When two signals run out of phase, they cancel. What does that even mean? Imagine one switch turning the light off and the other turning the light on.
They cancel each other out. Electrically speaking, sound pressure is represented in voltage. One voltage is going up and the other is going down.
They cancel. How much? Okay, well here are two tracks.
They both have oscillators and this one has the polarity inverted. Here’s one. Here’s the other.
Add the first one back in. Silence. Phase problems are no joke and they can wreak havoc on your track.
Acoustically, the cancellation is not as absolute, but it’s still there. There’s just so much other sound bouncing around everywhere that you’re never going to get a perfect out-of-phase relationship. But it’s certainly enough for you to hear beating in this unison as it goes out of tune.
Reverse the polarity on one of your monitors. You won’t hear silence, but you’ll definitely start to hear some problems in your room. You can start to use this phenomenon creatively.
