Sound Advice -- Phased And Confused

(From Videomaker.com -- By Hal Robertson)

After countless hours of careful acquisition and editing, you go to play your finished work on a reagular television set and part of your audio is gone.

What happened?

AUDIO PHASE is one of the most misunderstood topics in the audio world.

This may be because it's a complicated issue and the math behind it all is something only a physics geek could love.

Regardless, audio phase and, more importantly,
PHASE CANCELLATION, is important to every video producer who cares about the sound on their projects.

Phase cancellation can easily ruin the dialog or voice-over track when your client plays the video.

So let's do something about it.

Sound Advice -- Phased And Confused

Reality Check
In my edit suite, I use a good set of surround speakers, complete with subwoofer. This system produces very nice sound and is a great reference point for mixing and balance between audio sources.

However, I can't forget that many of my viewers will hear these projects over a simple mono speaker or through a mono sound system.

To combat potential problems, I also route the stereo mix through a VCR and hook the output to a $60 mono television.

This way, I can quickly check for phase cancellation.

If it looks and sounds good there, I'm done.