Topic: Trying to rermove bass from my recording , have wavelab 5 and sf8. Dont see here

[Ray76]

ive looked all over, and have both wavelab 5, and sf8. I recorded mike watt tonite, and the bass tones are really boomy. I want to cut em out some, help?

Ray

[F.O.Bean]

in wavelab, open your master section, and then search yopur plugins for something called 'multiband compressor', its easy and efficient :)play around w/ and then when ready, go to and hit 'render' and make sure those options are the way you want them

[Ray76]

in wavelab, open your master section, and then search yopur plugins for something called 'multiband compressor', its easy and efficient :)play around w/ and then when ready, go to and hit 'render' and make sure those options are the way you want them

thanks bean!

+T

ray

[F.O.Bean]

backatcha chief

[John Kelly]

I wouldn't run a compressor simply to get rid of the bass.  Simply run a HiPass filter and you're all set.

[nic]

I wouldn't run a compressor simply to get rid of the bass.  Simply run a HiPass filter and you're all set.

before you run the highpass, open up the spectrum analyzer and find the violating freq range, once you have that, then apply high-pass or eq as needed

[Ray76]

I decided i shouldnt do anythin to it, other than normalize,
for the sake of purity.

My computer speakers werent doin it no justice.
IM glad I learned how to do it,

How do i read a spectrum analyzer?

[nic]

ray, look at John Kellys avatar on this page.
now imagine that at the bottom of that pic you saw values like 50h, 120h, 1K, 2.5K, etc... going left>right
each of those values correlates to the same frequency...

any frequency that is absurdly overloud will be overly prominent in the spectrum.
starting to make sense now?

[Ray76]

ray, look at John Kellys avatar on this page.
now imagine that at the bottom of that pic you saw values like 50h, 120h, 1K, 2.5K, etc... going left>right
each of those values correlates to the same frequency...

any frequency that is absurdly overloud will be overly prominent in the spectrum.
starting to make sense now?

GOtcha nick, thanks bud. Have to speak in baby talk to me.
Thanks again. +T
ray

[rerem]

What you want is the GRAPHIC EQ,under Process in SF. Boomy tyically is between 100 and 300 hz,sometimes a bit lower. You can do a smooth DIP in that region,or a roll off,steadily dropping whats below 400 hz with about a -6 to -8 db max drop. I'd check whether the boom/bass is on both channels. You can do Save as,saving your re-done file while not saving "changes" to the original file,you also can UNDO,you can highlight/select a 30 sec segment to trial+error until you get the best setting. Once you find the best setting on your test segment-you undo ,so the file does not get double processed there-and you apply your settin to each track. Note that to one side is a Volume window. Consider whether you 3want to increase or decrease levels a bit in the same process. keep it subtle and the results will be good. You want to preserve the PERFORMANCE not flaws in the acoustics,a poor soundman,a poor taping location,etc.

[John P]

Graphic eq is prolly the best bet.  I would target a pretty standard approach selecting 120 Hz as your roll off point.  A classic slope is the  Butterworth Thompson which is 12db per octave. 

An octave is 1/2 of the freq you start from.  In this case, 1/2 of 120 is 60.  So, you set your curve (by adjusting the "Q" on your eq) so that you have a 12 db cut by the time it hits 60 Hz.

You can also make a few variant presets in this fashion: 9 db per octave, 6 db per octave, and 3 db per octave etc...

Try to select the harmonic points on the curve to start your rolloff.  120 and 92 are pretty typical. 

As rerem points out, boomy is between 100 & 300 (and below).  Many foh's push 80 - 92 to give you a real punch at the show, but without a bombin' playback system, it can be hard to replicate the rack of crown amps and a bank of 15" subs. 
 
Rolling off at 120 preserves punch.  Rolling off higher than that can take away some of the "room". 

Using a high pass filter pretty much automates the above process.

Waves has a sweet analysis plug that really lets you dial in as tightly as you want to locate the trouble spots.  WaveLab has a proprietary one that you access through the toolbar (can't remember how.  I am at work).  It does a good job, but the Waves is the $#!+.

As always, ymmv.  Have fun and "save as", a/b it, and pay close attention to the settings of standard presets as a jumping off point.  No sense in reinventing the wheel or curves in this case 

[F.O.Bean]

multiband compressor is also nice!

[John P]

multiband compressor is also nice!

Indeed.  A bit more tricky to work with.  I love the Waves L3.

[TenoRichards]

multiband compressor is also nice!

Indeed.  A bit more tricky to work with.  I love the Waves L3.

Where CAN one get the L3 for a reasonable price. My wife is a teacher so I could (cough cough) get a teacher's discount, only to do so must have a purchase order and it's summer time and no one is at school.

[Simp-Dawg]

i have a "demo" copy of cool edit pro 2.0 and some waves plugins i could provide to folks...i think yousendit.com would work to email it.