Lessening Bass Level

[notzboy]

Hello,

I have searched this topic before posting, but have been unable to find any suggestions for my tech problem.

I have a mp3 file where the bass is VERY heavy, making it sound like it's being played through a blown speaker.

- I have tried to reduce the bass level through Bass Boost (not sure if this is the effect I should use)

- I've tried raising and reducing both the Frequency (Hz) and Boost (db), but none of those efforts worked.

- I have also tried equalizating the file, but to no effect.

- I've even tried re-downloading the file again, but it seems the audio track was just recorded that way.

Any suggestions??

Many thanks!

J.-

[kozikowski]

If the bass is popping and cracking in addition to being loud, then that's the end of the show. It's a camcorder recording of a live band, right? Live performances easily overload camcorders and sometimes professional recorders as well. Overload, clipping or flat-topping is pretty much fatal.

You can try the Equalizer tool. The blue line is a rubber band and you can push it around to get different effects. Up is louder.

This is a picture of a rumble filter. It will suppress tones from about 100 Hz and down. It will help if you have wind noise or very low truck or bus noise in your recording. Adjust your equalizer to match that picture and see if that helps.

http://kozco.com/tech/audacity/100Hz_Rumble.jpg

It will get rid of higher and higher bass tones as you move that curve to the right. 440 is the oboe note at the beginning of the orchestra to give you a reference point. 100 sounds like a really big bass drum.

Koz

[notzboy]

Thanks for the suggestions...

actually, the file is a music file from a cd. But I'll try tinkering with it some more.

[kozikowski]

<<<is a music file from a cd.>>>

You need to be really careful about the words here. Did you rip the music from a commercial Music CD, or did somebody hand you a data CD with a music file on it? Those are very different.

If it is a Music CD with commercial color printing on it and a Jewel Case with printed paper insert, does it play spattering and cracking on more than one CD layer?

What I'm getting to, here, is the source of that music. It is a live band, right?

Koz

[notzboy]

I ripped the song directly from a friend's cd. The cd was a store bought, commercial original recording and the excessive bass is only on that one song. I had a somewhat similar experience a couple of years back with a commercial cd of Prince's Greatest Hits...but that time BOTH of the cd's were "overmodulated"...every track. The song I'm working with now is the only one on the cd that has an overbearing bass track.

Thanks again.

[steve]

You could try this plug-in http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... 417#p67796

To use this plug-in, download the attachment and extract the "tonecontrol.ny" file from the downloaded .zip file.
Put the "tonecontrol.ny" file into your Audacity plug-ins folder.
Restart Audacity and the tone control will be listed in the effects menu.

If you try this plug-in, please let me know how you get on with it.
Note, this will not help if the track is recorded so loud that it is distorting. Distortion is virtually impossible to correct effectively.