Phase experiment

  • Thread starter Thread starter Roch
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Roch

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Bare with me. Please.

I understand the concept of phase and why something can sound differently when it is out of phase. I haven't actually heard the difference of something in or out yet, in my limited experience.

Could somebody give me an example that I can try so I can see(or hear) for myself? I am looking for the classic scenario. I have sm57's, drums, guitar.

Roch
 
You ever hear a flanger or a comb filter effect?

It's kind of like that, only milder. It's mildly phasey. And if a snare is out of phase with the overhead, it will sound wimpy -- like it has no balls. Ditto with the kick. Cymbals will sound swishy.

I wouldn't worry about it as much with the guitar, or anything where you have a mono source close-mic'ed with even remotely crude, effective separation/isolation.
 
You should just worry when you track stereo tracks with 2 or more mics, or else it is fine.
 
It's easy to experiment on your own. Just hook up two mics and turn on the TV or radio. Have both mics panned to center. Put one mic on a stand a foot or so away and move the other mic back and forth. As you move the mic you will hear certain frequencies start to drop out.

Find a place that sounds really horrible and then pan both mics hard L&R. It will sound good but when you pan them back to mono it will sound bad. That's the effect you are looking to avoid when you do your own multi-mic recordings. If your preamp has a phase invert switch you can hit that and suddenly all the missing frequencies will come back.
 
Well, first of all there is rarely a situation where 2 mics are either completely in or completely out of phase. Phase is both frequency and time dependent, so with any 2 mic setup, you'll have different phase relationships at different frequencies.

If you want to experiment with phase interference effects and have a friend to help you, try setting up your guitar amp in another room with two of your SM57's up close and line them up as close as possible. Then play some riffage and bring up the levels and monitor with either a pair of headphones or on speakers in MONO (don't pan anything). Then tell your friend to slowly move one of the mics back away from the cabinet. You should here a flanging, comb filtering type effect. You might have to push the level up on the mic as you bring it further from the source in order to hear this well.
 
Thanks for the suggestions. I'm looking to identify the sounds so I can see what it is I am supposed to avoid.

Roch out!
 
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