Hi everyone,
I just downloaded the latest version of Audacity and I’m trying to isolate the bass guitar part from a song I have as an MP3 file. I checked the FAQ section, the forum and Youtube and I can’t seem to find a tutorial that describes how to do this with the latest version. The MP3 file when dragged over to audacity comes up with the two separate tracks with vocals on both. It is not an ogg or other special file. The music is not mainstream but I would like to isolate the bass part as I would like to learn it. What are the steps? Any info anyone can provide would greatly be appreciated.
The reason the vocals appear on both tracks is the singers are usually in the middle which puts equal amounts of singer on left and right.
I wouldn’t expect individual instrument isolation to be particularly successful which is why you couldn’t find instructions for it. While the actual notes being played can probably be filtered out of a mixed performance, all you would get is a muffled, heavy-blanket version of the song. All the fingering, attack, expression and subtle variation would be missing. That’s all carried by much higher frequencies which tend to get mixed up with other instruments and well as the voice.
Here is an analysis I did of one single piano note, “G” way down on the piano left.
The harmonics and overtones (additional spikes past the named note) are the reason you pay extra money for a good piano. That’s the flavor of the sound.
But more importantly, here’s two piano notes at the same time.
Even if you’re paying attention, it would be rough to tell the difference between them. But if you want to give it a shot, I’d try Effect > Low Pass Filter set for 24dB and about 100 Hz. Experiment.
Koz