction that results in pushing the highs and lows foreward or backward in the mix. Here's the key: unlike a notch filter or eq, the frequency isn't boosted or cut. BBE says that we hear the tonal spectrum in the right order, eg. the lows aren't heard before the highs. I was skeptical, but I gave it a try. I must say I'm quite impressed with what it does with an acoustic guitar. (Like all processors the key is to use it in moderation.) I experience the sound as richer without, for example, the ear fatigue that comes from strident highs. My James Goodall acoustic guitars sound fantastic: open, airy, and warm. This is a pretty small investment that gives wonderful results.

Brendan Butler
from Southwest CT
July 27, 2006 Music Background:
Recording Engineer/Enthusiast, Semi-Pro Guitarist, Student

One of my best purchases ever

I got this on a whim and it has absolutely blown me away. It creates the full feeling like scooping the mids on a distorted guitar or hitting the sweet spot on a condenser mic, but without loosing the "umph" that the mids provide. Whatever instrument I'm using (guitar, bass, piano, voice, harmonica...), the 882 is in the loop.

jordan
from illinois
July 13, 2010 Music Background:
studio cat

2 knobs

bought this for the band rack. had the 326 but needed balanced outs as i was getting buzzed and hummed (in the bad way). hated to pay 250 bucks for something that only has 2 knobs, but it's sweet sounding and i actually enjoy only having "lo" and "hi" to deal with.
btw the guys at bbe in CA are awesome with the customer support - very much UNlike Nomad, who now distribute bbe.
PS
totally fixed my buzz (in the good way)

Scott
from Colorado
July 26, 2006 Music Background:
Live Sound Hobbyist

Easy to use, can help a lot

I got one of these and added it to my PA before my driverack. If you enable these and use them sparingly they can make a difference. I eq. the system for fairly flat response with the BBE in bypass. Then turn it on, feed the signal and gently adjust the knobs. I find female vocals can benefit form a little high emphasis, and bass guitars can usually benefit from a little low. It provides a more 'interesting' effect than just straight tone controls. Like anything use in moderation and occasionally you're better off taking it out.

Matt
from Georgia
October 1, 2006 Music Background:
Recording Engineer / Mastering Engineer

Good, but dangerous

yeah, it sounds great, but it eats up a ton of headroom if you get carried away. As a mastering engineer i've had the painful pleasure of listening to a few CD where some idiot must have used this on several tracks in the mix, and then on the master buss. talk about listening fatigue! It is very very cool and can be just what the doctor ordered, but don't get carried away - it can be dangerous. Still, a good "magic weapon" to have in your rack. i love it, but still prefer the APHEX equivilent.

Craig Hatley
from Albemarle, NC
November 22, 2011 Music Background:
Live Sound Engineer, Musician, Technical Director

Didn't make a huge impact for me

I purchased this product as a part of a high-end JBL based live-sound speaker upgrade. It was for our church auditorium and a rock-style worship band. Once in place, I was very disappointed in the overall impact of the product. Don't get me wrong, the product seemed to work fine, but it added what I would describe as overly aggressive superficial highs (meaning the JBL cabinets were already producing plenty of what I needed) and it didn't really add any wow factor to our dual 18 subs on the low end either. I can only assume that the JBL electronics in the speakers already make some adjustments similar to the Sonic Maximizer as we only required a minimal amount of processing on the unit. I have heard these processors make an incredible difference in the sound of a system, but at least in this instance, a high-end speaker configuration seems to negate the need for this type of processor.

from Chicago, IL
April 21, 2007 Music Background:
Recording Engineer

BBE Sonic Maximizer

I've used this thing on various instruments in a mixing enviroment just to kind of test out the effect. I've found that it can be useful when used as an Aux send to improve tracks that were not well recorded.

Personally, I would not use this processor while mixing my own music. I feel that it takes away from the natural sound of instruments, and gives you this hologram replacement, a pretty picture.
I think alot of the reason why Sonic Maximizers get soo much attention is because people use them to make up for the fact that used poor mic technique and
dull sounding preamps. There would be no need to use an enhancer if you record properly.

Anonymous
January 1, 2005

Incredible

A good friend of mine (he owns a Protools studio) and I ran sound for a small venue...he brought his BBE 882. As a system check we ran a hard-rock CD through the mains. Without the 882, it sounded like crap, and we both knew it. He put in his 882 inserted on the mains, and it sounded freakin' awesome.
I call it the Magic EQ. It made our $2,000 system sound like a $15,000 system. A must-have...it's next on *my* list as , and I don't even personally own a PA system yet...

Robert
from Franklin Louisiana usa
December 1, 2004

one bad ***

this is one bad *** processor, can't live without it, it is a must have.

inSync Review

Ben Kirchman
8-16-2005

The 882i was recommended to me by a fellow sales engineer who told me that the effect the 882i would have on sound is nothing less than extraordinary. I fully trusted him and as I researched the product, I couldn't wait to hear the difference. I thought that I was fully prepared for the "wow factor;" how wrong I was. WOW! The complete richness and fullness that was added is very underrated by saying that it was extraordinary!

I used this product on a pair of Mackie SRM 450 monitors which are an excellent sounding pair of monitors. Simply by turning the lo contour and process knobs on the 882i up halfway seemed to bring the music to life. The real difference was when I pressed the bypass on the 882i and heard the unprocessed signal. Suddenly the music I heard didn't have the same magic to it. I was in utter amazement! I'm not to sure where BBE got their pixie dust from to put magic into this box, but I'm glad they did! This unit can be used in live sound, in a studio, on a mix-down, or an individual instrument. I whole-heatedly recommend this product to everyone who wants an easy way to add some magic to their sound!