Bind Your Kick & Bass
Last Edited: Nov 21, 2023
Fixing Phasing Issues
Phasing issues have long been an obstacle for the right-sounding mix. They can occur with many instruments in music production and tend to sound unpleasant. Audio engineers have been applying various techniques to fix this problem. Recently, some handy software plugins that remove these annoying phase issues became available, and I've come across a plugin mainly made to treat phase issues. Besides that, it has many more options like a Track time shifter, Mid-side stereo widener, Stereo panner, Stereo balance meter, and Stereo correlation analyzer. In the following tutorial, I have chosen to apply this effect to a kick & bass in a previously made Psytrance project. Additionally, I will guide you through the PHA-979 interface, followed by a couple of audio examples. As usual, we can start by adding PHA-979 by Voxengo to the bass channel in our SoundBridge project.
Voxengo PHA-979
PHA-979 is a professional audio plugin that allows you to apply an arbitrary phase shift to the sound material. The phase shift is a simultaneous shifting of all frequencies across the active frequency range of the signal by the given value in degrees. This is achieved by linear-phase design. Upon opening, we can see some central dial knobs. At first, the parameters might be confusing, but they are not. The interface has three main sections, so let's dive into the details.
Delay
The first section on the left is reserved for "Delay. The "Left" and "Right" knobs control the delay time (in milliseconds) independently applied to the left and right channels, respectively. The plugin can apply negative time delay (shift the channels "back in time") due to constant technical processing latency the delay module introduces in the first place. You can enable or disable it or type the desired values by clicking on a "calculator" tab in the bottom.
Phase
This set of controls allows you to perform mono or stereo audio material phase alignment. Phase alignment is the second step to achieve a clear sound after time alignment. The "Left" and "Right" knobs specify the phase shift value (in degrees) for the left and right audio channels, respectively. The phase-shifting process of this plugin does not skew the phase relationship within the signal being processed. For example, you can shift the signal's phase twice with this process. First, use 90 degrees and then 180+90 degrees (totaling 360 degrees) to get the original password. The "L 180" and "R 180" switches enable 180-degree phase inversion (flip) of the left and right channels, respectively. The "Corr" button opens the "Correlometer" pop-up window.
Output
The "Side Mix" knob adjusts the amount of side channel signal present in the output signal (in percent). When the knob is at 100% (no mid-channel present), the resulting entire side channel output will be 6 dB louder in comparison to the 50% position to account for a usually quieter side channel signal. The "Pan" knob controls output signal panning (in percent L-R). The plugin uses a "0 dB" pan law for stereo panning. The "Out Gain" knob adjusts the overall output signal gain (in decibels). The "Force Mono" switch only enables processing the left audio channel. This switch is designed to be used on mono tracks (for example, during multi-microphone drum kit mixing) since, in such cases, this will save some CPU resources. When this switch is enabled, it dims the right channel knobs on the user interface, making it clear that the plugin is working on a mono source. The input right channel signal will be discarded completely when this mode is engaged. The "L/R Swap" switch enables the left and right channel swapping before the "Side Mix" and "Pan" adjustments are applied. Finally, the "Mono Mix" switch allows the mixing left and right tracks to mono on output.
Setting the Bassline To Mono.
Since Kick drum and Bassline in various electronic music are set to mono, I have also decided to make the bassline mono. Therefore, I enabled the "Force Mono" option within the plugin before further processing. Let's now hear a few audio examples of changes in the "Delay" and "Phase" sections. First, we will listen to the audio model without any processing. I advise you to use high-quality headphones or a pair of studio monitors to notice the effect entirely.
~Kick Drum & Bass Line - Unprocessed
~Kick Drum & Bass Line - PHA-979 process 1
~Kick Drum & Bass Line - PHA-979 process 2
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