d8b Forum

What is the best way to hook up a Sonic Maximizer to my d8b for recording & mastering?

Equipment:
MOTU 828
DA-98HR
Alesis HD24
TASCAM DAT
Sony Minidisk
Maranta CD burner
24 point patchbay

It depends on what purpose you want to use it for.

Everyone's taste is different when it comes to sound, but I personally wouldn't put a BBE Sonic Maximizer in any sort of "permanent" position in the signal chain. I'd put it on the patchbay, and if I want to use it, either...

1. use it on the inserts of the input channels I want to process with it, or...
2. connect via one or two (if stereo) of the Aux-Sends, and bring it back in on one (or two) of the channels.

Opinions on the Sonic Maximizer might differ, but in my personal opinion, it's a dated and over-processed sounding "squash" effect, that sucks the life out of almost everything you process with it. To my ears, it has a limited use for things such as fattening up high-gain guitars (but even then, I'd do parallel processing, so it doesn't completely neuter the sound into a flatline without dynamics) - but I'd keep it miles away from processing my 2-Buss/Master out, or anything that affects the overall sound of the mix.

IMO, the Sonic Maximizer is similarly outdated to the Aphex Exciter. It had it's time and day, but nowadays has no place in the "Mastering" chain, IMO.

Having said that, I still have one, too, and it's wired to the patchbay. It doesn't get much use, though.

I think there's a reason why you can usually pick a used one up for $50-$75.

Again, tastes differ, so if you LOVE the sound the Sonic Maximizer creates, by all means, run everything through it that you think sounds better afterwards. But for my taste, when in doubt if it improves a signal, I'd rather leave it out of my signal chain completely...