Checking Drum Phase | Weathervane Techniques

Weathervane Techniques is a series in which we hope to share the short, simple processes we use every day in the studio - whether recording songs for Weathervane's Shaking Through series, or anything else. The series is a companion piece to Weathervane's Mix Roadmap, an amazing 60 + page guide to the steps we take every time we mix.

From our Weathervane Techniques series.

[damianoakes]

One of my most used plugins is a free VST called PhaseBug; it allows you to adjust the phase at any point along a 360° axis, so you can get perfect phasing with none of the weird issues that come with bumping tracks.

[tommibjork]

I usually always flip the hase of overhead mics and find the rest of the top mics to be in-phase with those after doing so.

[targetpanicrecords]

Thanks Weathervane!   I love your insights and techniques!   They work for me as well!

[NovelMeetsEvilPodcast]

It’s tricky. Your floor tom track seems to kill some of the snare in the OH when flipped, but fattens the tom. The hard part (for me) is moving the tom mic until both it and the snare track are very out of phase with the OH, so then reversing their polarity retains both. Ugh science is fun

[jessejafrnd]

Cool! I just recently discovered The Districts!
Their song Cheap Regrets is an instant classic!

[jessejafrnd]

Is actually looking at the wave form an indication?

[SteveStockmalMusic]

Sorry I’m just learning, you mean activate and deactivate the polarity switch right?
I check the phase by flipping the polarity. Does that sound correct ?

[goldensleeves]

What about nudging? Is that ever used while visually comparing the waveforms instead of just hitting the phase switch? Seems like you could get more precise that way. Thoughts?

[lemmykravitz]

My drum tracks are diapering I see them om my recorder but not getting any or little sound though my board, , This is soon after adding a condenser mic , lost my kick drum and my floor tom, , I guess I need to remove that Mic, ,, Or place it elsewhere ??

[daniel_mixes]

Thanks for this video!  Very well explained.  One question - if I don't use an overhead center microphone, would a good alternative be to sum my stereo overheads to mono and do this same process?

[musicguyk]

But it is not always 180 degrees out of phase. I would zoom in the waveforms and adjust them manually.