Phase?

[tpresz]

Forgive my ignorance please.

I've heard people complaining about mixes being "out of phase".

In particular, when say, guitars are harmonizing.

Cane someone give an explanation/ example of what this is?

Thanks

 

[wjgypsy]

take a look at this: http://www.homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?threadid=79987

Zeke

 

[tpresz]

Holy Crap!!!!

Talk about too much information!!

I have an engineering background so I understand the math stuff.

I was wondering if anyone had an "audible" audio example of an "out of phase recording"?

Is this something you have to develop an ear for? Or would it be brutally obvious?

Kinda looking for mistakes I guess. Bad ones. Anybody got some "out of phase" recording "skeletons in the closet" they want to share? I mean really obvious ones since my ear probably isn't the best at picking this stuff up.

Great thread though. Thanks alot. Really stimulated the grey matter.

 

[jrosenstein]

now that you know the technical details...

take a track from a recording you've done (or any sound file, it doesn't matter), and put two copies of it on two tracks of a multitrack program. center them both. now offset one of the files anywhere from 1 to 50 milliseconds, and listen to the two tracks together. mute one of the files and listen again, to remind yourself of the original.

depending on the offset you choose, the sound will be mangled at different frequencies. sometimes it won't sound *bad*, just *different*. and sometimes it will be brutal.

 

[wjgypsy]

see if this helps. http://www.modrec.com/glossary/search.php there's also some audio samples but i didn't have the time to find them. just look around the website and you'll find'em.

Zeke

 

[Pedullist]

And here's a bit out of out phase bass (pardon my bad timing, it was only recorded to show the effect):

And on this song the guitars are out of phase. Difficult to hear, but they are...