"remove" the bass line from a track

You and I know better :smile_cat:

6 Likes

New here and I just wanted to chime in with a method I stumbled across that works great in Audacity. I tried the way you suggested in Reaper but couldn’t quite get the results I wanted. I also tried it in a trial version of Izotope RX 8 and that worked better than anything else, but it’s also expensive (it also isolates bass tracks reasonably well, but like you said it works much better with P-basses). So without further ado:

  1. Load track into Audacity
  2. Copy existing stereo track to a new one.
  3. Track 1: “Split Stereo to Mono”
  4. Track 2: Effect -> Invert
  5. Track 3: Select and Effect -> High Pass Filter
    Frequency: 321.0
    Rolloff: 48 dB
  6. Track 3: Set Gain Slider to 12 dB
  7. Track 3: Effect -> Bass Treble
    Bass: 12.9
    Treble: 0.0
    Level: -1.0
  8. Select all tracks (Ctrl-A) then Tracks -> Mix and Render
  9. Select track. Effect -> Amplify
    Amplification: -9.1
    [Check] Allow clipping
  10. ???
  11. Profit!
10 Likes

Welcome to the Forums and thanks for your very informative post, @dlawlis . . . :slight_smile:

Cheers, Joe

5 Likes

Welcome @dlawlis!

3 Likes

Yeah, RX8 is not cheap, but I figured (at the time) I was spending that much on pedals that I don’t need, and I’d get more use out of RX8 than I was getting out of the pedals. I sold a few unnecessary pedals right after I purchased RX8, and I don’t miss them. In the “time=money” aspect, RX8 has more than paid for itself in terms of time saved.
I have since learned to avoid the GAS and the pedal threads, and instead focus on practicing, learning songs, and recording covers.

7 Likes

Izotope plugins are awesome. I have almost bought Ozone, Neutron and Nectar myself. I have other plugins covering those areas but really those look top notch.

But at that price they kind of demand getting while on sale. PluginBoutique’s Black Friday sale was awesome and so those were tempting. Ended up not doing it though.

4 Likes

I’m more and more considering buying a RX8 licence, but I see very different prices depending on the licence type, and I’m not sure which one would suit my needs :sweat:

The main feature that I need is removing the bass line on various songs, obviously. I guess that a VST would be ideal for me as I use Reaper all the time.

Do someone have some comprehensive information about this ?

thanks ! :kissing:

4 Likes

RX8 Elements is on sale now for about $30 (77% off).

However I do not know if it has the features you need. There’s a chart at the link showing the differences between the editions. You might need standard.

Edit: Looks like Rebalance requires standard. Bummer!

I like buying from PluginBoutique to take advantage of both their deals and giveaways. The current free gift selection has a pretty good compressor from Melda, and if you select it, you can also grab a ton of other Melda plugins for free when you install it.

4 Likes

Elements doesn’t have Rebalancing, which is what you need to remove the bass.

5 Likes

Yeah, just saw that. Bummer.

Standard is also on sale for 25% off but it’s still $300.

3 Likes

@terb , you need to make sure you get the one that has Rebalancing capability, otherwise you won’t be able to remove the bass.

I paid $300 for mine, I think that is still the going price. It sounds like a lot, but when you break it down, it’s the cost of a couple pedals.

4 Likes

It’s a bummer the Black Friday sales are over. They were awesome on PB. Christmas sales coming soon most likely though :slight_smile:

3 Likes

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/RX8--izotope-rx-8-standard-audio-editor

3 Likes

Here’s a PB link too, if you want the free stuff.

If you don’t want to spend that much there might be other mastering plugins that would work. I just noticed this one:

but no idea how effective it would be at working in reverse to suppress the bass. Looks like it’s only +/- 6dB.

3 Likes

thank you very much @PamPurrs and @howard !

yeah $300 is quite pricey … but considering that I’m currently working on my 35th cover since the opening of the thread, I could say it’s a pretty serious hobby :laughing:

maybe there will be some discounts for Christmas, who knows …

6 Likes

I would definitely wait and see - their Black Friday sale was killer. I got about $1500 of plugins for around $250.

3 Likes

Holy Moly! :scream: I’ve only done 4. I’ve got some catching up to do :microphone: :musical_note: :notes: :guitar:

4 Likes

Me too. My second one is almost ready to post, waiting on my friend to re-record a guitar bit. A third is about half done but still a ways off.

4 Likes

that’s a good start already :grin:

4 Likes

I wonder if you could use some kind of side chain for this or something similar to do this. For example, with Kilohearts SnapHeap, you can use various kinds of modulation to alter the parameters of the plugins it loads.

https://kilohearts.com/files/manuals/snapheap/#header_11

So I wonder if you could do something like use an envelope on the input signal to modulate an EQ or high-pass to open up the bass frequency on kick drum transients, but remove it otherwise.

Both SnapHeap and the 3-band EQ snapin are free, might be worth a try.

Snap Heap is awesome BTW, I use it and various snapins on nearly every DAW track now.

4 Likes