One thing that tends to confuse new engineers is the difference between phase and polarity. It can be a little confusing because we usually express phase shift in degrees and it’s usually a result of a delay. On a static unchanging waveform, a 180 degree phase shift will result in phase cancellation.
When we invert the polarity, we’re swapping positive voltage for negative voltage. This is effectively accomplished just by flipping the positive and negative terminals on a wire. That’ll result in complete phase cancellation of any waveform.
Conversely, with phase shift, you’ll only see complete cancellation in a static waveform. Something that doesn’t change, like a sine wave from a synthesizer. And the language engineers use to talk about it can also be confusing because sometimes we mix up the terms.
Don’t be surprised if you see the terms used interchangeably on a mic pre or on a console. Those switches exist to help you kind of get one mic in sync with another one, which is something you can also accomplish digitally in your DAW. This stuff is important.
It doesn’t have to be hard. have to be hard. We teach it in beat-kitching classes.
what to do.
