Phase Check
Checking whether combined signals cancel, causing comb filtering and a thin sound
Related
A phase check verifies whether combined signals reinforce or cancel each other. Two microphones on one instrument, a stereo pair, or layered drum samples can produce comb filtering from small time differences, thinning certain frequencies.
Useful tools are the mono fold-down, a correlation meter, polarity inversion and soloing each source. If the sound thins or vanishes in mono, cancellation is present; if inverting polarity restores low end, the original polarity may be reversed. Time alignment is more fundamental than a simple flip.
The usual mistake is fixing every phase difference. Stereo width depends on differences between left and right; keep the phase relationships that serve the sound and treat only the cancellations that damage it.
Sources
- 多麦克风相位与单声道校验，参 Huber & Runstein, Modern Recording Techniques 与 Bobby Owsinski, The Mixing Engineer's Handbook；本文为原创表述
Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.