Removing click track

Audacity Help Forum Windows
1

Finally figured out how to record my bass with a click track (thanks to some stuff on this forum!) However, even after I muted and then removed the click track, I still hear the click track when playing back the bass track. Probably simple, but it’s frustrating me! Thanks in advance.
Charlie

2

How is your bass connected to the computer?

3

I corrected your title typo. You probably don’t have trouble with a “clip” track.

Probably simple

Or not. There are several ways you can get your backing or click track stuck in your performance. And no, there’s no good way to remove it once it’s there.

You should have Overdub selected in Edit > Preferences > Recording.

You should be recording from a real live thing such as a microphone or interface, not a software device such as you would use to record internet music or shows. Those typically record everything on the computer, not just your instrument.

You should be wearing good, sealed against the head headphones to listen to the click track. Not a speaker cabinet in the same room.

If you have a live bass playing into a microphone, it’s possible to have the backing rack up so loud it leaks out of your headphones, through the air into the bass microphone.

Any of those ring a bell? How does the bass get into Audacity? What’s the pathway?

Koz

4

Thanks for the replies.

  1. Yes, I have Overdub selected.

  2. The bass is plugged directly into my Mackie ProFx mixer which is connected via USB to the computer. I listen on headphones, not speakers into the room. I’m beginning to think that somehow I have the headphone track being dumped onto the recording track, if that makes sense. So it’s probably something in the way I have the Mackie set.

5

So it’s probably something in the way I have the Mackie set.

The only good way to listen to the backing track and you at the same time (perfect overdubbing) is to listen to the mixer or interface with headphones, and have a mixer which supports that.

Some mixers have two buttons for this.

Mix the microphone and backing track and feed it to the headphones (perfect overdubbing). Sometimes this is called “Direct Monitor.”

Mix the microphone and backing track and send that to the computer. Sometimes that button is labeled “USB,” and it’s part of the show mix, not the headphone mix.

I know straightening these out can give you a headache.

Koz