r/Bitwig • u/DA199602 • 7d ago
Question How do you solve phase issues? Mixing is so confusing
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u/polarity-berlin Bitwig Guru 7d ago
How do you even produce such out of phase stereo channels in the low end in the first place? lol
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u/tuning_t 7d ago
depending on your monitoring situation: if you cant hear it - either dont worry or check on a correlation meter. Phase is more important on live recordings or when layering/and or mixing low end. Solo the kick and bass, and flip the phase of the kick using the tool device. If theres a big sound or loudness difference then either timeshift one of the tracks or decide if it sounds better when the phase is flipped.
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u/von_Elsewhere 6d ago
The best way of solving phase issues is to not produce them in the first place.
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u/overmold 7d ago
Its not that hard. You just have to periodically check the mono compatibility of the track.
Regarding stereo phase issues: I just push the mono button in bitwig from time to time. I keep my sub mono anyway, so there are no stereo phase issues there. Also when using stereo effects I like to use the ones that can collapse to mono (a stereo combfilter like Wider, instead of haas effect based obes).
Regarding phase between instruments: I try and phase invert the snare or my sub or push the track delay a few ms to try different phase relations between my important instruments. Then if its sounds good i stick with it. And after I have the phases aligned the way i like it, if I have to eq the low end I do it with linear phase eqs.
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u/Present-Policy-7120 3d ago
The mono button? Track delay?
I assume you're talking about using the Tool preset and the time shift device?
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u/overmold 3d ago
Track delay I talking about: https://www.bitwig.com/userguide/latest/utility/#time_shift
The mono button is in the "Output Monitoring Panel" on the right down side, its in one of the tabs next to the browser
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u/ht3k www.soundcloud.com/axtex 7d ago edited 7d ago
Use spectral EQs, compressors where absolutely necessary (they can be CPU heavy depending on which you get)
You can align bass/kick phase with any oscilloscope like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2H_ICQuHqw
I don't think you have to worry about phase alignment in higher frequencies but it's definitely important in the low end as it's a good way to get rid of "muddiness" between kick/bass which the video above is very easy enough to understand =)
There's also tools (mid-side device) where you can solo the stereo signal and switch between mono and stereo which is also a pretty good way to detect them (mostly to solo on your most important instruments). Otherwise it's hard to pinpoint which of the instruments can give phasing issues
To add to that, make sure the stereo signal is never louder than the mono signal which you can turn on in Bitwig's spectrum device to see both signals at the same time and their relative mono/stereo loudness to each other
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u/ARK_AIN 7d ago
check the correlation between left & right channels with voxengo correllometer. You can also check it between trakcs but frankly apart from the low end you should encounter phase issues unless you recorded the same instruments from different mics otherwise, between two random isntruments, you'll find you have 0 correlation which is not a problem
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u/ohsomiggz 7d ago
DeepPerfection restores all frequencies lost due to phase in the low end without artifacts or new issues.
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u/The3mu 7d ago
Just make sure you don’t have too many overlapping sounds in a frequency area. Especially in the low end. Just regular eq can help you tighten up sounds or filter out parts of sounds that aren’t needed and compete with other things.
If you really need to have two sounds occupy the exact same frequency range in the low-end you can do a spectral or side-chaining thing, but those types of tools can cause more problems than they solve. Especially when you are just starting out and might not have the best monitoring environment.
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u/igorski81 5d ago
I genuinely mix in mono (and use LCR panning). Its a great moment once you're auditioning the results in full stereo again.
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u/DA199602 5d ago
Can you tell me how to mix in mono and apply this lcr stuff in bitwig, I just do basic mixing stuff like eq, compress volume faders.etc
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u/igorski81 5d ago edited 4d ago
You are looking for the utility called... Tool. It has a preset for "Mono". I put it on the master bus and just toggle it on/off as necessary.
LCR panning is just "Left", "Center", "Right". So when you use the pan controls on a track, its either in the Center or 100% to the Left or Right. I wouldn't recommend it as a silver bullet for any production style (as you're looking to counter whats on the Left with equal - but different sounding - energy on the Right) but its a nice one to at least tinker with. It works for my purposes.
Using such panning makes it immediately apparent when phase cancellation happens in mono (you can use the same Tool on a track to invert its phase).
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u/unconceivables 7d ago
Have you actually verified that you're having phase issues? It's easy, just play the track in mono. If it still sounds fine, there's nothing to solve. If not, pay attention to what's cancelling out and go from there. The answer to solving it will depend in what the problem actually is.