Double tracking phase issues.

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EtherealWidow

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I'm sure you've all run into this. You double track a guitar. Sounds wonderful in stereo. Mix down to mono, sounds horrible. What do you all do about this? Truth be told, I'm really not sure I should be worrying about this. The only time I ever hear of mixes being converted to mono is when they go on the radio. Being that I play black metal, I'm not really worried about the radio aspect. My question is: should I be so concerned about the guitars sounding ok in mono if I'm really not planning on my stuff ever reaching the radio? If I should be concerned, what should I do about it? Should I make an entire separate mono mix where I mute one guitar and pan the one remaining one accordingly? Thanks.
 
There's no reason to mix down to mono for radio format, so feel free to leave it in stereo where it sounds good.
 
Unless you plan to pan them hard left/right I think you're going to have problems. some people just use one mic... or you can try this method:

http://www.alexandermagazine.com/recordingeq/EQ/req0104/phasing.htm
 
Well see, I'm recording two takes of the same guitar riff, one mic, panning them hard left and right. It's just that the minute differences in the playing results in phase problems. And actually, I tried reamping the same guitar track panned hard left and hard right using one mic only and leaving it in the same position, and somehow I had phase issues with that. Can one mic really be out of phase with itself? Wtf?
 
EtherealWidow said:
Well see, I'm recording two takes of the same guitar riff, one mic, panning them hard left and right. It's just that the minute differences in the playing results in phase problems. And actually, I tried reamping the same guitar track panned hard left and hard right using one mic only and leaving it in the same position, and somehow I had phase issues with that. Can one mic really be out of phase with itself? Wtf?
hmm, that's odd. The only problem I've had with doing that is the summation of them causing too much bass when using high gain (and palm muting). I'm sure other freq's could have problems too, but I've never had any phasing issues doing that.

Dumb question: Is it possible that one of your monitor speakers has it's terminals/wires reversed?
 
Nope. Headphones. It's just that whenever I convert it to mono, it sounds a bit funny. And the correlation meter in Logic 8 confirms that it's the "widest permissible divergence in phase." They say it's perceived as a really wide stereo effect, but it just sounds funny and kinda phasey to me. Maybe it's normal, but I was just expecting it to totally be in phase if I reamped the same guitar track with the same mic position.
 
Hmmm maybe you need to ditch the headphones and get your bearings with some monitors to start? Sounds like an interface problem of some sort or maybe a slight latency issue?. I have never had a phase problem doing exactly what you are doing. Let us know your findings.
 
Well the funny thing is that I found out that I wasn't reading the meter right. It doesn't sound phasey or anything, I was just panicking (as normal). I do need to get some monitors though once I decide to quit being poor.
 
EtherealWidow said:
Can one mic really be out of phase with itself? Wtf?

Only if the mic has moved after the first track was recorded(given no wiring snafus or polarity/phase switch issues). The first thing I do when something sounds "out of phase" or just not right is switch the polarity on the desk(or ITB) for one of the tracks. I do this even when it sounds fine just to see if a pair of guitar tracks sounds better this way, sometimes it will.
 
That's what I had figured. Once again though, I thought it was out of phase from not knowing how to properly read a newly discovered meter. :oops:
 
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