[Ticker]

I'm in the mixdown phase of a session, using some nice reverbs and - same old story - pushing the limits of what my laptop can do. So I've been printing a few tracks with effects so that I can deactivate the plugins on those tracks and free up more RAM for the reverb plugins.

I have a bass track with 5 plugins instantiated: Decapitator , some EQs and the Massey CT5 compressor. I created a new track and re-recorded (printed) the bass w FX on the new track.

Comparing the newly printed track with the original, something didn't sound quite right - I double checked buss/track levels, etc. The difference I was hearing was very subtle and I was tempted to ignore it and move on, but it kept nagging at me. Then I noticed that the wave shapes of the original track were tending to 'skew downward' from the zero crossing, whereas the wave shapes of the newer track 'skew upward'. (Please forgive this bonehead terminology - I don't know a better way to describe it).

So I used the Audio Suite "Invert" plugin on the new track - now the wave shapes follow the same general shape as the original track and, more importantly, it sounds exactly like the original track.

I've attached two pics below - the first is the track as originally printed. The 2nd is post "Inverter" plugin.

I'm stumped as to how the track got inverted in the first place - can anyone explain this?

Thanks!