Phase-alignment student seeking Obi Wan Kanshowmi

[LoopMastering]

That reference is probably giving you the most useful lesson here: the correlometer isn't a score to maximize. It is a warning light. A brief negative reading can be totally fine if the mix still sounds balanced in mono.

I'd stop trying to make the meter sit still. Toggle mono and listen for a specific loss: does a guitar vanish, does the vocal move back, does the low end change a lot? If nothing important collapses, there may be no problem to fix. If something does, trace that element back to its track or widening effect and adjust it there.

For the acoustic guitars, keep the body if it sounds good. Don't high-pass the sides just to satisfy the meter. Compare at matched volume, check mono occasionally, and let the sound make the final decision.

[irpacynot]

That reference is probably giving you the most useful lesson here: the correlometer isn't a score to maximize. It is a warning light. A brief negative reading can be totally fine if the mix still sounds balanced in mono.

I'd stop trying to make the meter sit still. Toggle mono and listen for a specific loss: does a guitar vanish, does the vocal move back, does the low end change a lot? If nothing important collapses, there may be no problem to fix. If something does, trace that element back to its track or widening effect and adjust it there.

For the acoustic guitars, keep the body if it sounds good. Don't high-pass the sides just to satisfy the meter. Compare at matched volume, check mono occasionally, and let the sound make the final decision.

Many thank yous!

Yeah, been using Waveform's default Mono switch for the past couple of years, and in the last year I added Beyer dynamic plugin as well to help give a better impression of the impact of frequencies as I'm mixing. That's definitely helped me to moderate bass frequencies. I just wasn't sure if I was missing something that I couldn't discern but might impact stuff below my personal radar.

I appreciate all the input.

[RirtualViot2013]

To help with Phase Alignment, I know that plugins from MeldaProductions (MAutoAlign) and SoundRadix (Auto-Align) exist (I don't own either of them though, but according to what I know, especially AutoAlign seems to make the process of phase alignment much faster especially if you are on time constraints and work with multiple mics on the same sound source e.g. a drum kit. It also comes with an ARA integration.

Other than plugins, I also recommend to make sure that for anything stereo and above, make sure that you know your mic placement setups. I can recommend a video from Audio University here: