Phase problems

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inhousejohn

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I know this might sound silly to all of you but bear with me. I have been recording for almost 3 years now and to this date i still have no idea what "the cymbals being out of phase means". I have had some big time studio guys listen to my stuff and i have never had a problem with phazing it always seems to work out fine, but i was wondering what it means and how can i keep from this ever happning in the future.
 
Phase issues

Phasing is basically when a signal in a microphone cancels out another signal in a microphone. To check for phase problems, listen to one of the stereo overheads and add the second. If the sound gets thinner and distent sounding when you ad the second mic, you have a phase issue. You also get this ALL the time if you mic the snare on the top and the bottom. Most often the mics will be out of phase and cause some cancelation. If this a problem try different mic placements first. I like XY coincent pattern on the overheads because it virtually eliminates phase problems on the overhead mics. When moving the mics is not really an option, reverse the phase. This can be done with a hardware unit, a software plugin, if you are tracking in the computer or, just reware a mic cable as your "phase cable". Reverse the plus and minus in the cable and you have a phase cable. Some preamps come with a phase switch that will reverse the phase of a mic.
Just be carefull you may have phase problems and not be aware of it. Listen to the cybol crashes if they sound thin and the sound like they are comming in and out of the stereo filed you probably need to adjust the phase...
Hope that was a help...
Doug
 
For the "shimmer" on cymbals, remember that the wavelength at 15k is about 0.45", so it is nearly impossible to have coincident phase on two mics, even in XY. The best you can do is to be one full cycle off, even with small condensers. You might be able to get close if you XY the mics one over the other, with the distance from a particular cymbal exactly the same to both diaphragms, but where on the cymbal do you measure? Probably the best way is still just experimentation, and listening as mentioned above.

Hope that confused the issue even more... :=) Steve
 
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