Isolating Bass Tracks

[Barticus]

For 5+ years I’ve been using Moises to split tracks and change pitch as needed and then Capo Pro for looping and section isolation. Both will provide the song key and chords as you play through. Fastest way to learn for me hands down, and yes I started with the needle on the player too.

I’ve found that with this process I can quickly learn 10-15 songs per night when I need to ramp up on new material.

All from an iPad.
I have multiple Macs (all current) and multiple PCs (Win11) and the iPad is the music tool, it’s a workhorse.

 

[Trvbass]

Audacity has been free forever, now includes being able to separate tracks. I compared a few songs with Moises and Audacity did pretty much the same and in a couple of songs it actually worked better. Free is always good.

Then I import the bass track into my DAW, reverse the phase and mix down with the original track. Instant original song with no bass.

Thanks for calling that out! I just updated my Audacity with this capability and separated an mp3 with results similar to Moises.

Is there a similar solution to do this in Reaper?

 

[BC Blackmur]

Thanks for calling that out! I just updated my Audacity with this capability and separated an mp3 with results similar to Moises.

Is there a similar solution to do this in Reaper?

If you mean separating tracks, I don’t think so. If you mean reversing the phase, I think there is a button on the track to do that in Reaper. I’m using Studio One so I had to find a plug-in to do it. It comes with a Mix Tool plugin that can reverse the phase of the signal on a track.

And, in order for it to work correctly by canceling the signal, you have to use the original file that you separated and have the same volume on both the original track and the separated bass track when mixing down. A quick listen while playing both tracks will tell you if it is working.

 

[Trvbass]

If you mean separating tracks, I don’t think so. If you mean reversing the phase, I think there is a button on the track to do that in Reaper. I’m using Studio One so I had to find a plug-in to do it. It comes with a Mix Tool plugin that can reverse the phase of the signal on a track.

And, in order for it to work correctly by canceling the signal, you have to use the original file that you separated and have the same volume on both the original track and the separated bass track when mixing down. A quick listen while playing both tracks will tell you if it is working.

Thanks again! Do you know if Audacity can detect the key, tuning and chords of a track like Moises?


Key and Tuning
Tuning is sometimes other than 440 and in those cases it can be nudged back to 440. Prior to Moises, I used Audacity to move tracks into the keys we'd be playing them in if necessary, but I'm not sure if/how that was handling tracks that were not in 440.

Chords
Chords displayed during playback - can Audacity do that?