Premier Rock Forum

I'm miking my toms from the inside, without resos.. do I need to reverse the phase of the micros in order to do so?
Oh, and where can I get phase reversing gear? My board has no such option..

You don't necessarily need to reverse the phase when mic'ing from inside. (this is with no bottom heads? Is that what resos are?) Generally when mic'ing both heads you will reverse the phase on the bottom head because, technically it's out of phase with the top head (because when you hit the top head, it then resonates the bottom head a moment later, sort of).

The only answer is do what sounds best, I've gotten good results with top and bottom mics in phase. Depends on the mics, placement, etc.

If you don't have a preamp with phase reverse, the easiest thing to do is make a phase reverse cable. Just swap the hot and cold wires on one end. Make sure to clearly mark the cable as a phase reverse cable. The main drawback here is that you can't a/b the in phase/out of phase sounds.

Sorry, it's a little hard to explain, I hope this made sense.

-n

Thanks you. Yes, it made sense.. yeah, resos = bottom heads..
I read somewhere that you are supossed to reverse phase because the tom mics would face into the opposite direction of all other mics, especially the OHs, and that you should also reverse the phase of the BD, if you mike it from the inside.. the thing with the OHs/tom mics facing opposite directions somehow made sense to me, but I also had a nice result without phase reverse, that's why I'm asking..

what is phase reverse?

So when you're mic'ing toms, and you invert the phase of the bottom mics, is it because of the spacing between the mics or because of the physcially inverted placement of the mic? Think of it this way: Whether you're using the skins on the bottom or not it could be said that the mic on the bottom experiences compression when the drum head is moving towards it. The mic on the top would simultaneously experience rarefraction, or de-pressurization of the space around it, and vice versa when the head moves back up.

Hey interesting thread.

Seems a few people don't understand the concept of phase cancellation (or were you just being silly?).

As has been already (sort of) alluded to, inverting the phase of a mic feed is somewhat important whenever you have more than one mic picking up sounds from a single source. The sound waves might be hitting each mic at different times which can cause phase cancellation (that sort of hollow, tin can sound).

This is especially true when you mic a drum from the top and bottom. So how do you know when it's appropriate to phase invert? Well, my own personal opinion is to simply trust your ears. I will switch back and forth a few times and evaluate the difference in sound quality. Whichever setting removes that tin can sound is the winner. Sometimes, there is no effect because there is no phase cancellation occuring in the first place. Of course, you can always reposition one of the mics. That has the same effect. Would like to hear other viewpoints on this.

Regarding miking toms from the inside: I've never gotten consistently good results doing this. As a result, I always mic from the top. Anyone else have a different opinion? Not only that but very few players are using open toms these days. Seems 99% of the people I've recorded use the plain old style toms with heads on both sides. The problem I always encountered was that sort of weird hollow comb filtering sound. I just didn't like the way the toms sounded when miked inside. There is a benefit though. If you can get a good "inside" sound, there is less bleed from the cymbals and such. So that's a good thing I guess.

Jon wrote:what is phase reverse?

Jon - if you use the search function there are quite a lot of entries explaining phase reversal etc. I am, of course, taking you at your word that you really don't know what it is and are not being sarcastic. It's hard to tell in here sometimes. But I didn't completely know the ins and outs of it when I first started using this forum. I do now though, pretty much. Do the search and feel the enlightenment, mang.

the was intended to show my lack of sarcasm. had a been deployed instead, you could have taken sarcasm as read. thanks for your advice though - i'll get me a searching!

Cool! Me and you can stick together in the shallow end while all the proper engineers do massive twirly dives off the highest board. Seriously, some of the questions I've asked in here really WOULD make you blush. But hey, I'm learning.

miking a singer from the inside , need to reverse the phase ?