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Isolating Bass Lines

M

Marshall Man

Jun 25, 2008
10
0
#1
Hi,
I'm new around here as I play guitar but decided to pick-up bass as well. I'm trying to learn bass lines and I'm having trouble hearing them off of recordings, what do you all do to isolate the bass to figure the riffs out?

Thanks!
 
#3
Studio quality headphones and CD quality recordings tend to do wonders.

But all I do is open the .mp3 up in windows media player, roll all the EQ off then start raising the first 3 sliders up individually to push the kick drum and bass line up front in the mix, until it starts to distort, then I roll the offending slider down to find that sweet spot.

Or, I'll make a MIDI file from the .mp3 then import the MIDI into GuitarPro and it can sometimes isolate the bass line, but thats a trickier method and doesn't work so well if there is a keyboard involved or some drop tuning on the guitars, or just lots of instruments etc.

Hope that helps you some.
 
#5
Depth_Charge said:
Studio quality headphones and CD quality recordings tend to do wonders.

But all I do is open the .mp3 up in windows media player, roll all the EQ off then start raising the first 3 sliders up individually to push the kick drum and bass line up front in the mix, until it starts to distort, then I roll the offending slider down to find that sweet spot.

Or, I'll make a MIDI file from the .mp3 then import the MIDI into GuitarPro and it can sometimes isolate the bass line, but thats a trickier method and doesn't work so well if there is a keyboard involved or some drop tuning on the guitars, or just lots of instruments etc.

Hope that helps you some.
Click to expand...

Thanks Depth Charge. I'm not into the midi thing, but I will try the windows media.
 
#7
Marshall Man said:
Just a regular old CD player, nothing special.

It just seems like Bass is buried in the mix.
Click to expand...

Depending upon what you mean by "regular", it's possible that your setup just doesn't give very good bass response. You need something that will give you more control over EQ so that you can shift the emphasis to your taste. Shifting your music onto your computer will give you the benefit of software to do this kind of stuff for you. There's a free program called Audacity which will allow you to tweak EQ and even add a high pass filter, which allows you to remove all frequencies above a certain threshold.

I second the suggestion about headphones too. Even an inexpensive pair should show you an improvement.

S.P.
 
#8
There is transcribe software that can accent the bass, but its just boosting bass range, roll off everything else. I have iTune on my computer and it has a simple graphic EQ that I can boost bass range and then save the setting to jump to as necessary.
 
#9
I've had my bass knob turned up for years (on the CD/stereo, I mean). However, I know a couple of guitar players who really have a hard time hearing it, still. You have to learn to listen to it and for it. It's there. It's fun to try and pick out the low end instruments in symphonic music, too, for practice.

Once you get used to picking it out, you can hear it even when the bass isn't turned all the way up.
 
#11
The biggest thing is finding speakers or headphones that can crank out bass. Earbuds, satellite speakers, cheap boom-boxes won't cut it. In-ears, ear muff style headphones, or computer speakers with subwoofers will tell you what bassline is there.

And enjoy!
 
#15
SpaceYourBass said:
An easy way to hear the bass would be to get earmuff style headphones. Also look at the tabs if they're out there. ultimate-guitar.com is a pretty good site.

What kind of music are you listening to, btw?
Click to expand...

I listen to Southern Rock, Metallica, some of the newer stuff, Priest, Maiden, etc.

I use the site above for guitar, it works great with power tab, but I noticed that the bass lines can't be played out loud like the guitars if you know what I mean. They electronically play the guitar line, but not the bass!
 
#16
So, I have a hearing loss in the low frequencies which makes it quite hard for me to hear the bass much of the time, but it's good to see that others have issues to. For me, its always hardest when the bass is sitting right underneath the kick drum, playing root notes. Blends right in. The more active bass lines tend to stand out more to me.

To help isolate the bassline, I use headphones and the iTunes EQ. This works reasonably well a lot of the time, but sometimes no matter what I do I can't tell what's going on, and have to check out the tab (lame, I know).

I'm also finding that the more you practice listening just for the bass, the more it stands out. Just keep at it, if I can do it you certainly can.
 
#18
Marshall Man said:
I listen to Southern Rock, Metallica, some of the newer stuff, Priest, Maiden, etc.

I use the site above for guitar, it works great with power tab, but I noticed that the bass lines can't be played out loud like the guitars if you know what I mean. They electronically play the guitar line, but not the bass!
Click to expand...

You won't hear the bass in justice for all, incase you were struggling with that album. But on Maiden records the bass is pretty obvious, right in front of the mix.
 
#19
I'm surprised nobody mentioned that speeding up the songs really brings out the buried bassline (and helps learning to play the same stuff in a different key at the same time).
Nothing new, I remember Sting mentioning in an old interview that when he was a kid he would play 33 records in 45 speed and learn.
Nowadays, free software like Audacity can do that trick.
The problem is what to do with Fast buried bass lines.
 

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