recording my bass

[hayes5]

I am running my bass through my amp then hooking line out on the amp to line in on the computer. It is recording but very crude. I am very very new to this and I am on a really tight budget. what does anyone suggest to get a sweeter sound .thank you

[eternalpayn]

Originally Posted by hayes5

I am running my bass through my amp then hooking line out on the amp to line in on the computer. It is recording but very crude. I am very very new to this and I am on a really tight budget. what does anyone suggest to get a sweeter sound .thank you

What do you mean by crude? Does it sound like a fart on the low notes? I've had that problem before, too. Try cutting out the lows on your amp's EQ.
However, if you mean crude as in fuzzy, that's part of the DI territory. (Direct input, pretty much what you're doing) I've found that using an SM58 about 6 inches away from my amp tends to work pretty well to get by that. To do this you'll need a mic and preamp though. If you're on a super tight budget, you can pick up a $20 Behringer mic called the XM8500 or something like that. Then you can also find a small stereo mixer for about 30-40 bucks that you can use as a preamp.

[suprstar]

DI bass sounds pretty good to me, what kinda amp do you have? I suspect the sound card, PC sound cards are terrible for recording with.. I'd start with a better interface to the PC, like a usb mixer or something. Alesis Multimix 8, Yamaha mw10, etc.. They're handy, have mic inputs, and WAY better AD converters than your sound card. Then later if you wanna expand, you could track the DI and a mic at the same time, giving you new mixing possibilities. I disable my pc sound card completely, the mixer IS a sound card as far as windows is concerned.

[chazba]

I've had some luck going straight in thru a Boss "Blues Driver" set for just a touch of distortion. It adds light harmonics that make the bass easier to place in the mix. If there is too much, you can do-over or use EQ to shape the sound to taste.

chazba

[rayc]

Does the line out match up with the line in of your recording device? A whole bag of fruit can go wrong at that juncture.
DI the line in at least.
The BDI21 by behri is good too.
A blend of DI & mic is pretty flash.

[Jammer429]

the best thing is to get a di box there is also and art tube preamp that is 3 around 30 bucks I think it cleans the bass up really well for me gives me that clarity