How do I do this (phase cancellation stuff)?

[powderfinger]

I read this in EQ magazine......how would I go about doing this?

"For getting vocals done, we'll do things like switching the phase on the speakers in the control room and have them sing right there. That way they don't get freaked by working in headphones. Because the music coming out of the speakers is out of phase, we can have it as loud as they need it to deliver the song. We can go back in and flip the phase on the vocal so you don't hear any of the bleed, plus we use mics with good rejection. You know, we'll use a Shure SM7 and have the singer faced directly at the speakers. Then we go into Pro Tools and clean up the noise between the phrases. Once the music is blended in you're fine"

 

[mixsit]

Switching the polarity on one of the two monitor speakers, with a mic placed dead center, alot of what's comming back would cancel out - except for anything not mono and everything reflected in the room.
Sounds like they still had to go in and clean up the bleed though.
Wayne

 

[TexRoadkill]

Probably the easiest way to do it is to create a jumper cable with the polarity reversed for powered speakers. If the speakers are powered from an amp just reverse the + - on one of the speakers. The trick is to make sure the mic is dead center between the speakers so use a string or tape measure. Also make sure the speakers are as directly behind the axis of the mic as possible.

 

[powderfinger]

hmmmm....sounds like a little too much work for what i need.......it would be kinda cool, but i'm fine w/ headphones for now

Thanks Tex and mixsit