Radial Engineering Phazer Owner's Manual - page 13
Mic A - placed
close to beater
head.
Mic B - placed
outside drum
shell.
Acoustic String Bass
Engineers often combine the
signals from a piezo contact
pickup (A) and a microphone (B)
when recording acoustic string
bass. This is very much like
the acoustic guitar application
because the piezo's signal arrives
instantaneously followed by the
mic's signal a moment later.
Shifting the piezo signal into
alignment with the microphone
will reinforce the fundamental
creating a bigger bass sound
while intentional miss-alignment
can yield interesting and new
sounds.
This is a good time to try the Phazer's fi lter section. The timbre of the
piezo signal can be infl uenced by the fi lter settings and offer many
more shades of tone.
11
Radial Engineering
Phazer & Phazer-Bank
The resulting comb-fi ltering makes mixing the sound more diffi cult
and the low-frequency defi nition from the bass may be lost for most
listeners. As it is impossible to solve all of the phase problems in a
room (due to refl ections off walls and ceilings) the intent is to at least
provide the mix position with the best sound possible so that the end
mix is balanced. This is where the Phazer comes in. By inserting the
Phazer on the bass guitar signal going into the PA system, we can
shift the phase so that the PA and bass amp play together in phase.
Kick Drum - a Better Beater Sound
Engineers often use two mics on a kick drum. The fi rst mic (A), typi-
cally a condenser, is placed close to the drum head to pickup up the
beater sound for added snap. A second mic (B), often a dynamic, is
positioned further away to pickup the overall low frequency tone of
the drum. The distance between the two mics creates a phase off-set
which the Phazer can compensate for. Insert
the Phazer into the signal path of Mic A to
time align the two mics for a tighter sound-
ing track.
True to the Music
B
A
The Phazer aligns the
signals for a bigger and
tighter kick drum sound.
The two signals arrive
at different times.
A
B