Are phase relationships the key to a great mix?

[lfm]

All of what has been said by far indicates that controlling phase/polarity is crucial. As that issue has been known for years I'm wondering why DAW manufacturers/devs don't include direct controls (more in depth rather than just polarity inverse or mono swithc) to DAWs mixer channels by default (like pan, mute etc). It would be more helpful rather than managing dozens of instances of the same plugin.

Just a thought...

Reaper has a plugin called time_adjustment.

I use to compensate for signal through DI and amp is different.

I also detected a difference of 56 samples(0.25ms) through the preamp and when going directly to line in on soundcard.

You can set in samples or ms+samples. And if loaded as input fx when recording you stuff will be lined up automatically in the clips. No further handling needed.

Just calibrate you different situations and store with this plugin as a couple of track templates - and reuse everytime without any mockup.

For guitar and bass I use two paths when recording.

[ducter]

Pretty cool feature in Reaper.

It all helps to get the maximum of attacks hitting at exactly the same moment in time. And therefore increasing the dynamics at the attack.

As the various instruments are at different frequencies the waveforms diverge right away. But having their start points at the same moment especially following a silence, gives the punch some people seek.



I probably wasn't the preamp, but the A to D conversion that added the delay.

And just to get exact about all this

Time difference in (ms)  0.25 ms

Speed of Sound 343M/sec

So .25ms is

 Distance in (m),   0.175 m
or inches ('') 3.375984

So it is as if you placed one microphone was placed 0.175 m or 3.4 inches behind another to record the source.

[lfm]

I probably wasn't the preamp, but the A to D conversion that added the delay.

Not really, those parts are taken care of by reporting to Reaper how much they delay from ASIO drivers.

I did a loopback, line out to line in, and they line up sample accurate. It's easy to do with just the metronome if you want to calibrate the different equipment you use.

Taking soundcard headphone out, into microphone and preamp in, delayed 0.25 ms.

The delay alone doesn't matter if one source, but in this case you record two signals from the same instrument, and the sound become boxy because of this delay/phaseshift.

[ducter]

I probably wasn't the preamp, but the A to D conversion that added the delay.

Not really, those parts are taken care of by reporting to Reaper how much they delay from ASIO drivers.

I did a loopback, line out to line in, and they line up sample accurate. It's easy to do with just the metronome if you want to calibrate the different equipment you use.

Taking soundcard headphone out, into microphone and preamp in, delayed 0.25 ms.

The delay alone doesn't matter if one source, but in this case you record two signals from the same instrument, and the sound become boxy because of this delay/phaseshift.

As most Microphones and preamps are analog, the Digital to Analog conversion at the soundcard headphone out is probably giving the delay.

[lfm]

As most Microphones and preamps are analog, the Digital to Analog conversion at the soundcard headphone out is probably giving the delay.

I don't think so.

It's signalwise the same point as line out, so the same D/A is used as for analog outs.

So these are accounted for in the delay reported to host.

And that this is correct shows also that you can loopback line in and out and get it lined up nicely.

I've got Line6 bass amp, and that is a little more, 1.3ms through. But that are digital chips and stuff involved so that is expected.

So bass i DI:ed as well as through amp.

The most important is that result is compensated for.

So getting a explanation for why it was sounding a bit boxy wasa good and is now ok. And a full shift of phase did more harm than good. So this tiny delay created it.