In the same spirit of friendliness - believe me, you'd have to work hard to insult me :) ... > It seems to me that you don't understand the full > spectrum of sound that the Sonic Maximizer can provide. Oh, I do, believe me. I've used BBESM, Waves, T-Racks24, PSP Mixpack and probably a dozen other shareware eqs, compressors and limiters. My concern was that BBESM was being touted as a panacea for flat tracks, which it isn't. Yes, an A/B comparison between a dry track and a track processed with BBESM will show an improvement with BBESM. My point was there are far, far better products out there. BBESM is let down by a serious lack of control - just three knobs, whereas a dedicated multiband compressor such as Waves C4, T-Racks or even the PSP Mixpack allows for much greater 'tuning' (PSP Vintagewarmer is fantastic as well). In fact, I get better results from Reason than I can from BBESM, simply because I have a greater level of control. Of course, at $US2000+, the Waves package is beyond most hobbyists which is a shame because nothing else really holds a candle to them. I own T-Racks and the PSP Mixpack, but more and more these days I'm doing everything in Reason, because now I understand what I'm doing I can get results that are very close to what can be achieved with dedicated mastering software. Giving a track (or instrument) that "commercial" sound is less about what plugin(s) to use and far more about understanding multiband compression, eq, limiting and all the other good stuff that's collectively called "mastering". Even the humble Fruity standard plugins can give commercial-quality results if you take the time to learn and use them properly :) Having said all that - please understand that I'm talking about the plugin here. Maybe the hardware units are better. I just don't want to see anyone here slap down their hard-earned for a plugin that's really not going to get them anywhere. I'd rather see them buy a good tutorial book about mastering. Take care, G.