SoundRadix - Auto Align 2 - Mixing With Mike Plugin of the Week

[@TomCawoski]

Very cool video Mike!!! I really like the way you review plugins!!! To me, I'm not quite understanding why you would use the snare as the primary target for phase alignment. To me, I would use the overheads because they are the closest far microphones that are "hearing" the entire kit. The close mics on the individual drums are maybe 2-3" away from the drum. Overheads approximately 4 feet equidistant from the snare. 136.88 inches is about 11.4 feet for the room mics from the snare in this video. I'm a drummer and when I sit behind my kit, I'm hearing punchy drums and the overhead mics represent what is closest to what I hear as a drummer in terms of the distance. Phase alignment of drums is a challenge because there are so many factors with having multiple mics capturing the sound of the drums. This distance of the mics is one thing that can be accounted for. Unfortunately I'm not exactly sure what Auto Align is doing in regards to the various frequencies that a set of drums generate. I'm not entirely convinced that this plugin or any similar plugins can do what our ears and mind do when we hear live punchy drums.

[@mixingwithmike]

The primary issue I have with this plugin is that it moves all the mics to the target (snare) which changes the spacial relationship of the drum kit and thus the height and depth of the kit gets lost. Most studio drum performances are performed through headphones, so the spacial relationship of the OHs goes away as the close mics get to the headphones instantaneously. It's one of the many reasons that performing is more difficult through HPs than acoustically. When I time align drums, I never move the kick or snare close and top mics. I will move outside kick and snare bottom to align with their respective mics. I always time align the OHs to 1/2 phase cycle of the snare fundamental and invert the phase so that the low end of the Snare is full sounding. There's no way to phase align the kick fundamental because the waveform is too long. This preserves the height and positioning of the OH's while keeping the snare solid and focused.

[@TomCawoski]

@@mixingwithmikeI have version 1 of Auto Align and have received mixed results when using it on my drum recordings. I've seen a couple other demos of the new version and you can hear the punch for sure but there seams to be something else missing. It would be good to see and hear a comparison of the different ways you can do phase alignment on drums. I may end up getting the new version for the $99 upgrade or just get the demo to try it. I've heard a couple of engineers say you loose as you said the spacial relationship of the sound and one who said it makes your drums sound small which I'm not so sure I would go that far. What is your go to method of doing phase alignment on drums? I appreciate your response. Thanks! 😎

[@JoeyFTL]

I feel like the company could've really done people a solid and leave the predecessor up for grabs on the website as a lower cost option. The price increase is pretty significant.

[@mixingwithmike]

Contact SR and let them know what you think. It's through this kind of feedback that manufacturers make changes.

[@JakeyWakey]

The first one was over-priced

[@DavidDavis-FA-photog]

Mike, thanks for clearing up a lot of debate about the OH and Rooms. Now I think My Auto Align 2 is great!

[@FromTheHipp]

He mike...can you do the Fame and Sunset Sound Studio reverb from IK? i think they have loads of potential and would love to see your expertise on it

[@Shred_Rocket]

The current version of Auto Align 2 does not need to have the DAW play the music, just hit the 'Align' button and the tool will do the rest. Also by adding the tool to your chain, there is magic behind the scenes, where the tool will automatically place itself at the top (or first) in the chain. At least it does in Reaper. Haven't tried it in Cubase or ProTools since those are not my editing DAWs.

[@adem_gun]

It gives a warning that audio hasn't been played for more than 30 seconds, yet will still align despite this if I say continue. Does this affect the quality of alignment?

[@LYSHEmusic]

Nice tool to have! In my experience it’s almost always sounds more 3D with no time alignment. Depends on the genre and the recording, of course, sometime we should compromise depth for clarity or tightening.

[@mixingwithmike]

When drums are well recorded this is true

[@AaryaGanesan]

is the align analysis only possible in real-time? in case i have a long drum track, I am wondering if there is a way to fast track that?

[@runemidsun]

Great video Mike. Keep em coming

[@grupotremendo]

Hello Mike i am getting my bass drum sound louder on one side of my speaker i am using auto align 1?

[@chrismueller4431]

Mike I got the align post 2. It seems to not let me do what you can in auto align 2

[@SeanGonzalezMDHEXT]

Auto-Align post 2 is more for mics that move around and dynamic phase adjustment.

[@Shane-zo4mg]

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@mixingwithmike]

Cheers!

[@murraywebster1228]

Wouldn’t it be better to align post eq & compression etc, these also sometimes introduce time and phase shifts, that’s how I do it albeit with an analysis Programm called SysTune.

[@orphic-trench]

Sometimes, phase alignment is not what's best for the situation. You get higher peaks and it's harder to get a louder track after that. The purpose of putting Autoalign at the beginning of the chain is to make sure that it's not the microphone placement that is causing the issue. Once that's solved, you can go on mixing as usual.

[@mixingwithmike]

On one level, that makes sense although the phase distortions are often part of the sound of vintage processors. Also, you may have to consider a new alignment every time you make an adjustment.

[@mixingwithmike]

@@orphic-trench From a creative perspective, this can be true. Depends on the production and vision of the artist and producer.

[@mendiapodaca]

This is actually a game changer. Not a buzzword for once.