How to record Bass via D.I.

[chimp_spanner]

Hey all! Just wondered if anyone had any tips on the best way to record bass guitar into my PC via D.I. My setup goes a little like this...

Bass goes into chanel on mixer, (guitar and sound module also reside on their own chanels), then using the 'monitor send' knob, i can choose which instrument i want to send to the inputs of the soundcard - crude I know but its a very simple mixer so I've had to improvise!! Then obviously from there I can apply amp modelling, dynamics, EQ from within Cubase. My trouble is, the bass seems to overdrive very easily, and not the nice kind of overdrive. guitar i have no problems with so im guessing its just down to the nature of Bass guitar, what with it having lower frequencies etc. etc. Even when I bring the monitor send level down to practically 0, i can still hear it distorting even though the input levels on my Delta Audiophile are well in the green.

So, from this there are 2 questions.

1. Could this 'overdrive' be due to lousy factory pickups? I am currently using a bog standard Ibanez Gio 4 string to tide me over till my new active 5string arrives on monday . Would lousy pickups cause signal breakup when I play hard? I'd hate to think I'd get this same unwanted effect once my shiny new bass comes!

2. Do I need to have some sort of dynamics module or compressor immediately after the bass, before the signal gets anywhere near the mixer or soundcard?

I know this is a long winded question, but any help would be real good!!

Thanks in advance

Paul

[JMX]

I assume there's no battery inside your bass...

Lower the input gain on the mixer, everything else seems ok from reading this.

[nicoli]

I have had this same sort of problem, my bass ended up sounding like a trombone.

Anyway, I fixed it by lowering the mic in level on the actual soundcard, which can be set much much higher when using guitar.