Recording From Amp Not Sounding Good

[thereallime]

I have a Behringer BXL 1800 180 watt bass amp. im trying to record from a DP 02 8 track recorder. its not sounding right at all it sounds like alot of gain and treble. what comes out of my amp is not at all whats recorded. now i think im doing this right: got the chord from bass connected to input on amp... then i got chord running from bass line out to the input of my recorder. so i start recording i play some lines they sound perfect out of the amp speaker but when i listen back to recordings they sound terrible like too much distortion and im not even using distortion. what am i doing wrong? what can i do? when i hook my bass directly to recorder it sounds fine but i wanna use my amp.

[audiomitch]

Microphone selection and placement have a lot to do with what gets recorded. The room reflections will play a part too, depending on how close miked you are. What kind of mic? How close are you putting the microphone from the speaker? Are you pointing it right at the speaker or off to the side? Using a mic can be a game of inches (or less).

As far as going direct from your amp, it sounds like a gain mismatch. If your amp is sending out a line level signal, but your recorder is expecting an instrument level, you will definitely get the distortion you describe. You need them both the same level. Does your recorder have the option of choosing line or instrument level?

There are a lot of resources of information out there, you may need to do some digging.

[1954bassman]

I have a Behringer BXL 1800 180 watt bass amp

This

[thereallime]

i am going direct from amp to recorder i cant figure out whats going on. maybe i should get a mic and try that because the amp sounds fine regularly but not through my recorder. this is pissing me off

[Bassist4Eris]

Originally Posted by audiomitch

As far as going direct from your amp, it sounds like a gain mismatch. If your amp is sending out a line level signal, but your recorder is expecting an instrument level, you will definitely get the distortion you describe. You need them both the same level. Does your recorder have the option of choosing line or instrument level?

It sounds to me like this is exactly what's going on. I'm not familiar with your recording gear, but I just found a pic of the unit on the internet. As far as I can tell, you can adjust your input gain using the knobs marked "level" up at the top of the face of the unit (under the headings "Input A" and Input B".) Try turning this down. You should hopefully be able to see where you are on the level indicators that appear on the upper right hand corner of the unit. Try to get them so they average about halfway up, and never go all the way, when playing your bass.

[thereallime]

problem ****ing solved. thank you sir! not the best recording gear but its enough for me when im not in the studio with my band. thanks alot. i might try that with guitar too

[Chromer]

Originally Posted by 1954bassman

I have a Behringer BXL 1800 180 watt bass amp

This

Not that. Gain structure.

[rydin4lifebass]

Just to confirm...ur using the xlr out from your amp into a tascam dp 008 ? I have the same tascam unit..been going direct from bass but might try it this way.