Recording Studio Equipment

I’ve been using one of these in an equipment rack at home that I use to convert old analog source material: open-reel, 8 track, cassette and records. For those of you under 30, yes, that’s what we called vinyl back in the days before consumer digital audio was available: there were two main categories – LPs: 12″ 33-1/3 RPM, and singles: 7″ 45 RPM. Plus, our parents even had old 10″ 78 RPM shellac records in MONO (that’s MONAURAL, not MONONUCLEOSIS)!

I use this setup to archive and preserve mostly rare, hard to find, or out of print material on record or tape before the medium they’re on degenerates to the point where the signal can no longer be preserved with any quality.

Anyway, I use this along with a compressor/noisegate set as a limiter, and a graphic EQ set to restore lost frequencies and boost amplitude to max before distortion, to dub first to MD (minidisc). After the minidisc dub, I create track breaks, and the opticially dub to CD, after which I load the CD into my computer and rip the tracks to 192K MP3s.

It’s amazing the quality I can obtain from an old well-preserved cassette or record with this in the signal chain. It really does make old songs sound new again. I have dubbed several recordings from well-preserved cassettes and albums, that other than the presence of slight surface/media noise, actually sound better than some of the hasty CD re-releases of old records that have found their way to market.

I purchased the Sonic Stomp based on other reviews, here and elsewhere. It delivers as advertised. I have mostly low to medium grade amps and the Sonic Stomp works wonders on these, giving them a clear more defined sound. It is pretty subtle but when you A/B the effect on/off you can clearly hear the difference. I have a Peavey ValveKing 112 tube amp and a Crate RFX65 solid state amp and the Sonic Stomp works well with both. I have Peavey MAX158 practice bass amp and it makes it sound fantastic. I also have a Roland JC-120 which is a higher end amp compared to the previous amps I listed, and the effect is more subtle but still sounds good. My conclusion with the amps that I have tried it on is, the lower grade the amp the more of a difference you’ll hear. The controls are solid and the setup is simple. They recommend putting it at the end of your effects chain or run it threw the effects loop. I have tried it both ways and it works equally well. It comes with a 9 volt battery and an AC adapter. They recommend an adapter but it is quiet either way. I read in some other review that it’s like removing a blanket that’s covering the speaker. That is the best description of what this box will do for your sound. It is built solid, all metal including the knobs, easy no tool battery access, rubber on the bottom of the chassis, and it’s true bypass. I hope this helps somebody.

this is a MUST HAVE! you need this pedal! it makes my rig sound so much more alive! I play on an ENGL powerball II head with an ESP guitar on active pickups, and for both clean sounds and crunchy deadly distortions it’s the best thing I could have ever bought! I get the best out of harmonics, warm low freqs, delicious high freqs, and the overall improvement is very very noticeable! get it! it’s worth it!

I never really though i needed this until i bought it and heard the difference!
Meeeeeeeeeeen, what a difference in depth!
It totally makes your sound better.. there must be a fairy trapped in every unit of these wonderful products.

Works ok – need to try it with the full PA setting – right now can only use part of it due to my mono head not having an easy way to get between the mixer and amp.

I’ve had my MaxCom for a couples weeks now, and it has performed just as I expected. BBE has many great products and this compressor/exciter is one of my favorites. The built in Sonic Maximizer, a device that BBE is well known for, is a nice addition to the 2-channel compressor. Having the Maximizer built in frees up a space in your rack because you won’t have to buy two seperate units (the Maximizer and a compressor). If you know how a compressor works and what a Sonic Maximizer is, you should have no problem tweaking the settings to where you like them. Currently I have it in my bass rig and I will eventually use it for recording. Check it out, this is a great buy!