Hi,

I've noticed lately that Fabfilter Pro-Q has been introducing a fair amount of phase rotation to my mixes. My question is does this really matter?

(long format podcast, interviews, 2 hosts, 1 guest) When cleaning my production audio (3 mics), I usually apply adaptive phase rotation as my last step. So I know that there is not phase rotation on my source tracks. When printing my final mix, I'm seeing a far amount of phase rotation introduced. I think I've correctly identified it as being caused by a FF Pro Q on my dialog bus. I don't mind a wonky looking waveform, I just don't want to be losing headroom unnecessarily.

Is this a concern, if so, any suggestions? Included pic for visual reference. Dia track up top / mix below. Thanks!

https://imgur.com/a/dELPjUY

You might try linear phase mode on the FF EQ....but it only matters if it's stopping you from doing something else. (like achieving a specific level)

Seems very odd. Might be a clue that there is something not quite right elsewhere in the chain. Fab is just illustrating it?

If you tell me the sound interface, and I can probably guess, as I may have seen this before....

Are cutting or subtracting bass or low-mids? A soon as I put on a hpf my spoken word wave forms get pretty asymmetric no matter what eq I'm using (or interface for that matter). I've always guessed that the phase rotated sounds already are there, just masked by strong bass/low mid sounds.

Thanks everyone for the replies!

I will definitely try linear phase mode on the Pro-Q and run some tests.

I believe the audio that I've been working with was recorded on a Sound Devices mixpre. I don't see much phase rotation with the naked eye on the raw waveforms.

I don't typically sweat phase rotation on my end unless i suspect its affecting available headroom considerably. In this case, I am delivering dialog splits and ...want the wave form to look pretty i guess? lol, really just want to make sure I'm not sending off assets that could be perceived as flawed or missing a processing step. Thanks again.

To minimise phase shift it's better to use less steep high pass filters, a lower cutoff, or a shelf instead (or maybe even nothing at all). This free plugin is interesting for looking at what EQ does to phase:

https://bertomaudio.com/eq-curve-analyzer.html

I went to this link and it may have actually helped me with my phase shift problem. Thanks