waveforms that go down

[altoidboy]

stupid paranoid question here. i did some drum tracking. when i zoom into the waveforms, on EVERY hit, the waveform starts by going down before it goes up.

here's a graphic of the three groups of mics - room, overhead, and direct mic. all three follow this pattern exactly.

does it make any difference? should i flip phase on everything?

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[The Scum]

I wouldn't worry about it.

It's when one mic does that, and all the others go the other way that you run into problems.

My question for you: did you shift the tracks so they all line up? I'd expect the overheads and room to each be a little later than the direct mic.

[Mark Alan Miller]

If you think about how a typical mic is wired, where a compression at the capsule yeilds a positive going voltage, and a rarefaction a negative voltage, then it's actually the expected waveform, I'd surmise. That is, then the stick hits the drum it initially pushes the head away from the capsule, creating a rarefaction. So I'd expect to see this in all cases of snare and toms mic'd on the top head. Inside the kick or out in front of it I'd expect the opposite.