Too Much To Ask?

jackajesusfreak · #1 09-03-2009, 04:02 PM

I know I'm probably reaching for the stars here and doubt whether technology has come quite this far, but......would there happen to be any software out there that would take an mp3 song and take out all the music except for the bass? I know you can do this in a studio setting with recordings that are done on separate tracks and so forth, but just wondered if they had mastered this with software yet?
Jack

WookieeForLife · #2 09-03-2009, 04:27 PM

I asked this many times and always got no. You can slow down the tempo of a song and learn the bassline like that. THats what I always do.

Charling · #3 09-03-2009, 07:06 PM

Nope, and not going to happen for a long time, it would be immensly, immensly complicated.

it would be thoretically possible if you had an exact version of the track WITHOUT the bass. you could subtract that audio data from the full song and if both versions are identical and no effects had been placed on the master mix, and they were both the same format and had stayed the same format (ie not converted to mp3 then back to wave!) it would just about work.

but, thats not very helpful!

think about an audio waveform. it is a single straight line on a graph doing a series of complicated wiggles. only our brains and ears can decode anything but the most basic stuff from that line when its played through the speakers. a computer just see's a wave, and plays it back, it doesnt even know what a bass is let alone be able to isolate it! if every instrument, everywhere sounded exactly the same (EXACTLY!) and every player played EXACTLY the same, and all the effects used on a track were yup exactly the same then technology may have started to be able to do this, but for now its a long way away, untill computers can really appreciate music!

you can try eqing out alot of the tops, it may help you hear the bass a bit better.

for the guys in the know, can anyone think of a way to do this with phase? If you invert the phase of one channel of a stereo recording you can often make vocals, bass and kick quieter (as they are normally panned central and are the only things that cancel out completely). then you have a version of the track without said instruments can any one think of a way of using it to phase out the other instruments on another version of the track?

I don't think there is one as the file only exists like that as a stereo pair, either way it would be complicated and end up with a mess even if you could hear the bass slightly clearer!

I like thinking about these thing, though

Darkstrike · #4 09-03-2009, 07:09 PM

Closest you can get is a program called BestPractice, its pretty neat.

Raul Amador · #5 09-03-2009, 07:19 PM

it's not software but,You may want to look at the Tascam trainer.
I have the CD version and even though you can't remove the other instruments, you can enhance the Bass so you can hear it better. You can slow it down also without changing the key. The newer version may do MP3's.
Some of the new music/playalong books have a feature on the CD where you can put it in your PC or Mac and do this.
I reviewed some of these for our August issue.

Good luck with that!

Charling · #6 09-03-2009, 07:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darkstrike

Closest you can get is a program called BestPractice, its pretty neat.

tht just slows things down while maintaining pitch though, and there are a few free progs that do this

Darkstrike · #7 09-03-2009, 07:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charling

tht just slows things down while maintaining pitch though, and there are a few free progs that do this

Karaoke mode, can cut out certain frequencys, and remove voice, guitar, etc.

seamonkey · #8 09-03-2009, 07:31 PM

Oh it's happening:
http://www.celemony.com/cms/index.php?id=dna&L=1%252593

Charling · #9 09-03-2009, 07:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darkstrike

Karaoke mode, can cut out certain frequencys, and remove voice, guitar, etc.

cool, fair point, if its very succesful at doing it though I will eat my own hat!

@ seamonkey

yeah I was think of direct-note-access as i posted, its scary and incredible but in truth its still a LONG way away from removing/seperating an instrument properly. It cleverly analysis the fundamentals in a piece of audio, and does so best in a mix, to a single instrument. it is looking for the landmark of fundamental frequencies and I think it would really struggle to isolate a particular instrument e.g. the bass.

that said, in a few years time it will probably be able to accurately identify the bass fundamentals in a full track, and you would have a graphic visualisation of what the bass is doing, not quite the same thing but really useful for learning lines!

Darkstrike · #10 09-03-2009, 07:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charling

cool, fair point, if its very succesful at doing it though I will eat my own hat!

Its not great(I never claimed it was), but its the best you can find, and its free.

This is why I said "closest you can get"

seamonkey · #11 09-04-2009, 01:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charling

...

@ seamonkey

yeah I was think of direct-note-access as i posted, its scary and incredible but in truth its still a LONG way away from removing/seperating an instrument properly. It cleverly analysis the fundamentals in a piece of audio, and does so best in a mix, to a single instrument. it is looking for the landmark of fundamental frequencies and I think it would really struggle to isolate a particular instrument e.g. the bass.

that said, in a few years time it will probably be able to accurately identify the bass fundamentals in a full track, and you would have a graphic visualisation of what the bass is doing, not quite the same thing but really useful for learning lines!

I don't think it's too far away, but it will never be 100% accurate, especially if it's all mixed together.

I admit that right now at times I cheat. Especially for songs I really don't want to put the time in to learn. I put it through software to figure out the chords, "Audio Chord Wizard" from pgmusic - it's 60-80% right most the times. There are plenty of other software options.
Once I got the chords the bass lines are usually easy to figure out.

I keep waiting for digital media to start shipping with separate tracks to allow consumers to remix themselves. That will tick off a few producers.

Charling · #12 09-04-2009, 03:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by seamonkey

I don't think it's too far away, but it will never be 100% accurate, especially if it's all mixed together.

I admit that right now at times I cheat. Especially for songs I really don't want to put the time in to learn. I put it through software to figure out the chords, "Audio Chord Wizard" from pgmusic - it's 60-80% right most the times. There are plenty of other software options.
Once I got the chords the bass lines are usually easy to figure out.

I keep waiting for digital media to start shipping with separate tracks to allow consumers to remix themselves. That will tick off a few producers.

yeah, the note analysis and fundamental analysis software is coming on at an alarming rate, but the original point of being able to isolate the bass completely is much much much more complex! every bass sound is different, and a computer program has no way of knowing if the treble in the guitar is not a part of the bass (for example), to isolate it would require a huge amount of computer AI, which we aren't really near yet!

but yeah, to get the job the op wanted done the methods are growing better each day!