How to Get Your Microphones in PHASE 

The thumbnail pic is awesome! Love it.

Rick I’ve really been getting into your videos I hope it’s not just a phase.

Drummer: _"I don't really play like that"_ Rick: _"Trust me, it sounds better"_

If you memorize that sound travels at about 1130 feet per second in average temperature/humidity conditions, which covers studios, then you can round off and assume that every foot equals about 1 millisecond. This is rounding of course, and not exact, but the millisecond is usually the lowest division most people work with in music. Yes, you can go to the sample level, but I doubt most do most of the time until you start shifting things on the Pro Tools timeline by samples. If you want to know the wavelength of a frequency, you divide 1130 by the frequency. 100hz has a wavelength of 11.3 feet. 1khz has a wavelength of 1.3 feet. If you want to know the frequency of a wavelength, you divide 1130 by the wavelength. If a wavelength is 11.3 feet long, then the frequency would be 100hz. That's the scientific part. In application, phase between microphones is most important in that 1 foot/1 millisecond area. That's why its so dramatic when you flip the phase on the bottom mic of the snare, or outer mic on the kick. It's also the area that is played with in Phasing pedals/plugins. That's one reason the X/Y stereo mic technique is a safe way to record things in stereo. You don't get as wide of a stereo image, but since the mic capsules are nearly perfectly aligned, the phase issue is not there. I'm not sure why I even went into this. It must be a phase I'm going through.

Man the production quality of your videos has went up since you took this on full time and I love it. Sets you apart for sure. Great content as always, thanks Rick!

Rick, your thumbnail-game is on point. :-)

Invaluable info! And I love the thumbnail 🙌

I don’t do a lot of recording and am not even slightly interested in “phase” - or at least I didn’t think I was until I saw this video. I watch all Rick’s videos and never fail to learn something to improve my musical knowledge. Well done.

GREAT lesson and demonstration on phase. It's the most concise and complete video I've seen and it helped me understand it more clearly. Thanks so much for the time and effort you put into these. Welcome Maxton, can't wait to see more from you.

After years of recording and mixing I finally found 1 source who explained this a couple of years ago. Rick of course does it much better and in depth and the title is exactly to the point. Thanks so much!

I asked for this in a previous video's comment section and you've really delivered the knowledge Rick. Thank you for the excellent examples. This is now my reference anytime I'm not sure if I am in or out of phase, or I'm experiencing phase shift. Superb.

I appreciate the time and effort you put into each of your videos. Your enthusiasm for all things music is contagious. Thank you for another informative post, Rick.

You have just changed the way I record acoustic. LOVE that out of phase sound on the body & neck mics. Thank you!

Great video as always, Rick. I really needed an explanation of this, as I wasn't sure what this phase thing was about, but now it's crystal clear.

Thanks Rick! I shared this with my peers in Music Production class. We love your channel.

Rick, thank you! This is fantastic! you guys are SO generous! Would love a supplement about room mics and blending.

Rick, this video actually taught me so much in such a small time. Thanks for getting me interested in recording!!

Oh this is fun! I love the acoustic out of phase but then I began to appreciate the in phase sound as well. Both have their place.

So informative, you really demonstrated this in a clear way, thank you so much Rick.

Got to admit I know enough about phase where I normally wouldn’t be interested in a video on it, however the thumbnail for the vid was so good i had to open it and give you a 👍. Very clever

Thank you so much for this info Rick, very well explained and exemplified!

Jeeze this is a reeeeallly good video. Everyone needs to buy the Rick Beato book. This is so helpful man...thank you soooo much dude!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱

Thanks Rick! This is valuable information, and I really appreciate your doing this.

Perfect, as always. And that bass tone- wow!!! We need more Rick bass videos! :D

Physics lesson nice. I remember when we came to this lesson in school i got to wip out my guitar and talk about some kewl stuff that goes on thats related to the over all lesson and chapter. The teacher who was this awesome materials scientist who developed stuff for NASA taught me about how some materials and some stuff we learned in later chapters really affect sound.

Awesome post. Such valuable information. Thank you, Rick!

these vids are amazing. i am actually on the edge of me seat waiting for the break down and explanation of each example.

Great explanation so far. Love your videos.

i love your recoding tips and thanks for the video . you're the best

What happened to the earlier version that you took down? Was it out of phase? :D

Thank you rick and crew!!

Great vid. Learned more about recording today than I've know previously.

Thanks for the knowledge! Definitely appreciated rick

Really appreciate this information, Rick. As a schooled musician/teacher, most of my knowledge gaps are in the technical-scientific side of sound. Thanks for explaining such an important topic in a logical, demonstrative manner. Cheers!

Excellent tutorial on Phase. Wow! So helpful Rick. Thank you for taking the time on this :)

A fun phase trick - mic a guitar cab with two mics of the same kind. Start with them in phase and as you track, pull one away from the cab. Great video Rick! Good explanation and examples.

Very informative, thanks!

The crash cymbal advise is a good one. I've seen this missed many times.

So educational! Been playing guitar for 33 years and had no idea. Thanks! 🤘

This clarified many things. Thanks man!

Great video, thanks Rick!

Thanks a lot, Rick! That was really a helpful and vivid explanation as always

That was great! I'd love to see more videos about sound engineering!

This is so important and of course no one explains it better than you... Thank you

The definitive video about the phase ... Thanks for this.

The best video thumbnail image! Nice info, thanks once more.

Very insightful video as usual. One thing I heard about those phase-tricks for stereo widening effects etc. is that they don't work so well on vinyl because it makes the needle jump out of the groove. Haven't looked further into that myself.

