Methods of phase-aligning individual instruments recorded with multiple microphones during post-production

摘要

When recording any instrument, like a guitar cabinet or a drum set with a multi-microphone setup, phase plays key role in shaping the sound. Despite the importance, phase is often overlooked during the recording process because of lack of time or experience. Then during mixing stage engineers tend to use equalizers and compressors to correct issues that might origin in signals not being well time-aligned. Phase measuring tools like goniometers are widely used by mastering engineers to diagnose any phase related issues in a mix, yet their usefulness in shaping sounds of individual instruments is vastly overlooked. The main aim of this paper is to present and analyse easy phase-aligning methods.