09/30/2025
It’s not something I say very often but people often don’t remember or aren’t aware of this one. Read on if you’re a nerd.
An EQ circuit naturally causes phase shifts. As the desired EQ range is separated, processed and combined back in, it introduces a slight timing adjustment to the affected range and shifts its phase as a result. This gets more noticeable as you increase the amplitude of the EQ band and is particularly heinous with low cuts. Normally digital EQs operate with the lowest latency possible, which is helpful because we are often tracking with some EQ in our session and we don’t want permanent slap back delay in our headphones. So it makes sense that plugins like Pro Q default with a zero latency setting. However, with a bit of added latency the “natural phase” setting decreases some of the inaccuracies caused by phase shifting and more closely mimics an analog EQ circuit. To my ears everything sounds a lot “smoother” and is particularly pleasing while eliminating rings and boominess with sharp cuts or dips.
So is phase shifting bad? Not necessarily, the characteristics of any particular EQ is often related to the way it affects the phase. However, combining two or more mics on a single source together (like two mics on a guitar or overheads on a drum set) can sometimes result in the two sources being shifted away from each other - sucking out low end or creating hollowness in your sound because of their phase relationship with each other. In which case a “linear phase” EQ can be helpful, which is also an option in Pro Q. Unfortunately it also gives you a super long slap back in the headphones and hogs up a ton of buffer in your session. Plus it doesn’t always sound as expected since we are so used to those natural phase shifts. These options are also available in other plugins such as Ozone. Anyways, when you’re done tracking, flip your EQ to natural phase and thank me later.
