Phase relationship: do you realign your drum tracks?

[pask74Participant]

Hi gang,
Viewing Warren's 5 tips on mixing, and especially the topic of phase relationship I wondered if he/you realign/s the drum tracks.
I've heard guys say that the more distant, therefore slightly delayed room mics are part of the sound (so no realignment) but I tend to realign tracks to make sure I get the transient response as accurate as possible.
Also, in some cases, visually re-aligning audio does not seem to produce the best result - I was wondering if anyone had the same experience?

[Steve AParticipant]

Yes, I (try) to re-align all the close mics almost always, sometimes it works and sometimes not, and (now) re-align them by ear and not visually.
As far as the room mics, I won't delay the close mics so much as to diminish the groove with the rest of the instruments just to have them lined up with the room mics. I'd rather delay the room mics even further to catch the next in-phase cycle.
This is my current procedure, "subject to change without notice"..lolz..

[Nick D.Participant]

I dont really re-align tracks, I make sure they are good before I hit record. realistically, I just want the kick and snare to be good with the overheads. the rooms shouldn't really have phase issues and if they are that bad use your ears. measuring mic distance from the snare is something I do regularly and don't really ever have a problem.

[simonbestParticipant]

Even if you record carefully, sometimes a difference of a few samples can give you a fuller sound. There's nothing wrong with follwing the waveforms, but if you want to use your ears only, I'd suggest trying the UAD Little Labs IBP plugin.

[Johnny SommererParticipant]

i think it's really necessary, sometimes it doesn't change much, but most of the time it totally does the trick!

[pask74Participant]

I usually do re-align all close mics with the overheads, but when it comes to room mics (that are placed many meters away from the kit), re-aligning them too much kind of diminishes the sense of space.
In Reaper, I either re-align visually or/and use the time alignment plugin (that can go down to the sample).

[Cris Sabater SabaterParticipant]

Hi Pask74, yes I align my drum tracks using a plugin called Auto Align by Sound Radix. It is great and very easy to use too. I put it on the overheads stereo track and use send on the plugin. I then have an instance of Auto Align on every other drum track and use receive. This way every track is aligned to the overheads and the plugin actually in real time puts the tracks in phase for you. You need to do this on a per track basis as each track will have a different phase relationship with the overheads. I used to do it the old fashioned way manually but hey with this kind of technology around it means I can just breeze through and get on with the mix!

Cheers mate,

Cris

[pask74Participant]

Thanks Cris!
Yup the Sound Radix plug-in seems very interesting, let me check that tool right away 😉
Cheers

[Magnus JohanssonParticipant]

I have just recently got mAutoalign from Melda. So far so good. They put price to 50% off fairly often.

[Victor CiampiniParticipant]

I used to try visually aligning the kick/snare/toms with the overheads with exact start times, but now I just tend to flip the phase in and out on those and leave it where it sounds best. I will still align multiple kick/snare mics but that's about it.

Cheers!

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