yup thats true. but for the reasons that i explained before is probably why Zeppelin didnt use that way. Maybe they did. But why would they put the snare there in the first place if theres a chance it was just going to cancel out?
BTW, also i think if it was an mp3 conversion error it would be on the drums as a whole and not just in the center. You would probably be hearing it on the left and right just as much as the center. If it was a chance that the mp3 encoder did swich the polarity of either the left or right channel, switching one of the channels polarity now/after should correct it and bring the snare back to life. I tried it, and it doesnt fix the problem. Also, if it did switch the polarity of one of the left or right channels, the snare would almost completely disappear. Thats only the case if in the first place everything was already 180 degrees in phase. Since it does close to nothing when i do a polarity reverse on a single left or right channel, it tells me that the thing out of phase is the close mic and both of the overheads, and it is close to 90 degrees out of phase in the mix. So switching the polarity on one side keeps it 90 degrees out of phase with the mix.
I think thats the best way to describe it and i think ive got it in order that makes sense and is accurate. Im seeing whats happening in my head but its alot more difficult righting it out on paper. Maybe a diagram will help. The degrees of phase might be wrong too.
Quick and simple solution, tell the person who did the drums to reverse the close mics polarity and the problem should go away. Try it and let me know if it works or not. If it does, but you still like it the other way, whatever. Its not that big of a deal to me. But im dieing to know for my own learning and experience to know what the problem is. If it does end up being an mp3 encoding error after all, i will still be content because i learned something new.
Im getting way to into this
danny