tarnationsauce2
Welcome to the jungle.
DRUMS - Time alignment / Phase corrction. Pics and Audio examples!
Time, distance, and sound pressure… all very well defined variables, but also very hard to control variables. Luckily we have a DAW to correct some things that would take hours upon hours of mic placement in the old days. And well make the impossible possible, like making the snare mic coincident with an OH mic 6feet away.
In this example I used:
Kick - AKG D112
Snare – SM57
Under snare – CAD M179 set to cardioid pad engaged
Over Heads - Spaced pair 2x Stellar CM-1 set to cardioid (Apex 460 variant)
Toms - CAD M177 pad engaged
The audio is completely dry, no compression, no mixing, no panning, no EQ. Completely stock.
The ONLY differences between the audio files are time alignment, and phase alignment. This should help demonstrate how these variables affect frequency response, power, and imaging.
Here are some pictures of what an un-aligned vs. aligned waves look like. Phase, well that’s just a button on my DAW so it doesn’t show it graphically. But I’m sure you already know what it looks like when you invert phase.
Go ahead and load the files in your audio editing software to “see” the level difference if you can’t hear it. But I bet you’ll hear it.
The stock, untouched mix:
The mix with only time alignment on all tracks, even toms:
The mix with time alignment, as well as phase inverted on under snare and kick:
The picture below is split into 4 sections. I didn’t post pics of the toms, but it’s the same deal.
Section 1 Shows the stock time alignment.
Section 2 Shows the snare / bottom snare aligned to the overheads the overheads always should not be moved. Notice the under snare is inverted?
Section 3 Shows stock kick alignment. There is a lot less kick power in the overheads, that’s why it is so small. But alignment still helps. You can also see that the phase is pretty close to inverted here too.
Section 4 Shows the kick aligned to the overheads. Again, do not move the overheads, only move the kick track.
You'll also notice the overheads themselves have the snare a bit sooner on one side than the other, that can even be corrected. In this case it's a bout an 7 sample shift. Probably not even worth moving. This is best to align by better mic placement in relation to the snare.
Time, distance, and sound pressure… all very well defined variables, but also very hard to control variables. Luckily we have a DAW to correct some things that would take hours upon hours of mic placement in the old days. And well make the impossible possible, like making the snare mic coincident with an OH mic 6feet away.
In this example I used:
Kick - AKG D112
Snare – SM57
Under snare – CAD M179 set to cardioid pad engaged
Over Heads - Spaced pair 2x Stellar CM-1 set to cardioid (Apex 460 variant)
Toms - CAD M177 pad engaged
The audio is completely dry, no compression, no mixing, no panning, no EQ. Completely stock.
The ONLY differences between the audio files are time alignment, and phase alignment. This should help demonstrate how these variables affect frequency response, power, and imaging.
Here are some pictures of what an un-aligned vs. aligned waves look like. Phase, well that’s just a button on my DAW so it doesn’t show it graphically. But I’m sure you already know what it looks like when you invert phase.
Go ahead and load the files in your audio editing software to “see” the level difference if you can’t hear it. But I bet you’ll hear it.
The stock, untouched mix:
The mix with only time alignment on all tracks, even toms:
The mix with time alignment, as well as phase inverted on under snare and kick:
The picture below is split into 4 sections. I didn’t post pics of the toms, but it’s the same deal.
Section 1 Shows the stock time alignment.
Section 2 Shows the snare / bottom snare aligned to the overheads the overheads always should not be moved. Notice the under snare is inverted?
Section 3 Shows stock kick alignment. There is a lot less kick power in the overheads, that’s why it is so small. But alignment still helps. You can also see that the phase is pretty close to inverted here too.
Section 4 Shows the kick aligned to the overheads. Again, do not move the overheads, only move the kick track.
You'll also notice the overheads themselves have the snare a bit sooner on one side than the other, that can even be corrected. In this case it's a bout an 7 sample shift. Probably not even worth moving. This is best to align by better mic placement in relation to the snare.
Attachments
Last edited: