Optimizing phase relationships with Steve Albini

In this sneak peek, Steve Albini explores the complex world of polarity and phase relationships when recording drums.

Join us at Studios La Fabrique for a comprehensive tutorial on drum recording techniques! Hosted by the legendary rock engineer Steve Albini, this video series dives into great detail on tracking a drum kit in fully analog fashion with a Neve 88R console and Studer A800 MKIII tape machine. Albini takes you through his microphone preferences and positioning for bass drum, snare, toms, overheads, stereo drum kit, and room ambience. He gives concise reasoning for the types of microphone used and their placement, while suggesting suitable alternatives. Furthermore, he reveals his clever processing techniques to reduce bleed, enhance natural reverb, control dynamics, optimize phase relationships, and more. He demonstrates the use of his techniques by recording a live drummer, and draws diagrams on a white board to clearly impart his extensive knowledge!

[colehart]

RIP Steve. You are a legend for the industry.

[snavs]

I've learned so much about recording from this man throughout the years. He truly loved what he did and was more than willing to pass down his knowledge, simply because he loved talking about it. He never seemed annoyed by what I assume was a constant barrage of recording questions. In a world full of genuinely evil people with dogshit ethics, he was steadfast in what he believed was right. There is now a huge Steve Albini sized hole in the universe, but he left behind a legacy of incredible, boundary-pushing music. He was the perfect embodiment of the punk rock ethos. Rest well, Steve.

[stagnatic]

I mean this in the nicest possible way, and with immense respect: A) I can seriously imagine Steve Albini as a very old man in an assisted living facility, holding forth on mic polarity each and every afternoon at 4:30 PM, just before they serve the soup for dinner—with absolutely all residents, myself included, listening intently. B) If and when Steve Albini releases his line of jumpsuits, I will purchase and proudly wear one.

[gkniffen]

I love Steve and it has nothing to do with his audio engineering skills. He's just a super smart, articulate dude with kick-ass ethics.

[patrickfouhy]

Over the years, I'm pretty sure I've watched every video he's ever been in on youtube. And since he passed, they have been resurfacing in my feed and its been such a great experience revisiting these videos. Steve will be missed, he may be gone, but he's left us with a wonderful catalogue of music, lessons to learn from, and inspiration. Thanks for everything Steve.

[Podcastage]

Albini is the absolute best. Thank you so much for sharing this with us.

[Dvfacu]

This is gold. True audio engineering right here.

[bigrivermedia]

4:30 He's absolutely right about the Oktava MK012 mic on the snare - I pair mine with a 57 with the capsules aligned and it's always 180 out of phase.

[agharta]

we lost a genius, i mean, i dont think people will really feel the impact of that for a while but yeah. incredible body of work he left behind. read some passages from 'our band could be your life' by michael azerrad. albini had a part in the creation of some of the greatest art of the last century- and he did that without any compromise or commercial subjugation. a real gem of a person- he will be missed.

[spencergump]

On many important topics like mic polarity and drum tuning, it either takes dozens of different ways of explaining it or just Steve Albini for me to finally understand what’s going on

[tommj]

I like to adjust all mics by a variable phase amount, like say 45 degrees, to get them all aligned with the kick mic. This is accomplished ideally via mic placement, but also there are hardware phase adjustment effects or in the box vst. It's very cool seeing the waveform rotate as it's adjusted. This is different than adjusting the timing of tracks btw, but that's another useful thing to consider. If all overhead mics are placed equal distance to the kick beater hit point, as well as the snare hit point, that's another good starting point to get coherent phase during a mix. I believe that's called the Recorder Man technique, but I'm sure a ton of engineers before him used it.

[amdenis]

Great video, as always. Thanks for taking the time and sharing your wisom!
I know you're trying to simplify a very complex subject. Phase is most important in context of the entire mix, and obviously not just drums. As there is an EQ-levels-phase interrelationship across frequencies, and phase alignment affects a wide range of aspects of the mix/master, from dynamics and EQ to timbre and environmentals/ambience, the best advice I have found is to do what sounds best.
I am talking not just about the inter-mic phase issues, but also intra-mix dynamic phase relationships. It depends on the music being mixed, the monitoring used and the analog and digital elements in the chain. Being a media lab kind of geek, I created an AI based system which allows me to work creatively within a mix, enabling me to stay creatively/acoustically focused, while the AI identifies complex phase vs frequency level and alignment changes. Even when I enforce a max +/- 1dB change across the master, the difference from just phase can be powerfully impactful. Amazing world we are entering into.

[ChrisFloats]

Whenever Steve speaks, I generally just say YES SIR, I will do what you say!

[TheNoladrummer]

As a singing drummer, when I’m singing from an omniscient narrator POV, I pan the drums to audience perspective. When I’m singing from my own POV, I pan to drummer’s perspective. It may be too subtle for the majority of listeners, but it still has significance for me.

[markmallinder]

If you want to test whether the electronics inverting the signal is the cause of your preference, you can leave the electronics the same and just swap the wires feeding the speakers.

[professorpolymath]

The Noam Chomsky of recording engineers

[davidasher]

I usually notice a small loss in low end when reversing total polarity of a song. It’s nothing crazy but I can definitely hear it in an A/B test and I have. It’s a good little prank for your engineer friends. You show them that they can hear a definite difference between the two samples but then show them that they null.

[LYSHEmusic]

For me the difference of drums sum phase is pretty noticeable and meaningful. And often drums in solo sounds better when kick waveform goes up (or hit forward from the speakers), but in the mix opposite phase gives more depth and space to the sound, cause often we want drums to be behind the band. That’s for live drums at least. And while flipping the drums phase it’s worth trying to do the same with the bass just in case.

That’s also can be the case with background vocals. When phase of bv are flipped they sounds more behind, contrasting with the lead vocal.

So I often like to toggle phase on any source - drums, vocs, bass, etc - and choose what works better.

[rsrexkwondo]

this guy’s a fuckin’ wizard scientist.

[CentaurPress]

Does he keep those 2 “overheads” in that location when he records? I’m sure I can research it but maybe someone can answer🙏