What would happen with reversed XLR leads running stereo?

islandmusic

islandmusic

Inspired
Hi all,
quick question: A while ago I had an issue with terrible tone and unexpected result running the Axe in stereo using the XLRs to FOH. Pretty shitty day that day. Oh well...
The only thing I could still think of is one wrongly wired balanced cable (phase reversed on one side?). What effect would that have on my sound? I could try and go soldering, but I'm lazy...:mrgreen

Cheers,
Benji
 
yes if one was out of phase it would be horrible. maybe the phase switch was pushed in on one channel but not the other on the desk
 
Thx for your time!
Well, what did happen actually was that I heard a massive imbalance between dry and wet signal, as in: WAY too much effect, like you're hearing just the effect signal muting the dry channel in the studio. As if the dry channel got cancelled out and left only the wet portion. Maybe they panned it to mono and it got cancelled out with the phase reverse? Makes sense?
That was one horrible day, big open-air stage, audience present and all...

More thoughts on this appreciated. Maybe I AM going to replicate this with a wrong XLR cable, just to get some peace of mind...:encouragement:

Cheers,
Benji
 
islandmusic said:
Thx for your time!
Well, what did happen actually was that I heard a massive imbalance between dry and wet signal, as in: WAY too much effect, like you're hearing just the effect signal muting the dry channel in the studio. As if the dry channel got cancelled out and left only the wet portion. Maybe they panned it to mono and it got cancelled out with the phase reverse? Makes sense?
That was one horrible day, big open-air stage, audience present and all...

More thoughts on this appreciated. Maybe I AM going to replicate this with a wrong XLR cable, just to get some peace of mind...:encouragement:

Cheers,
Benji
Click to expand...

When listening to stereo with its channels out of phase, signals from the same source (like a normal mono signal from your guitar) will be nulled or greatly reduced in level. The reason reverb, or other stereo effects (such as chorus) are more pronounced in level is due to the L/R signals are different.

Mono signals like bass and vocals will be greatly reduced. The channels out of phase issue would be worse when listening to headphones. With headsets your ears are isolated from each others channel; therefore, information that's common to both channels are arriving at your ears 180 degrees out of phase.
 
Well, we might have found the issue then. wtfover, this sounds pretty spot on like what I experienced.
May shoddy and careless stage crews just *insert favorite expletion/curse here* !!! :mad:

Thx all for your help, I'll take good care next time around...

Benji
 
Make sure its actually the cable, not the Axe settings thats causing this.

There's output phase and output mode to be checked.

Also, a lot of stereo effects use phase adjustments to broaden the stereo image, like the classic enhancer or the stereo chorus. Make sure to check them out in output mode "mono" to make your presets mono compatible or make sure your venue has a stereo PA.
 
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