Here’s an interesting interview from prosoundnetwork.com.
I found this interesting:
What I’ve done recently is use the Sound Radix Auto Align plug-in, which tells you how much you have to move any microphone to be in phase with a “master mic.” When you finally get accurate time and phase alignment, guitar amps can sound amazing. It never sounds like three amps—just the greatest single amp ever with all of the different complexities they each might bring.
First, isn’t it easier to just shift audio tracks in the DAW than to go through all this torture? I mean, I’m all for getting it right from the get-go, but it sounds like there’s a case of diminishing returns by spending tons of time getting phase to the n’th degree. You can zoom into DAW tracks and nudge an audio track in about 10 seconds if they don’t line up. And use your ears. “If it sounds good, it IS good” is a common saying. Also, once you understand how phase works, it should be relatively simple to minimize or eliminate phase problems when setting up mics. I would think a drum kit is much more challenging in this regard than recording guitar amps. But …
Secondly, I’m a bit puzzled why he talks about recording multiple amps for a singe track or take, and getting them perfectly time aligned. I know that’s a ‘thing’, but you could easily just pan different amps opposite with slightly different timing (phase) if you’re not going to double-track them. It’s similar to the Haas effect, is it not? The whole idea of double-tracking is to have slight differences that make it sound fuller. If someone like him has access to very nice amps, why blend them and homogenize the sound? (rather than just one good tone) Again, it’s a creative option, but it sounds like his go-to routine.
Oh, and note to @bozmillar, another idea for a plugin. Auto-Align wants $150 for this plugin to show phase alignment. (WTF?) If you can do the same thing at half the cost or something, you got a market.
Listen to Warren’s interview at 27:00 and 30:40. Those guys aren’t hung up on phase like Neil is. They even talk about benefits from old recordings benefiting from phase differences. Guitar and bass anyway. Nature doesn’t time-align things. If the crickets are out of phase with the cicadas, it’s actually an interesting experience. Obviously, out of phase 180 degrees probably has to be fixed, but not all out of phase is that cut and dried.
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Guitar and bass out of phase isn’t really even a thing. It’s only a thing that exists when you have multiple mics on a single source.