Topic: Phase inverting on a sbd recording

[mrk]

I taped a show from the sbd recently, the soundman was out of decent outputs on the console, so he put a 3,5mm stereo y-cable between my dat and his md. The male plug part of the y-cable went to his input and from the 2 female connectors one cable went to the sbd output and another to my Sony D8's line input. This was the only way we were able to hook up both recorders without me having to use his headphone out as my input.

Someone who downloaded my recording said that he can't hear the vocals (he might have some stereo widening or surround effect on). Only then I started paying more attention and discovered that I might have some phase related issues, maybe caused by the y-cable setup. When I invert one of the channels in Cool Edit Pro (effects=>invert) the sound gets much smoother and the bass is brought out a lot more. I was pretty happy with the results originally but this made quite an improvement.

I really don't know much about these issues and don't know if I explained this correctly. Could someone confirm that this is the correct way to fix the recording, and does it matter which channel I invert? I can send mp3 samples if needed.

[cleantone]

If you 180 degree's out of phase flipping either channel would do it. It should be very obvious if your phase is off 180 degrees though. It will almost hurt to listen to. It would also sound like it's not coming from you speakers but more from off to the side of them. The polarty switch on a console merely flips posative and negative lines. I'd have to hear it to offer advice on repair. I'm guessing it's not that one channel is flipped because that is very very obvious when you hear is. Makes your head feel like it's inside out or somthing.

[mrk]

Thanks for your reply, here's samples (original, left channel inverted, right channel inverted)   The original doesn't sound too bad, but the inverted ones are better imo. I hope this link works :

http://s26.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=3742BBCG78OIP38SCB47QXZHLH

[cleantone]

Yeah, you were fully out of phase. Somewhere in that micky mouseing setup one channel was getting flipped polarity. Your fix is fine. Where have I heard that before? Is that the show or the houes music? If thats the performance, it's a damn good board mix!! WOW!

It sound like that because one speaker is moveing backward. When it is suppesed to be going out, it is going in. Does that make sence?

[mrk]

Thanks a lot! That makes perfect sense. I've sort of been aware of phase issues but it didn't occur to me before that it was all over this recording.

That's from the actual show, it's Wilco in London earlier this month. Their sbd mixes have been amazing on their current tour. There's a torrent for this show over at easytree, but looks like I'll have to reseed the damn thing, I wish I had noticed this earlier.

[cleantone]

I thought it was Wilco but didn't want to sound like an ass if I was wrong. After hearing it the second time I realized it was the show, you can tell it's a live kick drum sound for sure. The FOH guy is definitly mixing for the room and for tape with all the panning on that. It sounds great. I didn't know they allowed SBD access. Sweet!!

[mrk]

They don't allow sbd officially, but asking nicely can lead to results

[cleantone]

Your sneaky. I wonder if there okay with the seed... Good score with that one! It sounds like a really good mix.

[Tim]

Your sneaky. I wonder if there okay with the seed... Good score with that one! It sounds like a really good mix.

the sbds are traded and seeded fairly freely...

[BLdad]

Wilco's "official" policy (as noted on their website) says "no soundboard patches".  However, everything I've heard about their sound guy Stan is that if he has time and you ask nicely, he'll grant a patch.

As far as seeding them ..... easytree actually banned Wilco SBD shows for a short time because of this policy.  Apparently, someone got Wilco's webmaster to actually email easytree and explain that if Stan's provides a patch, it should obviously be OK to seed.