[grc] Sound Quality Issues

[al davis]

On Thu, 10 Nov 2016 16:26:28 -0600
David Klann via grc <grc at maillist.peak.org> wrote:

>  - The quality of *some* (not all) spoken-word audio recorded in our
> "Studio B" sounds like it was recorded with the person speaking through
> "a metal pipe while in a tunnel" (that's the best description we've been
> able to come up with)
> 
>  - It *sometimes* depends on the radio people are listening to when it
> happens
> 
>  - Music recorded in the same studio from any source (analog vinyl, CD,
> digital source, etc) sounds just fine
> 
>  - One listener has noticed that it sounds "bad" when they listen with
> their home receiver set to "mono" mode, and when they switch to "stereo"
> mode it sounds fine


As Ken said .. likely a phase issue.

But it could be something other than the easy phase flip, which I think
you would have found before asking.

The typical electronic "balanced" inputs act weird when they are
connected incorrectly.

If your console has the mic preamps electrically separate so they can
be patched to any input, you have a cable making that connection.
Something wrong with that cable could cause what sounds like phase
problems.  The something wrong might be that it is open on one side,
but you still have the other side, other channel, and ground, so some
signal still gets through. With a wiring problem, one channel might be
ok, so stereo listeners might not notice because one channel is good
and the other has something, but the mono sum could have frequency
dependent cancellation.