Originally Posted By: Hugh2
Hi Simon,
I find phase a bit hard to understand and I cant seem to spot when I have a problem with it,thanks for the advice ,h



For example, if you shift one track by 1 millisecond, you'll have cancellation at 500hz, 1500hz, 2500hz, 3500hz etc basically acting as if you added an EQ reducing those frequencies. You can hear what happens in this video just before the 3 minute mark: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pJOkhPTpLo

As others have said, whatever sounds good is good, but phase issues are one of those things where it may sound "good" in very exact circumstances - your speakers, your room, your sitting position, your ears. Change any of those things and it'll sound terrible.

It's partly for this reason that when mixing I have a monitor controller that allows me to listen in Mono and with one speaker's polarity flipped, as it helps me hear certain phase issues more easily. I have a hardware monitor controller, but this can be done in software with plugins like the free Maat 2BusControl plugin.


Originally Posted By: Matt Finley
After a browse, I don’t see any mention of what NOT to pan. You don’t pan the lead vocal. That’s in the center. And you don’t pan the bass, because bass is very difficult to locate and you want the maximum sonic energy.


Agreed. I also don't always pan lead guitars or lead instruments in general, though it depends. For drums (when mixing separate stems for each drum) I don't pan the kick and usually don't pan snare (depending on the recording setup).

Last edited by Simon - PG Music; 03/10/21 02:05 PM.
I work here