How do you manage with phase issues ?

[SLy_drums]

How do you, guys, manage with phase issues ??

For instance, when recording a drumkit with 15 mics, do you hardly look at the track waves and place it right manually, in order to make the gaps fit the gaps, and the peaks fit the peaks (as long as it is possible) ?
Do you use phase analysers ? (plug ins ?)
Do you place your mics taking care to phase as much as possible ?

I always wondered haw people really deal with it ? Are there secrets ? How do recording engineers do ?

thanx

[T_R_S]

A Phase Switch???
Look at the waveform zoomed in?

[RoundBadge]

I'm not big on the 15 mic thing..although extra weird room mics are cool sometimes.
less is more for me.

your ears..in conjunction with:
A good assistant with good ears and experience.
most important:Careful Mic placement.
Phase switches.
..littlelabs IBP's are a big help if your stuck .
and checking waveforms if your on the fence.although sometimes what looks right on the screen doesn't always sound right...
so back to using your ears.
a good sub sometimes helps too.
but yeah,less mics and good experienced ears make it pretty easy.
take your time to make sure it's right..saves you nightmares later on.

[Anderson]

Are you using your Phase correlation meter when miking? It's a good first step!

Yep, IBPs are the ultimate trick

[TheSweetener]

I think I still am the only one that was a little disappointed by the IBP.
Of course for kick drum, where you only have one "tone" to dial in, it is amazing. But so far I never got really cool results with multible guitarcab mics. The problem is simply that if the IBP setting works on deep chords, it can sound very phasey on higher notes.
I think it's a nice little helper, but not as useful and lifesaving as I expected after reading many posts here on GS.

By the way, I don't wanna hijack, but is it normal that even if the knob on the IBP is in the 0° position the phase changes a little when you bypass (switch on) the unit?

[Anderson]

Yes, it is normal... I noticed it as well, but I don't think it's an issue. I guess that you have some amount of phase shift when engaging the unit.

I used it on guitar cabs, using 3 mics, 2 of them aligned with IBPs - No pbs whatsoever. I think that what you heard was not from the IBPs... but from your room. Was it done in a small room or a booth?

I'll check that next time I use them!

Cheers!

[drmmrboy]

That's a lot of mics.
Where are you pointing all those mics?
Top and bottom of the snare & toms? In and out of the kick? Cymbals? Triangle? Gong? Just kidding...

Phase switches... Use a correlation meter, but trust your ears.
Mic placement is key, and less mics = less issues.

Andrew

[TheSweetener]

Originally Posted by Anderson

Yes, it is normal... I noticed it as well, but I don't think it's an issue. I guess that you have some amount of phase shift when engaging the unit.

I used it on guitar cabs, using 3 mics, 2 of them aligned with IBPs - No pbs whatsoever. I think that what you heard was not from the IBPs... but from your room. Was it done in a small room or a booth?

I'll check that next time I use them!

Cheers!

How do your dial in your IBP with guitarmics? Have the mics the same distance to the cab?

No, I don't use a booth for recording.

Thanks!

[Anderson]

Originally Posted by TheSweetener

How do your dial in your IBP with guitarmics? Have the mics the same distance to the cab?

No, I don't use a booth for recording.

Thanks!

We were recording from a Marshall 1960A and an Ampeg SVT15E - the reason for the bass cab was that we used 7 strings guitars, we needed clean powerful bottom.

One mic (AKG C414) was in front of the Marshall cab, we put it where it sounded the best on it's own. Then we put a D112 on the side of the 15" membrane from the Ampeg, and a R122 facing more to the middle.

Then I aligned the 414 & 122 on the D112. They were all at slightly different distances from the cabs. I dialed the IBPs using first a phase meter, sending 90Hz & then 1kHz in the cabs. Once done with that, I used my ears and tweaked a bit more until I actually liked the sound better. I ended up with the 414 not fully aligned with the rest, sounded too harsh if so. But the 122 was fully aligned. Gave great results.

Cheers!