Spill (audio)

For example, if an electric guitarist's loud amplifier is bleeding into the drum and vocal mics, it may be hard for the sound engineer to reduce the volume of the guitar in the onstage mix.

Spill is sometimes accepted or even desirable, particularly in classical music recordings,[4] as it can create a natural sound between instruments.

For example, in a jazz tune, the "comping" musicians will alter their improvised accompaniment in response to the solo lines played by the saxophone player; as well, in some cases, the comping musicians will introduce melodic or rhythmic ideas which are picked up by the solo improviser.

[11] Recording engineers and live sound engineers aim to avoid spill by: Spill is also avoided by using a 3:1 distance rule of thumb,[14] which states that for each unit of distance between a sound source and its microphone, other microphones should be placed at least three times as far.

[8] Spill is evident on The Beatles' song "Yesterday", where Paul McCartney overdubbed his lead vocal.