Phase aligning two microphones

    How do you guys phase align two (or more) mics?

    • Record a muted attack and then grab one of the tracks and move it around visually so that the two waveforms fit. (This won't help on profiling, does it?)
    • Do the same with the internal track delay of your DAW. (This won't help on profiling either.)
    • Feed some white noise signal into the reference amp and move one mic around until the white noise in the monitors sound free of phasing.
    • Phase invert one of the mics (for example with the phase invert switch on the mixing console) and move one mic until the all or most of the signal in the monitors goes silent because the two signals cancel out each other. (This only works, when both mics are panned to centre.) And then take out the phase invert switch again.

    Here are two links that might be interesting to some of you:

    www.audiosemantics.de
    I have been away for quite a while. A few years ago I sold my KPA and since then played my own small tube amp with a Bad Cat Unleash. Now I am back because the DI-profile that I made from my amp sounds very much convincing to me.

    I do it just by ear, with headphones on. I have my little submixer on my cab so i can grab the controls while moving the mics. Sometimes i playback a di track therough the KPA while moving the mics, sometimes i play guitar on my own. I just put both mics to the same level, moce the mics and then look for the phasing. Afterwards i mix the 2 signals accoring to my taste before taking the profiles.


    You don´t always have to set your mics for a perfect phase match. While a big mismatch sounds pretty nasty, small shifts can sound very interesting. At least it´s woth a try.

    I record the two mic setup and then compare the two wave forms up close. I determine which one is behind and then move the MIC used on that track and re-record. I do this until the newly recorded tracks match up.