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ok i was just curious as to why i have made mixes that, when played in winamp the little visual thing showing what frequencies are being played, will have most or all of the bars doing things, but some of my mixes only have like the very left bar or 2 leftmost bars.

i know this is a "visualization" thing but it makes me paranoid that something is wrong with my mix and that a very narrow band of frequencies are all that is in my mix...still sounds like a pretty good mix however, to me :P

Comments

Boswell Fri, 09/15/2006 - 03:04

Winamp sums the L and R channels to use as the basis for its crude visualisation display. Using the "visualisation options" menu you can tinker with how it looks and the integration time. However, lack of visualised energy in the higher frequency ranges after summing may indicate a phase problem in your mix. Problems like this are not always immediately audible in stereo.

Winamp is just a toy, but for peace of mind, it would be good to check your suspect mixes using a professional-quality frequency analyser.

You could also try listening to your mix through a good hi-fi system in a well-furnished living room where you can flip between stereo and mono and check for any upper frequency differences between the stereo and mono settings. Don't use your studio desk and monitors for this, as they are presumably what you used for the mix in the first place.

anonymous Fri, 09/15/2006 - 03:16

hey thanks much for the reply!

this damned phase thing again...i really have been only doing this a very short time and i have just been tinkering my way through things thus far and everytime this phase stuff comes up i understand very little of what it is and what effect it has on mixing.

well undoubtedly the fact that i must resort to mixing with like an 80$ pair of "studio headphones" i have lots of issues with my mixes in the first place, but i have done O-K i think so far, as i can get my mixes to sound somewhat consistent (after like 10 mixes) across car speakers, headphones, desktop speakers, and entertainment speaker setups.

is there any chance you would be willing to enlighten me on what phasing is? (i only have one microphone and i only use it for my guitar which i do little of...im usually just recording my bass guitar and sequencing/sampling the rest)

also if you're willing to do that, maybe you can help me to figure out how to fix this phasing issue once i can identify it?

not lookin for a masters course, just a nudge in the right direction ;)

Boswell Fri, 09/15/2006 - 07:56

Problems with high-frequency phasing was only a suggestion that fitted your WinAmp observations and is not a confirmed diagnosis. Effects like this can arise as a result of differing EQ on the L and R channels, but are not usual.

What I suggest you do is put a sample of a mix that shows the effect (about 10 seconds is enough) on a website somewhere and post a link to it here. Even using YouSendIt can work for something like 100 downloads, if you were to post the authorisation code here. There are enough mastering experts on these forums, one of whom I'm sure could put his finger on the problem, if it exists at all and is not just a WinAmp artifact.