Phase Tip for Newbs...

[Atom Bomb]

Just a tip.

In my own arragonce i ALWAYS.... bar none, always... forget to check the phase of the track i recorded.

there is a funny little toggle button in most daws...clicking it will reverse the phase of your track. some DAW's will even reverse the image of your wave so you can visually see if you are in phase with your other tracks... Nuendo i beleive is where i saw this first...

anyways getting off track...

Toggle that button that looks like an 'o' with a '/' through it.

You can really suprise yourself with that little fellah and save yourself mixing time later on.

I noticed a huge difference on some muddy guitar tracks last night so i though i'd pass it along.



If any other more experienced members have anything to add or correct me on feel free.

 

[miroslav]

When you have a mic 180 out from other mics or you used a mis-wired mic cable...that's the only time the "phase" (really polarity) button is worth using.

But when mics are just spread around at various degrees of phase...the "phase-flip" button won't really fix things...but you can try both ways.

Phase correction is achieved by sliding your tracks for better time-alignment.


Honestly...I never really worry about *phase* issues as I tend not to multi-mic my sources very often. Drums are the only thing I regularly multi-mic, and the only mic that I will flip the *polarity* on is the spot Kick mic because I mic from the inside. That way the polarity is the same as the OH mics.
But I'm not that big on always phase/time-aligning the OH mics with the Kick & Snare.
Yes, there is a small delay between them...but that is NOT necessarily a *bad* thing.
I now some folks will phase/time-align EVERYTHING, ALWAYS...and then it can start to sound like MIDI sequenced tracks that have been quantized to 100%.

I've been wanting to get one of the Little Labs phase alignment boxes just to have and mess around with...just haven't gotten around to it.

 

[bouldersoundguy]

Just a tip.

In my own arragonce i ALWAYS.... bar none, always... forget to check the phase of the track i recorded.

there is a funny little toggle button in most daws...clicking it will reverse the phase of your track. some DAW's will even reverse the image of your wave so you can visually see if you are in phase with your other tracks... Nuendo i beleive is where i saw this first...

anyways getting off track...

Toggle that button that looks like an 'o' with a '/' through it.

You can really suprise yourself with that little fellah and save yourself mixing time later on.

I noticed a huge difference on some muddy guitar tracks last night so i though i'd pass it along.



If any other more experienced members have anything to add or correct me on feel free.

The correct term for that is "polarity" regardless of how it may be labeled. Mostly is has little effect on the sound except in how it combines with other versions of the same original signal (like when you have two mics on a source). But sometimes polarity flips are audible when you have a particularly asymmetrical waveform. Distorted guitars may fall into this category if the are clipped differently on the positive and negative side of the line. Sounds with a big initial transient may also sound different with flipped polarity.

Phase can't be flipped (swapped, inverted, whatever), but is instead expressed in terms of degrees, plus or minus. Phase is literally a matter of degree, a continuous spectrum of states, while polarity is either/or with no intermediate states.

 

[Atom Bomb]

Distorted guitars may fall into this category .

this.


I doubled up on some guitar tracks ot thicken them up and stuff and just for fun (casue i forgot about that little toggle button) i hit it and shit came together really quick. much clearer and the thickness i wanted was there. Didn't sound flat and muddy.

So that is the polarity.


Got ya.

thanks.