[Solved] How to get this kick without inverting phase?

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Hi everybody!
I've just registered here because from all the forums around the web it seemed to me the best one, so I really hope you can help me (and really hope it's the right section)
I 've been looking for a solutions to my problem for some days now, been reading many articles about phase on kickdrums and tried everything, and still haven't found nothing so specific; so, eventually, I have to ask.

Working on a track, i find the kick sound really better if I reverse the phase on one channel: it's cleaner, less muddy, and sits better in the mix.
The original kick (with the normal phase) seems to have some annoying medium frequencies that distort the sound and even make it some milliseconds longer, even if comparing with a spectrum the 2 kicks they're perfect identical; I've tried althought to cut with an eq but perhaps my ears are not so good yet, or I'm doing something wrong; I've also tried to resample the reverse phase kick and then selectin only one channel or reversing it again but it doesn't work.
The kicks I'm using are made with a synth.

So can anyone help me to get the sound I like but woth the correct phase?

I attach a small zip file with two very short audio files and two images.
Hope to have news soon (and sorry for my english)
Mauro

ps: i forgot to say I'm using akg headphones to produce, and can't afford good monitors yet.
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Last edited by hapi@flurred.com on Thu Feb 19, 2015 3:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Can't play the kick reverse phase.mp3.

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Inverting the phase on one channel is a really strange thing to do on a kick (or pretty much anything), and I can't imagine what made you think to do that in the first place. Generally if you are reversing the phase on a kick to get it in phase with other drums, the bass etc, you would do it to both channels. Otherwise you are going to be cancelling out most (if not all) of the sound when heard on normal speakers versus your headphones.

Anyway, Make a deep cut with your EQ using a wide Q and move up and down the frequency spectrum until the problematic frequencies disappear. Lower the Q and hone in on them again. Then reduce the depth of the cut and so forth until you are making as little of a cut as necessary to remove the offending frequencies. I didn't listen to your sample, but if your kick has a click make sure you don't completely remove that unless you want the kick to sit back further in the mix. If a bell doesn't do the trick you might need a notch filter. Pro-Q2 is a nice EQ for this sort of thing.

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Chris-S wrote:Can't play the kick reverse phase.mp3.
Lol, so I actually played these now, and yeah, you can play that file, but it's all completely canceled out except for a blip at the very end. There is something wrong if the OP is able to hear anything other than that blip at the end of the file.

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That's what I meant. It's presumably the sum of both channels, with one channel inverted. ;)

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Hi guys, thanks for your answers!
First of all :D sorry I exported the kick with reversed phase summing in mono so that's why you can't hear it, just like you said Chris-s.

I was trying your method Greg, unfortunately with no success and here is why: I remembered I updated the audio card drivers a few days ago, so I checked audio settings and found out the enhancements were automatically activated with the update; by disabling them I solved the problem!!

So it's ok now, windows audio enhancements were the problem!
Thanks again for your help!

Should I have to modify the title of the topic? With a [solved] or something else?

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hapi@flurred.com wrote:Should I have to modify the title of the topic? With a [solved] or something else?
I think a small edit where you keep the original title but add a little "solved" would be nice yes, there's no official policy on this and noone forces you to but it's nice so people can scroll on to search for unsolved audiomysteries instead if they prefer etc. :wink:

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:hyper: Done!

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can you explain a little bit, have you done it correclty?

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Sure, (on windows 8 ) you just have to go to control panel, click on "hardware and sound" then click again on "manage audio devices" under the sound category; from the list that appears you select the device you want and click on "properties". On the new window that opens go to the "enhancement" tab and check the checkbox labeled "disable all sound effects"; Press ok ok ok and that's it!

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