Bleeding!

[Franch]

I've seen threads like this posted 100 times but nothing that solves it unfortunately

The only tracks I have are my mastered beat and the single vocal track I'm trying to lay down.
At first I thought it was my headphones but that's not the issue as you can see from the pic.
I tried to test something out and a few times during the verse I would quit talking altogether so only the beat would play. When I did that that bleed would stop, the playback was pure silence, but as soon as I started singing again the instrumental would bleed through into my voice :/

Can someone please make this make sense?

[Darryl Ramm]

Posts like this you likely never see a resolution for because it will be something silly people are doing and they hopefully finally work it out, and then tend to sulk quietly away.

The only way a signal get to bleed between tracks is if you give it a path to. Either inside or outside of Pro Tools. What do you expect other users to do to help? You don't describe anything about what you are doing. What Mic? Preamp? What headphones? Is there an noise gate somewhere? You don't describe or show IO or routing, sends, plugins etc.

And I doubt anybody can take away helpful info from the waveform screenshot.

All you need to solve this is right in front of you. Start doing experiments. Make large changes to triangulate on the problem. e.g. Take the mic out of the picture, play a test tube into the headphones etc.

This stuff might be as simple as you move you head and unseal the closed back headphones as you speak or sing (especially if the headphone volume is cranked too much). But we have no clue what headphones you are using. Or it might be a talkback or other hot mic in the studio, maybe routed through an interface hardware mixer. But we have no idea what interface or other gear you have. Maybe that has a noise gate on that hot mic, or a AGC circuit that is acting like a noise gate.....

[Franch]

Thanks for the reply. I'm in a small home studio in my back bedroom, using OneOdio 10 Studio Headphones (just upgraded from a pair of Yamaha's). I'm on a AT2020 mic, it's the only one hooked up. But I also have a Rode NT3 but still had the same issues when that was hooked up and I'm using a Peavey 6 USB mixer. I'm not using any sends or plug ins or anything, just the beat and 1 vocal track. When I hit record there's no bleed at all from the beat until I start talking/singing into the mic and once I'm quite the bleed stops (even with the beat still playing). The screenshot was just to show that, so I don't think the headphones are the problem. I've been experimenting for a long time, even messed with a couple different DAWs and I couldn't figure anything out. That's why I came here.

[Darryl Ramm]

There you go. You have a mixer as a front-end/interface. If you Pro Tools session is as trivial as you say then I can pretty much guarantee that your bleed is all happening inside the mixer, as a part of the DAW return and/or effects you have applied in there.

You need to focus on the mixer, read the documentation and understands the signal paths and turn down/disable any you don't need. Again experiment by making radical changes, especially use of signal generator plugins can often help. As with monitoring mixers in interfaces it might take playing with them over days to really understand what is going on. Lots and lots of folks posting on DUC have problems caused by not understanding those mixers.

[Darryl Ramm]

But as a matter or practice always be careful of other bleed sources even if they might not be happening here, headphones or mics left connected elsewhere, headphones bleeding just enough as artists work in front of a mic, etc. So start by making sure everything you can remove is disconnected from the mixer.

[Franch]

Thank you so much! The only I ever have plugged into my mixer is my headphones and microphone. I've messed with the sound and levels times and time again. I'm guessing then I may just need to replace my mixer or something?

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by Franch

Thank you so much! The only I ever have plugged into my mixer is my headphones and microphone. I've messed with the sound and levels times and time again. I'm guessing then I may just need to replace my mixer or something?

Ah but you also have your computer plugged into the mixer and it's likely capable of recording each input track, and recording an internal mix, and I will guess it likely provides a DAW return signal back to the mixer (not just a direct "headphone out"). Most of those signals can be processed/mixed by the mixer. It's likely nothing wrong with the mixer and it's just doing what it's configured to do, so start there understanding that signal flow... like drive the DAW return with music or a test tone and play around with how you can route that/put mixer effects on it, mix with incoming mic signals, how you can get it to bleed back into the DAW input(s), etc.