glossary
Phase cancellation is what happens when similar sounds arrive misaligned and reduce each other instead of adding together.
If two related waveforms line up, they reinforce. If they are offset, parts of one can subtract from the other. That subtraction is phase cancellation.
In a mix, cancellation can happen between multi-mic drums, layered basses, doubled guitars, stereo effects, and any signal that is split and processed differently.
Some phase problems are masked in stereo because each ear hears a different side. When the mix is summed to mono, those differences combine and the cancellation becomes obvious.
That is why a sound can seem wide and impressive in headphones but vanish on a phone speaker.
Use polarity flips, small timing moves, mono checks, and correlation meters to test whether layered sounds are helping or hollowing each other out.
Meter Core shows correlation and stereo balance so you can spot risky width before it becomes a translation failure.