Very helpful, thanks! It isn't always easy to follow the criteria people use to make alignment decisions. You have done a great job of explaining your thought process and the ways you resolve conflicts between priorities. I understand the process much better now. Much appreciated!
I use these techniques for aligning drums as well, and the explanations in this video are perfect. I haven't aligned my toms like this, but I will try these tom alignment techniques on my next mix. Thanks for posting this video. Cheers!
Great video thank you ! It didn't just answer my questions it explained the concepts so I better understand this process. And it didn't muck about doing so. Concise and to the point.
Just by saying that you want the speaker to be moving in the same direction with different tracks playing, explains everything, and why canceling can happen when out of phase. Thanks
Found a very useful video again. Thank you so much, nice job. Who says you need to go to school to learn these things? Here's RU-vid where you can learn anything if you search and experiment a bit... :D
Hi and Thanks for your helpful video! one question that remains is why you pulled the close attack kick mic track more forward, like two amplitudes, before the in-mic and the third kick mic. could you please explain? thanks :)
@@SPLMixing ok i get this point. i just couldn't see why all other tracks were moved just a little fore- or backwards, to fit the main track. but the attack mic track was way ahead bofre the other kick tracks. or. did i see this one wrong? thanks for answering :)
The attack track is more about texture than getting waveforms lined up, which is itself about extracting the most bass information from the two or more tracks. It's been a while since I made this video, but I'd say that the attack didn't have any relevant "partner" to align with, as sometimes it's not clear how to make the waveforms line up. I definitely recommend checking out my drum recording video for a more in depth understanding of how phase problems can be adjusted using the microphones. The correlation meter techniques I use in the video are a great way to overcome the obstacle of not being able to "see" a clear answer when the waveforms are complex. It's also a pretty fool proof method.
So you said u hear if initial speaker movement is in or out. And you prefer push first. I take it that when you're playing the drums you dont like the sound because of wrong polarity? All of the hits will move away from you first. But yeah, no you cant hear that, no one can.
Yes, you can, especially on some cheaper speakers, but I'd love to see your proof of that claim. Here's mine: when I blind ab test the two, there's a difference. I prefer the sound when the speaker initially moves forward in most cases.
I'm sorry but that is really not the proof. Or if that is, here's mine: i did the ab and could not tell the difference. Please explain, as a drummer, why do you prefer not to hear the same polarity when recorded as you hear when playing the drums? That's like counter intuitive. I am not questionin you as a drummer or sound engineer, but from science perspective, your claim does not seem plausible.
@@vl292 Since when does a personal preference for absolute polarity require proof? Would you also require proof of why I prefer brunettes over blondes? How exactly would I go about proving that and how would you know if I was speaking truthfully? It’s a preference, based on my personal experience and tests on many types of playback systems. As a drummer, my ears are attuned to hearing fast transients and how they sound. However, the experience of playing the drums does not directly equate with the experience of listening to drums through loudspeakers, which are reproducing the sound, not producing it. I hear a difference that is big enough for me to prefer absolute polarity. If you cannot yet hear a difference, then try a different source, and try a different set of speakers. Not all ears or speakers are created equally.
@@vl292 consider this, though the drum skins would be moving away initially, your ear drums would be moving inward towards you - in the same direction he’s claiming he prefers the speakers to move: towards him.
When skin is moving away from you upon the initial hit, it creates lower pressure area (well volume actually), this causes eardrum to pop out, move away from you. Then the opposite happens. Skin bouces back and eventually between you and the skin, you have overpressure, eardrum moves in, towards you. Eardrum merely mimics skin movement. I do check that my speakers are firing correctly and make sure phase is spot on between tracks, but I firmly believe that you cannot hear the polarity with snare due to it's fairly high pitch.
F2 - Slip Mode, to slide the tracks around. Then, provided the audio on the track has dead air at the start and doesn't butt up against the zero timeline point, you can slide it forward and backward as needed. I'm also using the grabber tool as part of the smart tool, which activates when placing the pointer in the middle of the waveform.
@@SPLMixing but it just looks like the three kick drum mics go out of alignment when you do that? i get keeping them aligned but why did that one track go a few cycles ahead of the other two kick wavs?
In that particular case, one of those mics has a more pronounced transient with high frequencies at the start (the smaller first cycle), so I made the executive decision to line them up where they naturally agree the most. I'm seeing that the other two start off with longer waves which indicates they tend to react slower to highs and therefore don't reproduce the transient like the other mic. I have updated videos that use different techniques for phase alignment that might help you understand. To answer your question, though, one cycle difference shouldn't break it, just as flipping polarity doesn't break the snare sound.. With slight timing differences between microphones, it's natural to have these offsets, as not every mic or sub kick mic can be placed at the exact same distance. Wherever they agree they will yield the most in-phase and cohesive sound. Check out my drum recording video for a deeper dive into how this works.
