Re: OT: favourite premastering effects chain

[Per Boysen <perboysen@gmail.com>]

On 31 aug 2007, at 19.14, todd reynolds wrote:

> can you describe this first stage a little more?  why do you do all  
> of this?  I thought of just doing a google search on phase invertion,


Loud speakers is a good metaphor. When the membrane goes forwards it  
pushes air and when it goes backwards it sucks air. If you switch the  
plus and minus cable for the speaker of work in the opposite phase,  
as phases inverted! If you send a signal to two speakers and invert  
the phase for one of them the sound be cancelled out. But in the  
mastering example this doesn't happen because the "second  
speaker" (or channel here) is stereo swapped. So the phase cancel  
effect is only happening in the middle of the stereo filed, where  
both stereo signals do carry the same content. We get a "hole in the  
middle" stereo sound. To fill up that hole in the middle, ad the mono  
signal.

Talking about this technique is not the best way to learn it, you  
should patch up a stere mix that way and fiddle round with it to see  
what happens. If adjusted carefully you can achieve a very good mono  
compatibility compared with a wide stereo image and better definition  
of details in the music. You can also ruin a mix if you overdo it.

Greetings from Sweden

Per Boysen
www.boysen.se (Swedish)
www.looproom.com (international)