Maximizers and Ultramizers

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Bahrain_Phill

New member
A friend of mine sold me his old Behringer Ultramizer for 30 bucks. I figured what the heck. However, I had never heard of an ultramizer before that day. I have been installing audio systems since I was 15 (over 10 years ago) and never seen or heard of an Ultramizer. So my question is. What the heck does this thing actually DO? And, for those of you who do have one, where in your system do you use it? After doing some reading online and playing with it here, it seems like the Ultramzier is sorta like a compressor, reverb module, and 3 band EQ all in one. The manuel just says things like, "Expands your sound!!!!" (What?! How does it do that?) or "Gives more full sound" :confused: I'm just looking for a more detailed idea of how it does what it claims to do and how I can get the most out of this piece of equipment.
 
Its a sad excuse for a multi-band compressor. I have actually used one and it is craptacular. I guess if its only $30, its ok to have, but dont use it and expect it to be clean or anything. In short, it is a 'program adaptive' multi-band compressor (only 2 bands, i think) that maybe useful in situations where sound quality can be compromised :-/
 
Yeah, it is only two band. You can adjust the low band (I forgot the range) and High band. Overall, I am not too impressed with it. I also got a Behringer Compressor/Limiter for 30 bucks...That I am much more happy with.
 
I have used the 'middle-range' behringer a few times at some live shows... they were usable, but only for drums. They crapped up vocals and other instruments too much for my taste.
All in all, I guess $30 isn't bad for a compressor... you know... just to say you have it, but forget about using it on anything sensitive... it will rape and pillage the fidelity of it with its VCA crappiness.

-JazzMang
 
So which compressor would you recomend? This is the only one I have ever owned and 'seems' to do fine. I mainly use it to keep my guitar distortion at a non-ear killing level but maintain the overall 'loudness'. Again, its 'seems' to work great. I have only been using it for a few months now.
 
There are a ton of decent compressors out there. I, personally, like the ART Pro VLA. I adds a nice flavor while compressing... my only gripe about it is that it is not a limiter at all... i need a TC finalizer for that sort of thing (saving up).
As far as recommendations, the people around here seem to love the FMR Audio RNC (really nice compressor). It is nice and clean and is an all-around excellent unit. It runs anywhere from 200-300 bucks, AFAIK. You could get the pro vla, if thats the kind of compressor you want. Also mentionable are the various dbx units that are excellent for drums especially.
Hope this helps.

-JazzMang
 
I am not certain if it is exactly the same, but my DSP9024 included an ultramizer module. I think it was the same algorythm but built into a more powerful processor.

As with most things that are multiband and having to do with compression, it takes a lot of careful tweaking and adapting to a specific piece of music to make it sound like you want.

But mine did exactly what they claimed and worked fine. You can download manuals from the Behringer website.

The main problems is that most people don't ealize what something will SOUND like when they hear a verbal technical description of the effect. In most cases it should be applied very sparingly, and you should understand what frequencies you want to apply it to and what multiband compression really does.

It is not a simple "plug in and hear how it sounds" type of effect.
 
Agreed

I also have a 9024 and have had great success with it...
The 9024 is not the same as the smaller units...
Different algorhythms and better audio control...
There IS a "learn" function on it - But, I don't really care for the results...

Nice thing about the 9024 is that it is a six stage multiband compressor where each band can be individually controlled or linked together...

There are complaints with this unit about the Limiter being too slow... And they're right... But I never use/used it anyway...

But, this piece of equipment definitely isn't "plug-n-play"...
It took some tweaking to get the sound where I wanted it...

But, a very powerful tool indeed (And hard to find these days!?)
 
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