Mandolin / bouzouki / cittern multi-mic phase: close vs body, room, and OH fold
Close mics on mandolin, Irish bouzouki, or cittern feel bright and choppy in the booth and on stage wedges. On studio mono fold or livestream, body, chop, and sustain often thin or cancel against body/bridge, room, and OH paths that carry the same pluck a few milliseconds later. That is usually polarity and arrival time between close and body/room, plus a stereo bed that was never folded before send. Fix polarity and small delays first. Frequency-aware phase repair belongs only after residual L/R fights remain on stereo beds before mono fold. Distinct from a full bluegrass string-band stack: this page is about mandolin-family instruments alone.
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PHIXER is free stereo phase-repair (VST3/CLAP/AU · Win/Mac/Linux) from Riverflux Audio. Frequency-aware phase rotation for leftover L/R fights on stereo material. It is not a mandolin compressor, not a widener, and not a substitute for mic placement or mono audition of the stream or mix bus. Polarity and timing first; PHIXER after residual spectral fights.
What mandolin / bouzouki / cittern phase failure sounds like
- Chop and body thin on livestream. Close and room/OH share the same energy a few ms apart.
- Attack huge in booth, hollow on phone. Hard L/R mandolin or bouzouki layouts disappear when the platform folds.
- Neck mic fights body or bridge close. Same content twice with different delay into the matrix.
- Studio or festival fold cancels midrange bark. Stereo bed never checked in mono before send.
- Fine in cans / wedges, broken for remote viewers. Same destinations as OBS livestream, live FOH / foldback, bluegrass string-band.
Fast mono audition (about 60 seconds)
- Solo the stream / mix bus (not only booth headphones). Flip a utility to mono.
- A/B close muted vs open under body/bridge/room/OH. Note what disappears: body, chop, attack, midrange bark.
- Solo pairs: neck vs body, instrument vs room, stereo bed vs mono fold.
- Check correlation on the delivery bus, then with the instrument muted vs full.
Order of operations (before spectral phase rotation)
1. Polarity between close neck/body and room / OH
Flip close vs room, or neck vs body, when chop or body return immediately. Guide: polarity vs phase. Related: bluegrass string-band, acoustic guitar, banjo.
2. Small delay align close to the hero body / room image
Close neck or bridge mics often arrive earlier than shared room or OH. A few samples of delay on the close (or nudge to the hero body image) often restores chop better than any widener.
3. One hero mandolin / bouzouki / cittern image to the stream or mix bus
Do not send neck, body, bridge, room, and OH all hot into the livestream or print. Pick a hero image (often a focused body+neck blend), keep extras muted or low. Parallel stacks are classic hollow-chop on phone fold. Related: overhead & room.
4. Prefer hero body as the tone; quieter color close or room
Secondary closes should color attack and proximity, not replace the hero image for the stream mix. If every close sits at full level under a loud OH, mono fold almost always hollows chop. Pull extras first.
5. Skip wideners and Haas on mandolin-family beds before fold
Short-delay width and stereo imagers make booth headphones huge and phones hollow. Keep critical low-mid and chop centered for stream and print.
6. Only then audition residual L/R spectral fights
If a stereo bed must stay stereo and fold still hollows a band after the steps above, gentle frequency-aware phase rotation can help. Prove it with mono A/B, rotator bypassed vs engaged.
Path types and typical failure modes
| Path | Common mono failure | First fix |
|---|---|---|
| Neck + body / bridge close | Chop / body cancel on stream | Polarity; delay close; quieter secondary |
| Instrument + room / OH | Attack disappears on phone | Polarity + delay; hero image |
| Close + stage bleed | Bark combs or thins | Bleed control; polarity; one hero |
| Stereo pair hard L/R | Huge in cans, gone on phone | Center critical lows; simplify width |
| FOH / matrix → OBS / print | Fine in booth, hollow for viewers | OBS livestream / live FOH |
Studio / livestream checklist (to send)
1. Label neck vs body vs room vs OH paths
Name neck, body/bridge, room, and OH so operators know what hits the livestream or print. Ambiguous stacks get left open and comb on fold.
2. Mono-check delivery bus alone, then with full instrument
Solo body and chop in mono. Then open attack and bark in mono. Note fights between secondary color and hero body.
3. Watch phone, social, and archival destinations
Most remote viewers hear mono or near-mono. Guides: live FOH, OBS livestream.
4. Optional null / mono workflow before show
Host-agnostic habit before you go live or print: master bus mono checklist.
When PHIXER helps
- The material is already stereo and must stay stereo (stereo pair, stereo room print), not a mono close you fake-widened.
- Polarity, delay align, and hero-path levels are cleaned up, but fold still hollows a band of the spectrum.
- You can A/B mono with the plugin bypassed and hear clearer body or chop without wrecking the image.
- You are not using it to "fix" unaligned neck+body under room, or to replace a time-align edit on the matrix.
Decision table
| You notice… | First try | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Body thins when neck opens under body mic | Polarity; delay secondary; quieter secondary | Arrival-time fight |
| Chop + room collapse on stream | Hero image; polarity; delay | Stacked identical content |
| Fine in booth, thin on phone | Mono delivery bus; pull extras | Booth ≠ viewer fold |
| Stereo bed still cancels by band | PHIXER on that stereo bed | Residual spectral L/R fight |
| Mono instrument alone is dull | Tone / EQ / gain / mic choice | Not an L/R repair job |
When NOT to use PHIXER here
- You have not mono-auditioned the stream / mix bus yet.
- The fix is obviously polarity, delay, one hero image, or quieter secondary under body/room.
- You want PHIXER to make the mandolin louder, wider, or "more chop." Wrong job.
- The path is mono and the print problem is balance or EQ.
- See also when not to use PHIXER.
Quick path: Solo delivery bus in mono → polarity neck/body vs room/OH → delay-align secondary → one hero image → quieter extras under hero → skip Haas/imagers → mono-check with full instrument → PHIXER only for leftover stereo cancellation on a stereo bed → fold again for stream / studio print.
Watch
- PHIXER tutorial + how it sounds (walkthrough with audio examples)
Related guides
- Bluegrass / acoustic string-band multi-mic phase
- Banjo / clawhammer multi-mic phase
- Acoustic guitar multi-mic phase
- Pedal steel / country steel multi-mic phase
- Ukulele / Hawaiian ensemble multi-mic phase
- Overhead & room mic phase
- Polarity vs phase rotation
- When not to use PHIXER
- Twitch / OBS livestream mono fold
- Live FOH / foldback / stream phase