I may have a phase problem,although I dont even understand what that is

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stephenthemartyr
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2012/04/27 12:03:12 (permalink)

I may have a phase problem,although I dont even understand what that is

So I have a new track Im working on and it consists of 3 vocal tracks with a reverb bus and clavocals and Maserati vocals by waves plugins in fx bins.Then for drums I have battery 3 by native instruments,then massive by NI,then FM8 by NI,then another massive by NI ,then Absynth 5 by NI then FM8 by NI.I started noticing last night that in the headphones and coming out of my Yamaha monitors that my ears were feeling kinda weird.(i know that's not a good description but its kinda like when your ears "clog" at high altitudes and you have to "pop" them by holding your breath and noes and blowing)Is this a phase issue?How would I check if it is and fix it?Can synths have phase issues or am I boieng completely dumheaded?

Thanks for the help dudes!

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    Alegria
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    Re:I may have a phase problem,although I dont even understand what that is 2012/04/27 12:23:51 (permalink)
    I was recently checking out a "Waves" plugin to help manage phase issues. It's not a wikipedia article (you can easily search for that) but it does offer some videos on how to use it and why you should. I thought they were informative. You can check it out here:

  • InPhase

    Hope this helps,
    jc





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    musicroom
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    Re:I may have a phase problem,although I dont even understand what that is 2012/04/27 12:24:55 (permalink)
    This is such a shot in the dark. Your tracks could have low end frequency battles going on. You may want to use some high-pass filters. You could use voxengo span or a variety of analysis tools to perhaps see some clues to what your ears are telling you. You can also get the effect you're speaking of by over use of compression. Again, taking shots at this.

    Of course, phase issues could be your problem. What does the master bus sound like when you force to mono? Are you losing any of the sound when you do that? If so, phase problems would move to the top of the list.



     
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    stephenthemartyr
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    Re:I may have a phase problem,although I dont even understand what that is 2012/04/27 12:42:57 (permalink)
    Thanks Al Ill check it out i think the waves phase is probably too expensive for me but Ill watch the videos.
    Musicroom,you mean HPF's on the synths?or everything in general.Maybe over compression but i only compressed drums and vocals.Im newish to recording and mixing and not sure where the line is between too much and not enough,and how do I force the master to mono?

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    musicroom
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    Re:I may have a phase problem,although I dont even understand what that is 2012/04/27 12:58:31 (permalink)
    stephenthemartyr


    Thanks Al Ill check it out i think the waves phase is probably too expensive for me but Ill watch the videos.
    Musicroom,you mean HPF's on the synths?or everything in general.Maybe over compression but i only compressed drums and vocals.Im newish to recording and mixing and not sure where the line is between too much and not enough,and how do I force the master to mono?





    I use HPF on just about everything this side of a kick drum and bass gtr. Even then, at times I may roll off the bottom end.

    You say you are kind of new, so I would suggest that while you do want each individual track to sound great on its' own. That will not always lead to the best cumulative mix. You may need to thin out some of the frequencies to allow room for all of your tracks to work together.

    Without knowing your compression settings, I would try bypassing one of more them until that was ruled out as a problem.  

    On each channel strip and bus you will find the stereo / mono switch.

    Blue button:




     
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    dorism
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    Re:I may have a phase problem,although I dont even understand what that is 2012/04/27 14:51:36 (permalink)
    Hey Stephen, Is there a mic in our room which could be on and returning an out of phase signal - can happen if you have direct monitoring on.

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    stephenthemartyr
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    Re:I may have a phase problem,although I dont even understand what that is 2012/04/27 14:56:29 (permalink)
    No but thanks for the suggestion,I appreciate it.I do have a guitar plugged into my interface.

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    stephenthemartyr
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    Re:I may have a phase problem,although I dont even understand what that is 2012/04/27 14:57:55 (permalink)
    http://dl.dropbox.com/u/74841463/likely.wav this a link to the song in my dropbox thingha,its not mixed and still rough,if anyone feelis like helping me learn Id appreciate it



    Thanks guys!

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    dorism
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    Re:I may have a phase problem,although I dont even understand what that is 2012/04/27 14:59:47 (permalink)
    Something else to try, break the problem down. Solo in each instrument until you find the culprit

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    Bristol_Jonesey
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    Re:I may have a phase problem,although I dont even understand what that is 2012/04/27 15:28:18 (permalink)
    I'm thinking you might have serious frequency overlap here.

    You need to carve out a pocket for each instrument using EQ as a starter, then bringing in Panning, Reverb & delay to place the instruments in the stereo field.

    Read up on complementary Eq Techniques. It's a big topic!

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    chuckebaby
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    Re:I may have a phase problem,although I dont even understand what that is 2012/04/27 15:56:02 (permalink)
    trouble shoot it,start with one track at a time,and try them in mono to start.

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    #11
    stephenthemartyr
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    Re:I may have a phase problem,although I dont even understand what that is 2012/04/27 23:21:26 (permalink)
    Hey thanks guys
    1}dorism= listened to each track by itself and the only one that sounded a bit weird is the main bass sequencer part.It is kinda the crux of the song,its NI Massive synth and I used a preset called beavis and then used the step sequencer in sonar to make a 16 note kind of driving stuttered bass part .I tried another preset and it wasn't a problem but it also didn't sound as good.Not sure what to do
    2}bristol-i will def. read up on frequency overlap but probably wont be able to understand it tonight,can you give me a summary or a particularly clear explanation link,if not its ok,i dont want you to do my work for me,I appreciate the suggestions.I put gloss eq on almopst every track and used a hpf on every synth,as well as some lpf as well.

    I looked at the compression and kinda dialed it down but I dont think that was the problem

    Thanks so much guys

    HP Pavilion dv6 notebook PC Intel(r)core i7 2820qm cpu @ 2.30ghz,8GB of RAM,Radeon HD 6490m,720 GB harddrive
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