Polarity Maximizer

Using multiple microphones to record drums, piano, guitar, or a whole band? Audiomere's Polarity Maximizer plug-in automatically calculates and sets the optimal polarities for all tracks in a multi-mic recording, reducing common issues related to mic positioning and comb filtering.

A common task when dealing with audio in a multi-mic recording (e.g., of a drum set, piano, guitar, or a whole band) is to invert the polarity of certain tracks to create a mix with the least amount of signal cancellation. When dealing with a larger number of tracks, this process can be difficult or practically infeasible (with just 10 microphones there are actually 210 = 1024 possible polarity configurations!).

Polarity Maximizer is a multi-track plug-in that additionally routes audio from several audio tracks to a single master controller that analyses the audio and automatically sets the appropriate polarity (in/out) of each track.

Simply insert the plug-in on each track, and the master controller performs a one-time polarity analysis after playback. The method uses a special signal-processing algorithm to determine the optimal polarities (rather than rotating or affecting individual phase characteristics of the audio) that also guarantees the maximum RMS output level of the combined tracks. The controller automatically sets the appropriate polarity (in/out) in the plug-in for each track. After analysis, the plug-ins act only as a low-latency pass-through of the polarity-corrected audio.

Key Features
- Automatic setting of multi-track polarities for ensemble miking
- Works on both mono and stereo tracks
- Gain control (w/ dbFS meter) available for DAWS with pre-fader inserts
- Additional mode to emphasize low-end frequencies
- A/B comparison of pre/post polarity changes
- Optional lightening-fast approximate algorithm to quickly analyze extremely large track counts
- Up to 64 tracks in normal mode (virtually unlimited in fast mode)
- Stereo link mode for matched polarities and efficient processing of mono signals on a stereo track
- Built-in support for multi-core and SSE/AVX processor acceleration