BBE Sonic Sweet Optimized - V3 is now available from Nomad Factory

New owners can get all 4 mods for $69 until Friday (normal price is $149)
 
If you own Sonic Sweet, your upgrade price is $29 until Friday by using the Don't Crack website
 
Greetings,
 
As a Nomad Factory and/or BBE Sound customer, we are proud to inform you that a new version of the BBE Sonic Sweet is now available !
 
The BBE Sonic Sweet "Optimised" is a complete rewrite of the plug-ins included in the original “Sonic Sweet” plug-ins bundle. Designed to make your mixes clearer and louder like its forerunner, it also adds a new fourth plug-in to the collection, the Mach 3 Bass.
 
At the heart of the bundle there is still the software version of BBE's famous Sonic Maximiser hardware range, which is an emulation of their exclusive processing technologies that has set the benchmark for sound enhancement. World-renowned musicians have insisted upon using BBE Sound professional audio processors since they were first introduced in the '80s. 
 
BBE's Sonic Sweet "Optimised" will add clarity to the top end and fatness to the bottom, just like their famous hardware processors do without the "fizz" or digital "sizzle" common to most other sonic enhancers. The refinements brought by this new "Optimised" version extends to a new optimised GUI and improved controls for fine-tuning your sound.
 
*Because Sonic Sweet “Optimised” was completely rebuilt, it is NOT compatible with previous versions of BBE Sonic Sweet Plug-ins. Any sessions with a previous version of Sonic Sweet loaded into it must continue to use the old versions of the plug-ins.
 
To celebrate this new version, Nomad Factory and BBE Sound have partnered with DontCrack.com in order to offer a special “Sexy” introductory price of ONLY $69 instead of the regular $149.
 
*Previous Sonic Sweet owners can upgrade to the NEW Sonic Sweet v3.0 with the new “Mach 3 Bass” plug-in for ONLY $29 !!!
 
 
For more information, please visit the DontCrack.com website.
 
 
Sonic Sweet "Optimized" includes:
 
- Sonic Maximizer : The best way to get that professional sound and extra sparkle that is so difficult to capture, 
 
- Harmonic Maximizer : Increases Presence and Clarity, restoring Natural Brightness and adding Deeper and Extended Low Frequencies, 
 
- Loudness Maximizer : A mixing and mastering multi-band limiter plug-in. Its ultimate transparency allows the Loudness Maximizer to 'dramatically' increase the overall level of your mix without audible pumping effects 
 
- Mach 3 Bass : Take your low end to new sonic depths…
 
 
Product Requirements:
 
- Windows 7 & 8
- Mac OS 10.6 and above (including 10.10 Yosemite)
- VST - AU - RTAS - AAX Native
- 32 & 64 bit Support
- Up to 5 computers authorisation
 
 
Please  DOWNLOAD and try the new BBE Sonic Sweet “Optimised” bundle from the Nomad Factory website.
                       

Yup.
 
Before you buy read this thread about the old version I suggest:
 
http://forum.recordingreview.com/f8/anybody-tried-out-bbes-sonic-sweet-audio-plugin-suite-31144/
 
Use lightly! :)

This is fairly eye-opening. It's a review of the hardware version, not the plug-in, but it doesn't inspire great confidence in the BBE tech:
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LosL-gdHLpk

He does mention the phase alteration, he's just pointing out that the two knobs on the unit don't have much to do with it.
 

Well, it would modify it somewhat. EQ is changing phase of different bands.
 
But it's clear that the majority of the Sonic Maximizer effect comes from just the main phase bodge it does simply by being turned on.

The BBE Sound Process Explained:'
Loudspeakers have difficulty working with the electronic signals supplied by an amplifier. These difficulties cause such major phase and amplitude distortion that the sound reproduced by speaker differs significantly from the sound produced by the original source. In the past, these problems proved unsolvable and were thus relegated to a position of secondary importance in audio system design. However, phase and amplitude integrity is essential to accurate sound reproduction.
 
Research shows that the information which the listener translates into the recognizable characteristics of a live performance are intimately tied into complex time and amplitude relationships between the fundamental and harmonic components of a given musical note or sound. These relationships define a sound's “sound”. When these complex relationships pass through a speaker, the proper order is lost. The higher frequencies are delayed. A lower frequency may reach the listener's ear first or perhaps simultaneously with that of a higher frequency. In some cases, the fundamental components may be so time-shifted that they reach the listener's ear ahead of some or all of the harmonic components. This change in the phase and amplitude relationship on the harmonic and fundamental frequencies is technically called “envelope distortion.” The listener perceives this loss of sound integrity in the reproduced sound as "muddy" and “smeared.”In the extreme, it can become difficult to tell the difference between musical instruments, for example, an oboe and a clarinet.
 
BBE Sound, Inc. conducted extensive studies of numerous speaker systems over a ten year period. With this knowledge, it became possible to identify the characteristics of an ideal speaker and to distill the corrections necessary to return the fundamental and harmonic frequency structures to their correct order. While there are differences among various speaker designs in the magnitude of their correction, the overall pattern of correction needed is remarkably consistent. The BBE Process is so unique that 42 patents have been awarded by the U.S. Patent Office.

 
If your B.S. meter isn't already dancing in the red, it should be.
 
It's essentially a three-band fixed-band EQ that lets control the boost from two of the bands. In short, a mid-scooper. Yes, you get some phase shift - any non-linear-phase equalizer does that, and except in extreme cases (very large bass boosts), it's inaudible .
 
Even assuming said shift is actually beneficial, how do you know if it's an appropriate "fix" for your particular speakers? Or if your speakers (or your listeners' speakers) even need fixing in the first place? 

The BBE sonic maximiser has been around for *years*. Whether or not you believe in the *magic* of the *secret process* is up to you - but people still use these type of plugs on a snare drum or even a "dead" bass guitar for example. Can you do the same thing with EQ? Probably - but it's easier with a BBE plug. Just turn it on - et voila!
 
I actually got these plugs cheap because I had the old Cakewalk BBE plugin from *years ago*. Now the ver 3 upgrade is $29 - so it's not a big deal.
 
I'd say it's good to have in the armory, and you'd definitely use these things sparingly.
 
If you don't believe in the *magic* - I'd say just forget it and move on. it's not worth arguing about, and definitely not worth wasting time analysing waveforms etc etc
 
Just my £0.02 (worth $0.03)