Maximizer

[Doug_H]

Perhaps this time alignment is better noticed when reproducing the material through triaxial speakers with passive crossovers, as each band will be delayed differently and there is more to correct.

I've always suspected the "alignment" stuff was more useful for p.a., recording, and etc, where you have a much wider freq range, crossovers, etc. I've kind of viewed it as maybe a "mix fixer" in that respect. Otherwise, for guitar alone it essentially functions as a nice EQ. FWIW, my bass player tried it and didn't like it. He plays a Jazz bass derivative and I don't think there's enough hi-freq content in it (or maybe his amp) for the BBE to make it interesting. So the "process" control didn't do much and the bass boost just farted out the lows on his amp. It might be more interesting in a crisper sounding bass rig that's bi-amped, using an Alembic or Rick or something.

Thanks for the analysis!

[stm]

FWIW, my bass player tried it and didn't like it. He plays a Jazz bass derivative and I don't think there's enough hi-freq content in it (or maybe his amp) for the BBE to make it interesting. So the "process" control didn't do much and the bass boost just farted out the lows on his amp. It might be more interesting in a crisper sounding bass rig that's bi-amped, using an Alembic or Rick or something.

Yes, this kind of circuit doesn't do much when highs are not there in the first place.  Probably an Aphex Aural Exciter or a similar device would do better for him.

On the other hand, the BBE process is clearly targeted for the hi-fi audio market, i.e. 20 Hz to 20 kHz, thus it is fine tuned for music rather than to a particular musical instrument (I am not aware that the pedal versions are tuned differently for instruments).

For guitar playing, I found a great improvement when reducing the filter's frequency to 70% of its value--well, in fact to 66% or 1.5x less of its original value.  I have the feeling that for bass dropping the frequency of the filter to 50% or so might be a much better match for the instrument in terms of the Process knob.  Regarding the Lo Contour knob, maybe dropping the frequency might do good as well as it might reinforce the bass closer to the point where the speaker's response is falling, who knows.

One thing I forgot to mention based on my experiments is that the state-variable filter implementation allows you to CUT bass as well.  Indeed, I fully cut the bass and with the highs raised I got a very VOX-like sound which was quite appealing also.

[Meanderthal]

 That's interesting that a bass player would not like it. I play bass, and have used it both bi-amped and single speaker, thru various cabs with and without passive crossovers, and always noticed a big improvement. The only thing is- I consider the high end to be as important as the lows for good bass guitar tone(it MUST growl!), except for certain songs or styles that call for the old thump-thud and not much else, but even in those situations it certainly seems to sound better with a bbe. I've tried aphex(admittadly a cheaper one) and to me it sounded something like these horrible Shaguang preamp tubes I made the mistake of buying for my ampeg.(got smart and bought a set of JJs jike I shoulda to begin with) It was a kinda persistant staticy backround distortion that wouldn't go away. I like to get a real CLEAN fat sound sometimes... And then sometimes I like to get twisted...
Thanks for figuring this out! This one always puzzled me, ever since I opened my first one and found chips stamped BBE! I had always assumed that the whole thing was way too complicated for reverse engineering.

[Doug_H]

The only thing is- I consider the high end to be as important as the lows for good bass guitar tone(it MUST growl!), except for certain songs or styles that call for the old thump-thud and not much else, but even in those situations it certainly seems to sound better with a bbe.

I agree and prefer more high freq to get "growl" from a bass (esp a jazz bass) but he sort of does the "thump-thud" on his 5 string. (He's very good though, so I don't complain...;-) But his tone doesn't benefit from the BBE.

[Doug_H]

One thing I forgot to mention based on my experiments is that the state-variable filter implementation allows you to CUT bass as well.  Indeed, I fully cut the bass and with the highs raised I got a very VOX-like sound which was quite appealing also.

There's a lot of things I need to play with on this...

[Meanderthal]

 Oh, ok, he's using a 5 string J... Yeah, for some reason those just don't have the growl of a good old 4 string J, and it's not just the B string. I know a guy who uses both in a funk band, and when he plugs in the 5 the growl is almost gone. They're both USA Fenders too, so it might be the extra mass, or the pickups, but it's the bass itself that just sounds different..
On the other hand, now that I think about it there are some excellent flatwound bass players like McCartney and Jamerson who would have no use for one of these at all, so I guess it makes sense now...