Polarity switch on API or Great River

[gregohb]

This is a dumb question but what is the deal with the polarity switch on the API a2d and Great River preamps? I assumed it was a seldom used switch to correct incorrectly wired cables. But I find it sounds a lot better in both cases with the switch pushed in. And I am using a high end professionally made mic cable. Is this common?

[lowfreq33]

phase reverse.

[Raw-Tracks]

Are you listening to yourself talking into a microphone while wearing headphones?

[gregohb]

Originally Posted by Raw-Tracks

Are you listening to yourself talking into a microphone while wearing headphones?

yes. the polarity button makes it sound a lot louder.

[Raw-Tracks]

It's because the sound coming through the headphones is being mixed with the sound of your own voice that you hear internally. Are you going through a DAW as well? Latency through the DAW could be contributing as well.

Try listening to someone else talking or singing into the mic and flip the switch back and forth. You probably won't notice any difference between the polarity flipped.

[Raw-Tracks]

Originally Posted by lowfreq33

phase reverse.

Not to beat a dead horse, but it's actually a polarity reverse, not phase.

[Kiwiburger]

Semantics. The two signal paths of a balanced audio connection are known as "phases". Flipping the switch reverses the connections for these two phases, which inverts the polarity of the signal that we see after the balanced signals are later re-combined.

So either "Phase Reverse" or "Polarity Invert" works for me - whatever.

Whenever you hear two signals from the same sound source combined (whether electronically, or mixed in air), there is always the potential for phase effects if the signal is time shifted in any way. And there is always the potenial for boosting or nulling if the polarity of one signal is flipped. Or sometimes a complex mixture of both, which is likely the case here.

With a dry mono recording, ultimately it won't matter. But if it annoys you, then flip the switch - because you have to be comfortable with your headphone mix to get a good take.

[gregohb]

I was monitoring direct without going through a DAW. It did sound louder in the headphones while recording with the polarity switch invoked. However, when I burned a CD with the two, there was far less difference, and it seemed the regular (no polarity switch) version was slightly stronger if anything - so a reversal of what I was hearing in the cans.

[nosebleedaudio]

If your mic'ing a guitar cab front and back the phase/polarity comes in very handy...
And it does reverse the phase by 180 degrees with respect to the same signal...

[Raw-Tracks]

Some helpful reading on the difference between phase and polarity:
http://www.prosoundweb.com/studyhall..._and_phase.pdf