Mic Polarity, Phase, and Overheads

[Melodeath]

I have a set of drum mics, including 5 dynamic mics and 2 condensors. I noticed that the 2 condensors have reverse polarity from the other 5 mics. These 2 condensors are small diaphragm overheads. I believe it is a wiring error or somethign in the mics themselves.

The drum sound usually sounds better if I don't "phase reverse" the overheads in my DAW, I suppose because the distances of the overheads compared to snare/tom mics are making up for the polarity difference. (Does that make sense?) However, should I perhaps "phase reverse" the 2 overheads, and then time shift them? Are overheads ever/normally time-shifted?

Thanks

 

[ryanojohn]

well they're 3-4 feet away from your close mics, so they are time delayed just by the physics of sound. Think about the relationship between the wavelength and time, and you can assume that with two mics about 4 feet apart there's a reinforcement of about 250Hz, and a cancelling of 125Hz. So flipping the polarity there would clean up some mud, and add some bottom... sounds good to me...

 

[Melodeath]

You mean flipping the polarity from their "backwards wiring," I assume?

 

[if6was9]

if the 2 overheads are in phase with each other then time align everything else to them- thats the way i've been doing it anyway and i liked the results. You don't have to flip the polarity if they all align up in your daw, basicallly then you are putting them in phase, then putting them out again.

thats my understanding of it anyways

 

[aramism]

i've heard such conflicting arguments on the whole time alignment thing and honestly i just do what sounds good which is generally leave it alone unless there is a noticeable difference. the only phase issues i have gotten are the obvious top/bottom snare etc.

 

[greyskull]

frankly i never bother, maybe flip the phase just to check that its not a mess; but thats all

 

[AudioGeekZine]

I wouldn't ever time shift overheads, they are actually further away from the drums so it makes sense for a delay to occur. I've tried delaying a room mic more than it was to try to get a bigger room sound, but wasn't satisfied with the results.

Listen in mono starting with the overheads.
start adding in the other drum mics and try flipping the phase.
its not always the bottom of the snare you need to flip, sometimes its the top.
sometimes you need to flip the kick.

changing the timing of each individual drum track is a sure way to a phasey clusterfuck.

 

[Melodeath]

But I should start with reversing the overheads, no? Since they are electronically reverse polarity.

 

[colonel kurtz]

if the other mics and/or the cables are wired backwards from the others, then i would say yea, reverse those bitches...

 

[AudioGeekZine]

are those condensers going into an external preamp, then going into the interface?
I've heard that each time a signal goes through a transformer the waveform gets inverted.


Don't worry too much about what is right or wrong (regarding recording theory, not local laws!) and just do whatever you need to get it sounding great.

 

[ahjteam]

cant you just press the phase reverse button instead of rewiring?

 

[AudioGeekZine]

cant you just press the phase reverse button instead of rewiring?

isn't this what the whole thread is about?

The whole thing is he's looking at the waveforms and thats telling him something is wrong, but it sounds better if he doesn't fix it.

 

[Melodeath]

No, all the mics are going into the same interface and preamps, and yes this thread is all about the "phase" reverse button haha

From now on I'm going to reverse the overheads, and then verify that ti sounds better. For the last recording I did, it actually did sound better.