How to avoid phase cancellation

rene_m

New Member
Joined
May 13, 2013
Hi guys!
I have a tough question for the heads :)
How can i avoid phase cancellation in my mixdowns?

You know... if i mix two of my own tunes and they have the same snare drums for example.. the two tunes are cancelling out each other.
This also happend when i mixed two older State of mind tunes together... so this doesnt seem to be a very easy topic.

If i mix two Metrik tunes f.e. this doesnt occur? I tested this with Out of the fire and Break of Dawn, these two tunes use the exact same snare drum (frequency-wise). But it didn't cancel.

I tested with a snare drum mixed mono. So stereo-enhancement should'nt be the problem :)
Any hints?

Cheers,
Rene
 
Look for a good phase correlation meter, that will tell you if something is out of phase or not.
With you case of mixing the snares, if they are mixed in exactly the same position, they should be completely in phase, so maybe zoom on on the audio and make sure of that.
 
2 of exactly the same pieces of audio won't cancel each other out when played together at the same time, unless you flip the polarity on one of them - you'll probably get some phasing issues if played together at slightly varying times though.

If you've got 2 sounds with similar frequency content and you can hear that together they're causing phasing issues, try flipping the polarity on one of the sounds. This is usually applied to a sound that has been recorded with multiple mics, where the difference in distance from the source of the sound causes the sound to reach each microphone at different times.

Also, try listening to your mix in mono - this will usually reveal any stereo elements that are cancelling each other out when summed together in mono. Obviously from there adjust any stereo processing until you've reduced the phasing.

Edit: And yeah, get a good phase correlation meter - Brainworx doing a really decent one that also allows you to solo your mid/sides, as well as a few other features.
 
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