Autotune...I swear to God

he has. I have.

There's always going to be bleed. There's really no phase stuff I've ever found that particularly helped. But, it's not MUCH bleed...I mean, you don't want do have all kinds of crazy loud stuff you don't want in the mix...but...it's not functionally that much of an issue. The keys (IME):

--One speaker. This is easy with powered monitors--turn one off and hit the mono button.
--the mic needs to be a dynamic faced completely AWAY from the speaker...ie with it's BACK to the speaker....or an LDC in Fig8 with the SIDE to the speaker.
--I pull bass guitar lower in the mix than I normally would...because, IME, low frequencies are the biggest source of the bleed.

For me...I grew up in studios singing in headphones...IF I have an analog feed, I don't really do much better...but, if it's digital or doing this? All day I'll take the little bleed. Bleed and noise are not the enemy for me. I think Bob likes a little bleed...I tolerate it if it makes a better track. I do all demos with no phones. I can tell my demo tracks from final that way--if I solo them I can hear a little bleed in the background...but, I mean-that's the level we're talking about...you have to solo it.

It's cheap to give it a shot. You know? Do it. Do it. tell us if you can tune it. I never really considered that the bleed might get in the way of that...cause...I own my off key-ness. It's ALL I own. Ha.

Yeah...I know...I'm just saying--since the thread is about that...that's something I've never checked.

The two points at which you'll struggle to remove bleed is the low end - the sub 250 Hz stuff - and anything around the diaphragm resonance - your usual presence peak between 3 and 7Khz depending on the capsule of the microphone.

Back in tbe days,
we experimented and i got lots of good hints from experienced musicians.
One was even: Put away the U87 and let the singer sing into a supercardiodid mike like e.g. a 441 (like he was used to do live)
And the second: Try tracking without headphones / to monitors or directly live with the band in the full take. Forget about the bleed, you might get a great performance still usable and upgrading the track.
Lot's of great live performers have incredibly better tone without headphones, absolutely true, some even need their hands on a microphone or mic stand (a psychological thing) to sing to their full capabilities.
Hands down i would try that with great live performers if they somehow seem to be not as good in the studio situation or seem to have pitch/intonation probs.
Great, @bob Ohlsson brought this up!

Very good discussion by the way many good points made. Not the average A-Tune bashing.
A while ago i tested a vst plug that tries to eliminate bleeding and low second signal problems, i guessed by fft spectral analysis somehow. Forgot it's name, but the concept would be good for tracking like this. Hadn't time to fully test it. Some kind of de-verberate plugin it was...

BR,
M.

I have read of someone using the Antares Hardware unit to tune, " in real time", through the headphones/monitors while the singer was doing the take.  The singer then tried to hit the tuned notes they were hearing, and that was the take that was recorded, not what was coming out of the hardware device. Seemed like a great idea to me.

I've often used a voice sample or wind sample to play the melody that a singer can sing to, which is effective.  I must say, the idea you present is new to me and definitely has great merit to it!

I always sing into a mic with one headphone behind my ear, usually the right. A technique taught me by David Lucas, a NYC jingle guy who co-produced a few of our records. He had another great tip, and that was when singing to "think sharp." If you imagine you're singing just a bit sharp, you generally will be right on in playback. Try it, it works.

Thanks, Don! I'll occasionally throw one ear off when I'm not hearing something well, but usually prefer to sing with them both on.

BTW - I would say donr knows what he's talking about. He told me it was ok to say this - Don is Buck Dharma - founding member of Blue Oyster Cult! Welcome, Don!

I run into Andy every once in a while. I'm enjoying this board. I finally found it after wondering wtf happened to John Kenn at GS. I'd PM'ed him because I liked a tune he'd posted during a gear discussion.

Just made my day, JK! Welcome Don! Queuing up my BOC playlist on Grooveshark (I know, I know, it's Spotify junior) in celebration.

Maybe we can get a question and answer with you sometime, Don...I don't fancy myself a journalist, but would love to hear some stories about your success and I'm sure there are some funny road stories along the way.