I've just heard that flipping the phase on one side of a stereo track can cause the sound to become a wider stereo image, I'm just curious if there is a relationship between width and out of phaseness lol.
Well yes true on both counts -sort of, so lets thin this out.
For starts take a mono image and flip one side. (pardon if you know and done this..) It is a very noticeable but weird effect- not like just wider' or true stereo at all.
Since we don't know quite what's going on on the O/H tracks how about you first pan them both dead center.
Now listen to one and the other by there self -That will be our base line' as to how the kit' sounds totally
in phase (because.. one mic = one point in space and from only one point'
in time (discounting room effects for a moment) = 'in phase.
Now bring in the other O/H -both still center panned.. and flip one or the other.
This (panned center) gives the best view (and/or worst case depending on how this turns out
..of your combined phase condition and their effects.
Is one combination totally more out'o whack, or looses way more tone than the other state?
Could one of the mics been recorded phase..
oops,
polarity flipped?
If it was a
spread pair there will always be tone' shifts -phase effects, due to arrival time differences from the various points on the kit.
Our job is just finding nice sounding combinations