Toughts on Maxxbass

[ObsoleteAcc99]

For those talking about EQ, different thing. Maxx bass is creating harmonics that don't exist and adding them to the signal. An EQ is boosting or cutting what is already present in the signal.

There is no way you can replicate what maxx bass does with a traditional EQ. Impossible.

I do know voxengo harmoniEQ supposedly adds some harmonics to the signal, but it still sounds nothing like max bass when boosting the lows/low mids. And plus, how many EQ's besides harmoniEQ do such a thing anyway? I don't know of any.

[do_androids_dream]

For those talking about EQ, different thing. Maxx bass is creating harmonics that don't exist and adding them to the signal. An EQ is boosting or cutting what is already present in the signal.

There is no way you can replicate what maxx bass does with a traditional EQ. Impossible.

I do know voxengo harmoniEQ supposedly adds some harmonics to the signal, but it still sounds nothing like max bass when boosting the lows/low mids. And plus, how many EQ's besides harmoniEQ do such a thing anyway? I don't know of any.

I'm not saying eq can replicate what these plugins do. I'm saying that I would rather use eq to address any issues with the low end.

[ghettosynth]

For those talking about EQ, different thing. Maxx bass is creating harmonics that don't exist and adding them to the signal. An EQ is boosting or cutting what is already present in the signal.

There is no way you can replicate what maxx bass does with a traditional EQ. Impossible.

I do know voxengo harmoniEQ supposedly adds some harmonics to the signal, but it still sounds nothing like max bass when boosting the lows/low mids. And plus, how many EQ's besides harmoniEQ do such a thing anyway? I don't know of any.

I'm not saying eq can replicate what these plugins do. I'm saying that I would rather use eq to address any issues with the low end.

Sure, I hear you, but this is different. I mean you could create the harmonics yourself. I am often amazed at what just equing and adjusting levels carefully can do with respect to perception of sound. I still like to use this on certain tracks where it's not trivial to determine how to add harmonics.

[phreaque]

Waves Maxx technology relies on an algorithm which creates upper harmonics of the audio signal. Unlike other EQs or bass enhancers which they synthesis the lower harmonics of the audio signal.
Upper harmonics if they represented accurately (I.e each harmonic has certain amplitude) it will give more presence or existence of barely heard low frequency area. It makes the bass fat.
You can make similar approach somehow by using LoFi, decimators or bit reducers to make the bass active in the mid frequency region.
But yeah Waves are genius indeed. Hopefully I grabbed Rbass yesterday

[MountainKing]

There's also a free plugin called Bark of Dog that works quite well - very easy to use:

http://www.bozdigitallabs.com/product/bark-of-dog/




I'd try it out before buying stuff.

[do_androids_dream]

For those talking about EQ, different thing. Maxx bass is creating harmonics that don't exist and adding them to the signal. An EQ is boosting or cutting what is already present in the signal.

There is no way you can replicate what maxx bass does with a traditional EQ. Impossible.

I do know voxengo harmoniEQ supposedly adds some harmonics to the signal, but it still sounds nothing like max bass when boosting the lows/low mids. And plus, how many EQ's besides harmoniEQ do such a thing anyway? I don't know of any.

I'm not saying eq can replicate what these plugins do. I'm saying that I would rather use eq to address any issues with the low end.

Sure, I hear you, but this is different. I mean you could create the harmonics yourself. I am often amazed at what just equing and adjusting levels carefully can do with respect to perception of sound. I still like to use this on certain tracks where it's not trivial to determine how to add harmonics.

I'm probably approaching this in the wrong way.. It's more of an effect really isn't it? Rather than a tool to 'fix' things. In the past I've triggered sines along with a kick to beef it up or just replaced the kick altogether but I can see how this would be beneficial in certain circumstances.

[do_androids_dream]

There's also a free plugin called Bark of the Dog that works quite well - very easy to use:

http://www.bozdigitallabs.com/product/bark-of-dog/




I'd try it out before buying stuff.

Bark of dog is simply a narrow Q frequency boost - simple as that. You can do it with pretty much any eq plugin.

