Recording Bass through my amp

[shaunathan32]

I have a mesa boogie 400+ bass amp and I would like to know how i would go by recording by using this amp as a preamp. My recording device is a digi 002 Rack connected to a Apple powerbook G4 17". I know i would have to plug my bass into my amp, and then the amp into the recorder, but ive heard that with the 400+ things are more complicated and you have to do something else or something for it to be safe for the amp. Also just asking oppinions from fellow bass players: would this sound good and be a good way to record bass for a song?
Thanks everyone


-Shaun

[Bezo]

I hear that you will always get the best sound out of a bass if you mic the speaker. The line out from the amp won't reproduce the sound of the speaker exactly.

What I've done until now is go directly into the 002 Rack from the bass and treat the audio with plug ins, but that's because I had a borrowed Behringer amp that I didn't like. Results have been decent. I'll be trying direct recordings from my new Ampeg as well as miking it.

I'd say try all 3 methods if you have a mic or access to one.

And you can get some good Pro Tools specific advice from digidesign.com --> Support --> User Conference. Lots of professional engineers there.

[Juneau]

Your line out will give you your tone shaping from your pre-amp, but not the sound of your cabs. Mic'ing the amp picks up both. A lot of people just use Direct Input too, or a combination of things.