I don''t know, I''d like someone to tell me. Do I simply add a panned echo/reverb or is there a more somphisticated usage or good tips to follow?

Dude, WTF is the Haas effect? I''m still a newbie at ''professional'' recording, as you know

Woo, it's the metalmod thread

http://www.sciam.com/techbiz/0202technicality.html

"After hearing a signal, the brain suppresses any similar signals that occur within about 40 milliseconds. The reasons for the Haas effect are clear: without it, we would constantly be hearing echoes and reverberations in enclosed spaces. "Our ancestors wouldn't have wanted to hear each echo of a saber-toothed tiger in a cave," Sibbald notes. "They'd want to hear just the first sound, so they would know where the animal was."

Because of the Haas effect, the delayed sound released from the right speaker is simply ignored if it arrives too soon after the same sound from the left speaker. To overcome this obstacle, Sensaura's engineers carefully diagrammed the acoustic pathways from each speaker to each ear. The engineers identified the bothersome cross-talk pathways and invented an ingenious system for eliminating them. The cross talk from one speaker would be canceled out by an equal but opposite sound wave from the other speaker. Of course, this method creates its own difficulties: the canceling wave also reaches both ears and interferes with the original sounds as well as the cross talk. Sensaura had to devise a set of overlapping signals that cancels out the cancellations."

That's a general overview. I don't know any more than that.

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[edited by - Kylotan on April 25, 2002 8:44:25 AM]

Well. . .

*My* brain does not "ignore" the delayed signal, or in any case I can hear the difference with a panned 5-40 ms delay. Its true that you hear the sound directionally as coming from the original source, but there''s a real sensation of stereo width resulting from this effect. (probably this was also covered in the quoted article, but I can''t be arsed reading it )

In any case- how is this useful in music? For starters, its obviously useful for making a mono signal seem "wider" in the stereo image. If, like me, you''re short for mics in a live recording situation, this can come in handy.

Other than that, just play around with the effect! Some applications include effecting the delayed signal with a subtle chorus, pitchshift it a quarter-cent or so, etc. Try experimenting with slightly different delay times, playing around the "magical" 40 ms mark where perception of the signal changes to an echo. (in practice, this delay time can differ slightly, and I haven''t the foggiest why ) For example, take a panned delay set to 35 ms., and map an LFO to the delay time with a very short depth (10-15 ms is a good start) and a very long cycle. The signal warps in a very yummy way. If you don''t have a mappable LFO on your delay/effects box, you can do this by hand as well, but its hard if your knobs aren''t marked with exact ms. Also try adjusting the pan of the delayed or original signal throughout your track.

These are obviously just a few of the applications. While you''re experimenting, its useful to solo the track(s) you''re playing with, as the effect can be very subtle and hard to hear with the rest of the tracks playing. Two caveats: I wouldn''t bother playing with this effect on bassy sounds, as they tend to be monodirectional anyway and if you ever get the track pressed to vinyl (hey, you never know! Some popular game soundtracks have been pressed!), it will make the needle skip. A more applicable warning is to sum the signal to mono frequently to hear how it sounds. Short delay times, especially with an effected signal, can cause the overall stereo signal to sum to silence, or a very "thinned out" sound. Since many people play games through built-in speaker monitors (or TV speakers) which are often mono, this is a real concern. And of course, if you''re making non-game music to played on the radio, etc., there is a very, very likely chance that your song will be heard over a mono AM/FM station, or through mono TV speakers, etc.

If you see the Buddha on the road, Kill Him. -apocryphal

Thanks people.

Anonymous: Yes, the phase cancellation, or how is it called, is nothing woth hearing in your mix. I hope noone will listen to my music in mono!

Its all well and good to *hope* that, Claymore, but as I said, if you''re making a soundtrack for a console game, I give you 99.9999999% odds that your music *will* be heard in mono. If you''re making a PC game soundtrack, the odds are still pretty high. ALOT of people, MOST people, are emphatically NOT audiophiles, and if built-in mono monitor speakers are what came with the Compaq they bought, that''s what they''re gonna use. MOST people do not have home theater systems, and MOST built-in TV speakers are mono. You really have to plan for this contigency. I''m not saying base your whole mix around it, (unless you''re making a console game. . .) but be aware of it. If you have whole elements of your mix disappearing in mono, you pretty much gotta fix it.

If you see the Buddha on the road, Kill Him. -apocryphal

The only time I''d think that you wouldn''t take summing your audio to mono into account would be if you were mixing a film sound track. Alot of people only listen to music from mono radios in their car or at home. There is also a possibility that it might wind up on T.V. so ya always have to consider dealing with phase cancellation. By the way are there any plugins for audio editing software that meter phase cancellation like some consoles do?

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