Recording onto my computer with my Bongo's.

[Bassist Jay]

I attempted to do a recording onto my wife's iMac computer of my Bongo's. I wanted to do a side by side comparison of all of them and their different pick up configurations. I'm basically going through my practice amp directly and then letting the mic on the computer record everything so I am not plugged into my computer at all. It also doesn't have an input for my bass or amps to begin with. The problem is, I am getting a very clean sound out of my amp but on the computer, when I play it back, the lower end stuff on the A and E strings sound very distorted. Does anyone know how I can record everything differently so I can get a better sound for the demo purpose?
Thanks,
Jay

[rude_basstard]

Computer microphones are not known for accurate sound reproduction. I would buy or borrow a USB or Firewire recording interface. Then you could either go directly from the output of the bass, out of the D.I. of the amp, or use a decent instrument mic, like an SM57, to record the speaker output.

[DeliriumTremens]

Get a cheap interface, it will be a million times more effective than using a computer mic

[kbr]

Ditto with the cheap interface. They're clean enough to do comparisons with and infinitely better than a computer microphone. Also, you might have an 1/8" line input on that iMac. That would be better than the microphone, though still not as good as the interface. You just need to get a 1/4" to 1/8" adapter.

[My name is Mudd]

Interface. Definitely. Most of them also have someone's stripped down/demo version of a DAW bundled in as well. Bonus.