[Lagerfeldt]

Playing around with polarity on some asymmetrical waveforms made me think about absolute polarity in mastering.

I was trying to explain the phenomenon to a student and failed miserably in explaining how to detect it (I can explain why), except that 1) it can only be determined by ear, and 2) you need to confirm that it's not a monitoring issue first.

How often do you guys check and switch for the best polarity setting in mastering? I use the word "best" intentionally, since it's not always a case of simply being "different".

On some tracks it makes almost no difference, while it can make a huge difference on other tracks, e.g. a dance track with a saw bass or whatever.