On Thu 12 January 2006 20:12, Michaelwagner wrote: > P Floding Wrote: > > With a high resolution system (a phase coherent one) the difference > > between correct and incorrect polarity on some recordings are very > > dramatic. > > I have one of those test setup CDs that plays honks and chirps at > different frequencies, plays into the left and right channel so you can > see if you reversed your speaker wires, etc. > > It has one section where the voice says > "This section is recorded in phase" and then > "This section is recorded out of phase" > > Even with pretty lousy equipment (DJ system in an auditorium for a > dance kind of equipment) I can hear the difference. So I don't think > you have to be all that high-end to hear a phasing problem. > > The thing I don't get is, do people really release recordings with the > phasing wrong?
I agree that signals being out of phase between channels is blindingly obvious, but I believe P Floding is talking about absolute system phase, ie switching the entire phase of the system. I've come across this mainly when working with live sound systems when micing transient sources like drums. Ideally you want your initial wavefront from the drum source to be reproduced by a "push" with the speaker cones in the system thereby producing a much better reproduction of the original transient than you would get by all your cones moving away from the listener and trying to reproduce the effect of the drums by "sucking". I wasn't sure about the application of this to global phase on recordings - most modern mastering is so horribly multi-band compressed and limited that I dread to think what has happened to the original phase coherency of the mix, but I did a bit of googling and the name which kept coming up was Charles Wood who released a book named The Wood Effect. Interesting page about it here:- http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue1/cjwoodeffect.htm Makes quite a lot of good points, but also points out that the majority of cross overs in the majority of speakers make such a pigs ear of phase coherency that you're kind of fighting a losing battle... Anyway, enough woffling - I'm off to go and swap my speaker terminals around and try and decide if I like it better or worse! Alex _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
