General Music Chat

Best Article I've ever seen on the issue, very clear. Thought I'd post in case anyone around here wasn't in the know about it.

http://www.uaudio.com/blog/understanding-audio-phase/

That was good Info. Thanks for posting. I haven't actually experienced a problem with that (yet) in recording scenario...But I might have on a small stage a few months ago. Seems My Low to Mid range didn't have the fangs I needed to push out my chords. It could also be my degraded hearing...

I have always had problems with phasing. I believe everyone who has recorded more than two tracks has had them. Not? Listen to how good your tracks sound when played in your recording format before you export them as a compiled wave.

My tracks sound GREAT to me in Sonar when I play them, but when I mix them down to a single track or a stereo mix, they loose a lot of "punch". They don't need any compression in the raw format, but they need help if only to boost the volume as a compiled wave.

Slacker

I'm not competant enough yet to encounter phase issues with recording but I have a question you probably know the answer to:

I just had an old Telecaster Esquire (one pickup jobby) in the shop for it's 25 year tune up. The fellow who does the work told me if I wanted he do some wiring magic that would allow me to split the phase on my pickup. I'm not clear how that is different from the five positions that single pickup already gives me?


thanks
Talbot

The easy way to check for phase issues when recording is to listen in Mono.

Mike,

Ya got me. Question #1

How can anyone change the phase on a single coil single pickup? You would have to switch the two wires coming out of the pickup. What would that do with a single single coil pickup? Not much other than increasing the hum. The reason being: the outer wrap (The end of the coil that is on the outside of the wrap) is hooked to ground. Why? Because the outer wrap now acts as shielding. If you put the inner winding to ground, then the outer winding is exposed to electrical fields since it hasn't any shielding. In order to use a phase switch, you have to have a second pickup. One would be wired normal. The other would go between normal and reverse. Phasing requires one signal to be compared to the other. The second pickup is either in phase with the first pickup, or out of phase with it.

Question #2

What the heck is a single coil pickup doing with a 5 way switch? Is it a single hum bucker?

Just a thought. Your repair guy is making up terms.

First you can split the pickup IF it is a hum bucker. There are a couple of methods to splitting pickups. One is to parallel them pos to pos neg to neg. (Actually there is no positive or negative since a pickup generates an AC voltage, but for the sake of simplicity, call the ground most point of the coil negative, and the outer most wrap positive) . Another is to simply kill one of the windings by cutting it out of the circuit, thus turning it into a single coil pickup.

If you add a second (neck) pickup, you can put in a switch that does what I said in #1 concerning phasing One of the coils would remain as is, while the second coil would have its wiring flipped (reversed) through a switch that would allow you to chose between a reverse coil or a normal coil wiring scheme. That would be called a phase switch.

Unless you have a Varitone in your Axe, I have no idea what a 5 way switch is doing in a single coil (pickup) guitar. Enlighten me please.

I am going to Google your guitar to see what you have.

HEY! That is a single coil.

No way can it be phased or split. Is your tech ignorant or is he blowing smoke? Now if you add a second pup you can change phasing between the two. But you still can't split them. Even if he were to rewind the coil into two windings, phasing them against each other would only cancel the electromagnetic energy when they were out of phase and there would be "0" output in the out of phase position. Your pickup would in a sense be canceling itself.

..thus the idea behind the noise canceling pickup wired as a dummy, no?

The easy way to check for phase issues when recording is to listen in Mono.

Yes. That is what he said in the article.

I agree. I have wired a stereo mono switch on my headphone amplifier. All I need do is press it in and I have mono as it parallels both tracks in my headphones when I do that. You can punch it in and out as the tracks are being played to hear the difference immediately.

He was probably talking about a phase switch?
Which to me, in laymans terms, gives you that slightly cracked wah sound.

Thought ya needed two pickemups for that though

Slacker

It's a mystery to me as well. The Fender Esquire was supposed to be like the PC Junior - the guitar for the masses. Get all the power of a Tele with just one pickup. (they've been reissured in a cheapie model - so do we have an Esquire Squire? )

I've owned several Teles but they all had two pickups - including the SlimLine with humbuckers.

This guitar has a plain old Telecaster pickup. It is a screamer - It shouts louder than the Seymour Duncan in my Strat. How it gives me five selector switch settings I cannot say but I can say that somehow, it works.

Talbot

Now if you have six layers of guitar going on panned in opposition to each other, well yeah you will have phase issues.

“Doctor, it hurts me when I do this….”

I really like the three to one distance idea though, for using two mikes. For most purposes it sounds like that solution would eliminate the situation before it can even become a problem. I’m all for proactive sound good in, rather then fix bad sound later. In fact if I were mixing six tracks of guitar a slight bit of pre-delay change in each, should be enough to keep the phases out of synch. It’s doing the same thing, emulating a different distance from the mike for each track.

Sweewater has an ad that knows exactly what I looked at online, so now I drool every time I post a reply. That VR-700 is looking better each time.

The easy way to check for phase issues when recording is to listen in Mono.

Yes. That is what he said in the article.

I agree. I have wired a stereo mono switch on my headphone amplifier. All I need do is press it in and I have mono as it parallels both tracks in my headphones when I do that. You can punch it in and out as the tracks are being played to hear the difference immediately.

A solution not mentioned in the article is to run all the tracks through an EQ plug-in (use the same one for each track, but individually, not on a bus) - you can set them with a shelf (low pass or high pass), or just with flat response - but this will result in all tracks being in phase.

Slacker

It's a mystery to me as well. The Fender Esquire was supposed to be like the PC Junior - the guitar for the masses. Get all the power of a Tele with just one pickup. (they've been reissured in a cheapie model - so do we have an Esquire Squire? )

I've owned several Teles but they all had two pickups - including the SlimLine with humbuckers.

This guitar has a plain old Telecaster pickup. It is a screamer - It shouts louder than the Seymour Duncan in my Strat. How it gives me five selector switch settings I cannot say but I can say that somehow, it works.

Talbot

There are probably caps and resistors + a choke inside of it. That group of parts are used to make a VariTone circuit. I designed them for most of my Strats and Les Pauls. I got the basic idea from the Gibson "Trini Lopez" model with a Varitone in it... made in the early 60's. A Vari tone will work with any pickup made. Basically it is a filter that changes the output frequency response of a pickups output. Not an original Gibson idea. They were tank circuits designed for electronic organs in the beginning.

But a single coil single pickup still can not be split or "phased" because there is nothing to compare the phasing against.

A solution not mentioned in the article is to run all the tracks through an EQ plug-in (use the same one for each track, but individually, not on a bus) - you can set them with a shelf (low pass or high pass), or just with flat response - but this will result in all tracks being in phase.

That's a good idea, if your computer is powerful enough or you don't have many tracks, but every plugin on every channel adds some load to the CPU. Not a great idea if your computer's not up to the challenge.

Most EQ plug-ins use hardly any CPU. Watch your usage meter if you are running an old machine!