While listening to the tracks together, adjust the delay value until it sounds good.

Insert the micro delay plug-in on the track(s) without the high-latency plug-in.

EventideвЂ™s Precision Time Align allows adjustments as minute as 1/64th of sample! ThatвЂ™s more accurate than the native editing resolution in DAWs! Some delay plug-ins such as LogicвЂ™s Sample Delay, AvidвЂ™s Time Adjuster, and VoxengoвЂ™s Sound Delay offer micro delays as short as 1 sample. Most delay plug-ins can add as little as 1 millisecond of delay, but that would still be 48 samples at 48 kHz. If you know that one of your two snare tracks has a high-latency plug-in that your system cannot correctly compensate for, you can use a plug-in to delay the track without the high-latency plug-in. The concept of adding delay to fix phase issues can be applied and performed manually through delay plug-ins. Just remember, itвЂ™s not addressing phase issues resulting from signals being misaligned due to recording or other reasons. Various types of plug-ins introduce more latency than others. In some cases, there is a limit to the amount of latency the system can compensate for. Some DAWs allow you to turn it on or off, while others always employ it. It will add delay to tracks as necessary to equal the amount of latency incurred on the most latent track.Д®ach DAW handles this in its own way. The fix is to enable latency/delay compensation.

Since layering samples and utilizing parallel processing are commonly-used techniques, the solution needs to be вЂњset it and forgetвЂќ to avoid interrupting your workflow. The audio clip toggles every four hits between in-phase and slightly out-of-phase kicks. The changes are the result of approximately 4 milliseconds of delay on a layered kick sample. The second image shows the in-phase frequency response in white and the slightly out-of-phase frequency response in blue. The first image below shows the visual difference between summed in-phase kick hits (top waveform) and summed kick hits that are slightly out-of-phase (bottom waveform).

Likewise, if a kick is sent through a bus for parallel processing on another track and the compressor plug-in used for the parallel compression adds 190 samples of latency at 48 kHz, the parallel compressed signal would be delayed 4 milliseconds. If a plug-in is inserted on the second track, and that plug-in produces 190 samples of latency at 48 kHz, the second kick signal will be delayed 4 milliseconds. Imagine having two kick sample tracks with waveforms that appear to be phase-aligned. What do you do when things sound tragic because of phase issues? Repositioning a microphone would help if you were actively miking up the source, but I want to focus on what you can do when that isnвЂ™t an option. The image below shows two complex waveforms perfectly in phase and the recorded sum of them, which results in an increase in amplitude (repeating two identical signals in phase results in 6 dB of gain).ДЄlright, so itвЂ™s relevant. Timing differences between similar signals are often caused by different distances between microphones and the sound source (close mic vs distant mic or DI vs mic), different polarity or sound start points in samples, and latency incurred through digital processing. Different plug-ins are being used on related tracksДЄnytime youвЂ™re combining two or more similar signals, phase is the timing relationship between them.Samples are being stacked to create drum sounds.Samples are being layered with acoustic drums.A DI box and microphone(s) were recorded on the same source.Multiple microphones were recorded on the same source.Phase relationships matter in many situations, including when: But phasing also has the potential to leave your tracks sounding thin and weak.

When you use phasing to your advantage, it can result in interesting sounds. In a music production context, phasing has noticeable influence on the sound quality of your audio, and it pops up in all sorts of productions-recording, beat making, sampling, live shows, and more. This can be a result of static delay between the signals, also called comb filtering, and can also come from extreme boosts when using non-linear phase EQs. Phasing can be defined as timing differences when combining identical (or nearly identical) signals. The most common problems are signals being completely out of phase (sometimes called reversed polarity), or resulting in unpleasant changes in sounds resulting from phasey, or comb-filtered audio.

Without phase manipulation, we wouldnвЂ™t have stereo, flanging, reverb, and other interesting audio phenomena.Д«ut phase relationships can also present problems. Phase relationships between similar signals are a source of endless fascination in music production.

Listen to microphone without delay