Adjusting the Phase of Recordings

*NOTE: This is not usually a necessary process, so if you never do this in your whole life you’ll be fine. But, for us crazy audio people… (ha).

First, here’s how iZotope describes the phase we’re talking about here: “The Phase module in iZotope RX can balance asymmetric waveforms by rotating signal phase. Rotating the phase of a signal changes its peak values but doesn’t change its loudness, and otherwise has no audible effect on the signal. Asymmetric waveforms can occasionally occur in audio such as dialogue, voice, and brass instruments. Making the waveform more symmetrical gives the signal more headroom.”

Here is a question from the audience at my recent presentation at Podfest 2019!

Question: On one of the slides, it looked like you had a bunch of plugins you were using on a track. I noticed you were using a phase plugin which I’m guessing was the one from iZotope RX. Is that something you use on all tracks or would it have been to deal with a specific problem? If you always use it, could you share the settings?

Answer: Short answers: Yes, I use that phase processor in iZotope RX. Yes, I use it on all tracks. And for the settings you simply check a box called “Adaptive phase rotation.”

More on each answer:

1. I use module chains in RX to “clean up” every track in every episode that I produce. Phase is part of that, and I always use it first in the chain.

2. I use phase because it evens out any lopsided waves, meaning, when looking at the track in the screen, sometimes the bulk of the wave will be above the zero line and less of the wave will be below the zero line. This means that the peak on the positive side can more easily distort because it’s skewed higher than it should be. So when you correct the phase, it makes the amount of wave above and below the zero line equal, and therefore less chance that any peak distortion will take place during further processing.

3. Regarding the settings in RX you simply check a box called “Adaptive phase rotation,” which disables all other possible setting controls.

Hope this helps!

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