guitar phasing with a single mic?

[mephetic_exhumation]

Positive phase is when the recorded wave is above the centre-line. Negative phase is when it's below the centre-line.

The phase meter measures the phase correlation between left and right channels (i.e. if they're always positive/negative at the same time, phase correlation is positive. If one is always positive when the other is negative, phase correlation is negative.)

With hard-panned double-tracking, the small timing differences between the two different takes means that the phase correlation between L&R channels will never be perfect.

Hopefully that helps to clarify what the tool is telling you.



Overdrive distortion has no effect on phase. The phase analyser would give the same results if there was no overdrive.

Man, that was THE answer I was waiting for. Very helpful! thanks a lot mate.

OK so here is the same thing with no processing. Amp EQ, mic position and everything else is the same as in the other clip.

https://rapidshare.com/files/144541610/rawtone.wav

I had to re-record it though, forgot to save my session the other day like a dumbass.

Also, just to provide a little more info concerning what kind of sound I'm looking for: I'm aiming for a tone in the likes of Morbid Angel's covenant. I know there's no way I'll be able to achieve something as good as that, as it was produced with a super high budget/quality gear.

But I'm wondering how could I tweak the EQ and mic position to get it to sound as close as possible? BTW, does anyone know what amp/cab Trey used on that recording?

 

[Leon--]

every mic position has the following characteristics
A)some frequencies will be boosted.
B)Some frequencies will be "cancelled out".
it really depends on how far the mic is from the wall and the cab.

 

[miche]

I also love that Morbid Angel production, even though I prefer the Domination one. I'd be curious to know their exact gear too. I only know they were playing on Marshall heads at the time (1995). I don't know the model, the cab and if that was the same gear in the studio. So I guess this doesn't help much

I'd say the unprocessed guitar sounds more natural than the EQ'ed one. Seems like half of your EQ improved the tone and the other half impoverished it.

One question, which mic are you using on your guitar? Sounds like the neck one on the samples you posted.

 

[Uros]

^^Morbid Angel have used, and still use JCM900 Marshall with 1960B cabs, boosted with ProCo Rat and Rane graphic EQ (nowdays they use Boss GE7 instead) before the amp input.

 

[mephetic_exhumation]

I'd say the unprocessed guitar sounds more natural than the EQ'ed one. Seems like half of your EQ improved the tone and the other half impoverished it.

Well, I had two EQ's, each targetting a different freq area. One was on the low mids and the other on the highs.

on the low mids there was just a small notch to remove some boxiness.

on the highs I made a couple of (pretty aggressive) notches in attempt to reduce fizz.


So which of the two EQ's did you think impoverished the tone? I guess it's the later?

One question, which mic are you using on your guitar? Sounds like the neck one on the samples you posted.

Eh, right on! It was on the neck pick up. I didn't mean to play with it, I just forgot to switch it before recording those clips. Pretty silly mistake, I always forget to look at that before recording and I'm not too good atm to differentiate the different pick ups sounds, so I didn't notice. Thanks for pointing that out.

^^Morbid Angel have used, and still use JCM900 Marshall with 1960B cabs, boosted with ProCo Rat and Rane graphic EQ (nowdays they use Boss GE7 instead) before the amp input.

Thanks for the info. I made some further research on that and it seems that they set the Rane EQ flat with only a gain boost. What would be the point of doing that? Is it because that EQ itself has a particular tone? Kinda like when people use a tube screamer without touching any knobs cause it changes the tone by simply running the signal through it?

And do you have any ideas about the settings on the Rat pedal?

 

[Uros]

Both pedals, Eq and Rat serve him as a flat booster. He just boost their levels in order to make guitar signal hotter before going to Marshall input, because Marshall JCM 900 doesn't have that much gain on its own (and him using Paf pickup, which is rather medium in output, doesn't help it either).

 

[Shinozoku]

Eh, right on! It was on the neck pick up. I didn't mean to play with it, I just forgot to switch it before recording those clips. Pretty silly mistake, I always forget to look at that before recording and I'm not too good atm to differentiate the different pick ups sounds, so I didn't notice. Thanks for pointing that out.

This seems to be your problem and why you're getting a dark, weird tone. Metal rhythm sounds like balls on a neck pickup. Make SURE you're on the bridge/treble pickup and try the recording again.