[do_androids_dream]

Haven't tried them - might be useful to the op.

http://www.vst4free.com/free_vst.php?id=1147
http://www.vst4free.com/free_vst.php?plugin=Edge&id=648

[ObsoleteAcc99]

There's also a free plugin called Bark of the Dog that works quite well - very easy to use:

http://www.bozdigitallabs.com/product/bark-of-dog/




I'd try it out before buying stuff.

different thing again. That's using the resonant HPF trick. What it basically is, is a low cut (or hi pass as most call them), with a resonant boost. It has the effect of cleaning out some of the low end gunk whilst actually adding presence and weight. It works pretty well on some drums, bass, etc.

Once again though it really is not comparable to max bas (not saying either are better just saying definitely not even remotely the same thing).

maxx bass takes a lot of learning even though the interface is simple. And it's really best when a/b'd with a small set of speakers vs your studio monitors.

After all, it was initially created as a dsp (if i am remembering correctly) process for stuff like laptop and small creative computer speakers to compensate for their actual real lack of bass. It's all ear trickery cause it's not adding anything to the low end but creating upper harmonics of the low end! Like with any plugin (including of course, EQ! the most overdone mixing tool on the planet lol), less is more and it can be easily overdone.

[ghettosynth]

For those talking about EQ, different thing. Maxx bass is creating harmonics that don't exist and adding them to the signal. An EQ is boosting or cutting what is already present in the signal.

There is no way you can replicate what maxx bass does with a traditional EQ. Impossible.

I do know voxengo harmoniEQ supposedly adds some harmonics to the signal, but it still sounds nothing like max bass when boosting the lows/low mids. And plus, how many EQ's besides harmoniEQ do such a thing anyway? I don't know of any.

I'm not saying eq can replicate what these plugins do. I'm saying that I would rather use eq to address any issues with the low end.

Sure, I hear you, but this is different. I mean you could create the harmonics yourself. I am often amazed at what just equing and adjusting levels carefully can do with respect to perception of sound. I still like to use this on certain tracks where it's not trivial to determine how to add harmonics.

I'm probably approaching this in the wrong way.. It's more of an effect really isn't it? Rather than a tool to 'fix' things. In the past I've triggered sines along with a kick to beef it up or just replaced the kick altogether but I can see how this would be beneficial in certain circumstances.

That's right. When you add a sine, it's often at the same frequency or lower. This isn't actually adding bass as Theo points out. It's dynamically adding upper harmonics to fool the ear into thinking that there is more bass there than there actually is.

[AKJ]

actually there was a voxengo plugin which was capable of a similar thing (and actually more): Transmodder, a transient-driven filter with 5 bands, so one could generate up to 5 "harmonics" generateds from transients of bass frequencies. look here: http://www.voxengo.com/product/tmodder/

unfortunately, it was discontinued.

[Selfik]

Interesting how after so many years nobody figured out how to exactly replicate what maxxbass/renbass really does. Must be some clever tehnique/trick used...

[No_Use]

Interesting how after so many years nobody figured out how to exactly replicate what maxxbass/renbass really does. Must be some clever tehnique/trick used...

Apparently Waves holds a patent on it, which would explain why there's no exact replication.

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... 3&t=422001

[AKJ]

well, since there is a patent, it should be quite easy to find out what it exactly does (because one has to explain that when filing a patent and the patent database is available to the public). Actually, the principle is also very well explained here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_fundamental
I have not made a detailed research, but to me it appears that the patent is quite old and probably is no longer valid. This would mean that anyone could build a replication now. However, I am not sure that a plugin like MaxxBass is generally the right way of dealing with bass in mix/master. As it was explained, it is meant to improve bass perception in small speaker systems. So, obviously, it would be better to implement the technique into the small speaker system instead of applying it to any song master. Looking at current small speaker systems in the market I am quite sure they actually implement MaxxBass like approaches. So I see very few cases where I really need something like MaxxBass ...

[do_androids_dream]

Another one that might help the op.

http://www.vst4free.com/free_vst.php?plugin=SEND&id=515

I'm getting very similar results to the waves plugins with this one - seems more tweakable as well..