I got an email from Greg Abate of Neon Audio after yesterday’s video. I’ve known of him for a long time and I really respect his engineering skills so I took to heart when he voiced his concern that I was using phase and polarity interchangeably.

Which, I have to admit, I was doing.

Part of me actually doesn’t care because the tip in the video stood on its own regardless of whether I said phase or polarity….but since it’s not correct I feel the need to correct myself.

He gave me a great link to an article that explains it all.

To make a long story short what I was mostly talking about was polarity. Because I believe the “phase switch” of the Waves V-EQ basically just flips the polarity since it doesn’t actually adjust the waveform in time with anything else.

Watch the video to hear the different ways your drum recordings will sound depending on what you do with phase and polarity.

So what’s the tip here? Not sure, but know that you can get drastically different sounds out of a multi-miked instrument depending on a) where you place the mics to begin with, b) what you do with the polarity switch on your tracks and c) if you want to move regions around to get better phase consistency throughout your tracks.

Although I mix up my jargon every once in a while the practical tips still stand on their own. If you're looking for more recording and mixing tips check out the Strategies Bundle here:

www.audio-issues.com/strategies​