how to fix phasing problems

[Georgia_Boi]

When checking out your mix using the correlation meter, or turning on the mono switch, If instruments start to drop out and disappear, how would you fix the phasing problems. Sorry if this is a simple question, but I just want to know how.

[epotts06]

There will be a few different answers depending on your situation but to fix phase issues the easiest way to do it is to nudge or add a delay to get the waveforms back in phase...unless your talking about your stereo buss

[ObiK]

You should always check phase in the recording process to avoid issues like this. Otherwise there are a number of plug ins that allow you to fix them, but it never sounds as good as no phase problems from the start. I know Variety of Sound has a free one you may want to check out, don't know the name since I've never needed it, but I've heard decent things about it.

[laurend]

Remove any stereo enhancer if any.

[AshOzTheReal]

'sup Georgia_boi. Your question is not a simple one. Phasing can be caused by EQ'ing two different instruments on the same frequency in a mix. What I'm about to explain applies to any sound or instrument/s you may have used, but for example here's a common error...On many occasions, people tend to EQ two or more basses/bass instruments on the same frequency and when those basses clash (since each has it's own unique sonic properties) phasing occurs. The instruments may be either 180Degrees out of phase (that's when they "disappear" because they cancel each other), 90Degrees out of phase (they'll become louder in level...like 1.414 times louder than either sound or somethin' like that), and lastly, when they are neither 90Degrees or 180Degrees outta phase, that's when comb filtering occurs (random degrees outta phase).

But seems like you have the 180Degrees phasing problem (since you described the sounds as disappearing), so I advise you double check your EQ'ing on the different sounds/instruments you EQ'd.

GOODLUCK!

[bandcoach]

Unless it is important to record in stereo, record everything mono; i.e. overheads for a drumkit would be a stereo track and will definitely cause some phase issues, but nothing that can't be handled as long as you don't change the stereo centre of the track by panning.

Isolation testing is the next step in identifying why you have phase issues.

To do this you need to methodically mute each track in turn as you play back the mix; i.e.:
1) mute track 1, play the mix back;
2) un-mute track 1, mute track 2, play the mix back; etc.

When the phasing issues disappear you will have identified only the first culprit in the mix. Continue the process to identify the second.

You may well have three or more suspect tracks, so you may have to modify the process to remove two and/or three tracks at a time, i.e.:
1) mute track 1 and track 2, play the mix back;
2) un-mute track 2, mute track 3, play the mix back; etc.
3) start again this time keeping track 2 muted all the way through
4) repeat starting one track further across the mix console until you have identified all possible problems

Once you have identified the problem tracks, look to reverting eq and fx sends and inserts to 0 (i.e. remove any phase problems caused by signal processing)

By this stage you should have solved the problem.

Any further issues, I would look to canceling all fx first (mute the returns from them) and then over-riding all eq as a last resort.

It is instructive to remember that eq introduces phase issues from the get go unless the eq is designed to be phaseless (which is possible in the digital domain, but not the analogue electrical domain).

[Georgia_Boi]

Thanks for all of your answers.


---------- Post added at 10:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:51 PM ----------

'sup Georgia_boi. Your question is not a simple one. Phasing can be caused by EQ'ing two different instruments on the same frequency in a mix. What I'm about to explain applies to any sound or instrument/s you may have used, but for example here's a common error...On many occasions, people tend to EQ two or more basses/bass instruments on the same frequency and when those basses clash (since each has it's own unique sonic properties) phasing occurs. The instruments may be either 180Degrees out of phase (that's when they "disappear" because they cancel each other), 90Degrees out of phase (they'll become louder in level...like 1.414 times louder than either sound or somethin' like that), and lastly, when they are neither 90Degrees or 180Degrees outta phase, that's when comb filtering occurs (random degrees outta phase).

But seems like you have the 180Degrees phasing problem (since you described the sounds as disappearing), so I advise you double check your EQ'ing on the different sounds/instruments you EQ'd.

GOODLUCK!

Thanks man. What up ?

[AshOzTheReal]

Thanks man. What up ?

Just learning new things everyday man, glad I finally joined futureproducers.com. At the same time, tryna breathe new life into hip hop in the Southern Hemisphere..the usual grind. Any luck on the phasing problems?

[laurend]

Phasing problems don't exist until you create them. I won't evoke here all mic placement and acoustics issues.
Here are the usual suspects when mixing:

-Polarity inverter (Ø or 180°)
-Stereo enhancer or widener
-M/S processing
-Delay
-Reverb
-extrem Eq
-Poorly set parallel processing
-Disabled latency compensation for plug-ins

You just have to remove every suspect one by one from your mix to identify the culprit(s).

[rayzer]

phasing can also happen in presets when you have 2 of the same oscillators at same octave without detune, either detune the 2nd osc slightly, or shove it up/down an octave or remove it altogether.