054 – Phase Relationship
Two input sources for the same instrument don’t always line up perfectly.
Written by Scott Adamson
In video two of our four-part series, where I feature footage I shot on stage with my friends The Hold Steady, we look at some issues that come up when we have two amplifiers for one guitarist.
Any time we have more than one mic for an instrument, we have to think about the Phase Relationship between those two inputs. This is true for using two mics on a kick or snare drum, a mic and DI on a Bass Guitar, or micing two amplifiers for one guitar.
Watch the full video
We discuss a tricky concept in this video: Phase (which is different than Polarity). This is a critical thing to understand for audio engineers. It’s a little difficult to explain, and you can learn more from this earlier blog post.
I do use a screenshot from Pro Tools to help explain it, even though seeing waveforms on a screen is not something we have the luxury of in live sound. We do ultimately need to rely on our ears and make quick decisions as to what sounds best.
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Just remember: even though two inputs for the same sound source will never have PERFECT phase relationship, they will still combine to make a sound that is different than a single input. And this isn’t always a good thing — your ears will tell you what works and what doesn’t.