That is one beautiful drum kit.

This is massively helpful Rick, thank you :)

Thanks Rick & Rhett! Good to know what happens if you try to bring the out of phase stuff to mono.

rick, i love you. thank you for your knowledge.

Good stuff Rick, thanks for sharing.

This is technically very interesting to watch & listen Rick! Technically I KNOW some of this but didnt have in my mind when it comes to miking up instruments! Amazingly eye opening! Thanks again!

Set phasers to fun!

we need more of this

I'm only a few minutes in but I'm learning lots already; thanks Rick!

This is gold.

Thank you for making the phase video we asked for!

Rick, more content like this please.

Ha, loved the thumbnail image - and the video of course! :) Coooool! Just wanted to add that the wavelength for 6KHz wave is about 2 inches. So to avoid phase issues, the distance between two mics should be less than 1/3 inches.

What about phase issues when recording acoustic guitar and vocal at the same time? (The singer at the guitarist are the same person). Thanks for the video!!!

What a lovely gear Rick ♥

Amazing information Just like your other videos

It is interesting listening to the “out of speakers” parts on my 7.1 speaker system using Dolby Surround to decode the stereo signal. It sends it to the rears and the surround speakers.

Some good information here. Phase issues make me nervous about recording with more than one microphone, so most everything I do is either direct or with a room mic. I know there are certain live applications for phase cancellation (like if you have a horn player that's playing to loudly for a small room, you can flip the phase in the house and try to get rid of some of the volume)

You're right. Greatest thumbnail ever!

Very informative for someone who always works inside of a digital vacuum :)

What was not mentioned is that the amplitude is the movement of the speaker. So when you have phase out of Alignment it makes the audio quieter be cause the to sound waves are canceling out each other’s amplitude.

Good info Rick! I'd love to hear some input on creative ways of using phase when recording, ie: not having things perfectly in or out to give different tonality, etc. :)

The phase associated with that phase button is 180 degrees at all frequencies. The phase difference between two microphones placed at different distances will be a linear phase, so a different phase shift for each frequency, which is how a time delay is described via phase. Two different situations and that is why the tonality changes when you push the button.

I would like to see a video dealing with latency when overdubbing; how it's handled with tape, pro tools, and in general. It was just not I just discovered this issue while recording at home. I had to manually move one track over because it was about 150ms later than the other.

This is a great video. I'd love to go into more depth, I multitrack guitars, I assume that I should be checking the phase between takes as well if I'm playing the same part? Also when comping I'm guessing if you literally cut one bit from one place and paste it to another place in the track then the phase might change for that period if you cut where the wave form is peaking and paste it into a position where the wave form is troughing? There's so much you have to think about when mixing and recording!

Wow, thats impressive. The acoustic guitar part was great

I must be going through a phase watching more of your vids during the day :)

Great 👍 thanks a lot

What about piano? Like a 3-mic setup... Great work, as always!

very instructive ! by the way : Best thumbnail ever x)

That's a pretty good sounding drum!

I thought this got blocked. And after Toto I was extra peeved! Glad its here to see!!!!!

Ahh thank you for the video! And more prominently, thank you for an awesome summer of content, really high quality and detail without a doubt! I won't lie, I really did only discover you by watching your Guitar Players You Need to Know from 1929-69, but ever since, I have been watching all of your videos because of how much I love your format and information that you bring to the table! Really grateful for all you do, and don't stop the great work man!

For everyone looking for examples of deliberate usage of phase offsets in music, Broken by Nine Inch Nails is a great album to check out. It even includes the disclaimer "caution: not for use with mono devices".

I like this. Thank.

I Just actually Leaned something!!!freaking great vid!

Thank you Rick. I’ve been waiting for a vid like this for a long time. You fuckin rock!

That acoustic sounds sooo good. What kind of guitar is it?

RIck beato is the coolest dude in youtube man !!!!

Great video! And fantastic thumbnail 😎

Thumbnail is great!

best example I've seen and heard

Am I the only one who thought the acoustic "jumping out of the speaker"-effect sounded cool?

I appreciate that "Them Bones" riff. 🙌🏾

Off Topic: Please do a What makes this song great: Placebo Bitter End. The song is so simple yet awesome! Love your channel although I'm new here.

Rick - on the electric and acoustic guitar examples, could you get the same jump out of the speaker effect with an electric guitar by changing the EQ on the mics? For example set Mic (A) to low freqs and Mic (B) to High freqs then set them out of phase?

Awesome

All the examples show a phase difference of 180o. When out of phase 180o the sound waves subtract each other completely, leaving only the difference between them. This difference is more in the case of acoustic guitar example. However, when the phasing difference is less than 180o, the interference between the audio waves will generate a third sound, that can give an interesting sound in some cases. Great video

Wow that is an amazing difference! I figured it would be one of those things that people like Rick could hear and people like me had to pretend they heard.

Hi, bit late to game. I work in live events. Would it be possible to do a follow up video about how phase can be affected in a live environment.

When can we buy the official Beato Nation black t-shirts? Thanks for sharing your knowledge, Rick. Much obliged.

Is it a reasonable endeavor to try to set up your mics so that the thing that they're trying to capture (e.g. snare) is in-phase, but cymbals are out-of-phase, to de-emphasize cymbal bleed? Or would that be so difficult that it's not really worth it, with other better options available to help with cymbal or snare bleed?

This is why my being a drummer and having a tin ear. Also being the sound engineer was a bad idea. I need you 15 years ago. I was the one who bought the recording equipment