Panned guitars, phase issue, amp sim

andrushkiwt

andrushkiwt

Well-known member
Hmm, can't recall I've had this issue before. I have two guitar tracks, both hard panned, one L one R, playing the same part, sent to the same bus. When played together, they sound odd, like there's some sort of sonic gap, and an empty sound from the L guitar. I put a phase meter on the master bus and soloed those guitars...they are peaking at 0, but frequently move into the negative. So...I put a "phase invert" plug on each side, tried it on one and then on the other, and there's no change. The phase meter plugin stays where it was, hardly ever moving into the positive.

What the hell did I do here? Hundreds of guitar tracks later, I've not encountered this issue until now. Well, the one time I did...the phase invert plugin on one the channels fixed the problem. Let me know if you want a screenshot or audio clip. thnx

edit: looking at my heavier set of guitars now, and they do the same. Only moving into positive on sustained notes, but strumming puts the phase meter into the negative mostly. As a whole, the mix stays very positive, once drums and bass and vocals are added. It's just the soloed sets of guitars that plunge into the neg.
 
Some effects that use a wide stereo type of sound achieve it buy placing one side of the stereo out of phase to some degree, the problem with this is that when played in mono the sound is crap. Have you got a wide effect on?
Alan
 
witzendoz said:
Some effects that use a wide stereo type of sound achieve it buy placing one side of the stereo out of phase to some degree, the problem with this is that when played in mono the sound is crap. Have you got a wide effect on?
Alan
Click to expand...

I don't. I'll upload a clip shortly. Thanks for responding.
 
Gtoboy said:
Might be time alignment issue causing comb filtering
Click to expand...

No, I never moved the tracks. I even rerecorded them, but I still hear it. Good idea though, thanks. I'll just scrap the issue...the mix sounds fine, it's only the hard panned guitars in solo that sound funny.
 
andrushkiwt said:
No, I never moved the tracks. I even rerecorded them, but I still hear it. Good idea though, thanks. I'll just scrap the issue...the mix sounds fine, it's only the hard panned guitars in solo that sound funny.
Click to expand...
That almost always sounds funny to me. You don't have to move them to cause comb filtering. Sometimes playing too tight is worse. Does it collapse to mono reasonably well?
 
I just think I'm hearing a "sonic gap", of sorts, between, say, Hard L and center. But the R side seems evened out. Unless, you know, I'm imagining things :) I'm referring to the soloed set.

Those soloed guitars come into the "full mix" at 0:15.
 
I can't listen right now. Are you saying that the guitars in the mix sound good and sound decent even when collapsed to mono? Then there is no problem. Stop looking at the phase meter.

The phase meter should be around 0. Too much positive is just as bad as too much negative, just in the opposite direction.

It doesn't matter what the guitars sound like soloed if the audience never hears them soloed.
 
I just re-read the original post. I read it backwards.

More than likely, the parts were played too tightly and have too similar of a sound. You can either change the tone of one of them or slide one part on the timeline a slight bit, until it sounds better.
 
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