Chris Hillman
New member
would anyone be so kind as to gently explain mic and/or speaker phasing to me? I'd be much obliged.
phasing
- Thread starter Chris Hillman
- Start date
knightfly
GrouchyOldFartOnBatteries
There's a search function, it's a button at the top of the page. When you click on it and type the word phase or phasing, you get a bunch of threads to check out. One of them is this one, which should help.
http://www.homerecording.com/bbs/sh...987&perpage=20&highlight=phasing&pagenumber=1
Now YOU try it - see the search button at the top right of the page? Good.
If that seemed a little snippy, sorry - I just don't think I could stand another 200 post thread on phase, especially since the stupid fucking console makers will NEVER learn what that switch should be called... Steve
http://www.homerecording.com/bbs/sh...987&perpage=20&highlight=phasing&pagenumber=1
Now YOU try it - see the search button at the top right of the page? Good.
If that seemed a little snippy, sorry - I just don't think I could stand another 200 post thread on phase, especially since the stupid fucking console makers will NEVER learn what that switch should be called... Steve
Chris Hillman
New member
Well, that's why I posted in "newbie," Steve.
Thanks,
Chris
Thanks,
Chris
Innovations
New member
let me discuss this as a generic topic from the standpoint of mics, The situation for speakers is a little different.
All sound are waves of pressure with highs and lows.
When two microphones are different distances from the sound source then different parts of the wave will be hitting each of them at the same time. If the high point is hitting one mic at the same moment that the low point is hitting the other mic the two will cancel each other out and you will get nothing. If on the other hand the highs and lows are hitting both mics at the same time then their effect is doubled. So you get a situation where some frequencies are twice as loud and others are silent, Now by reversing the polarity of one mic you are just making it so that the frequencies that used to be doubled are now silent and the frequencies that used to be silent are now doubled. However under certain cases (the micing of tops and bottoms of drums and the front and back of speakers mentioned earlier) this is all you need.
More generally though you either place your two microphones in the same spot or nearly the same spot but pointing differently (so that the highs and lows hit both at the same time. (This is what is done in XY or ORTF pairs.) Or, with directional mics, you insure that the microphones are far enough apart that the quantity of the first mic's sounds that are also being picked up by the second mic are insignificant. The rule of thumb is that the mics need to be three times as far apart from each other than they are to their sound source.
All sound are waves of pressure with highs and lows.
When two microphones are different distances from the sound source then different parts of the wave will be hitting each of them at the same time. If the high point is hitting one mic at the same moment that the low point is hitting the other mic the two will cancel each other out and you will get nothing. If on the other hand the highs and lows are hitting both mics at the same time then their effect is doubled. So you get a situation where some frequencies are twice as loud and others are silent, Now by reversing the polarity of one mic you are just making it so that the frequencies that used to be doubled are now silent and the frequencies that used to be silent are now doubled. However under certain cases (the micing of tops and bottoms of drums and the front and back of speakers mentioned earlier) this is all you need.
More generally though you either place your two microphones in the same spot or nearly the same spot but pointing differently (so that the highs and lows hit both at the same time. (This is what is done in XY or ORTF pairs.) Or, with directional mics, you insure that the microphones are far enough apart that the quantity of the first mic's sounds that are also being picked up by the second mic are insignificant. The rule of thumb is that the mics need to be three times as far apart from each other than they are to their sound source.