what am i doing wrong?

[paulfon]

okay. i have been trying, trying, trying to record bass parts to some tracks ive been recording, but i cant for the life of me get even a halfway decent bass sound! i have decent gear, but everything i try to record comes out sounding super thin, and it peaks and begins to distort before i get anything remotely deep sounding. higher strings and harmonics sound good, but nothing low! anything know what im doing wrong??

heres what i have, ive been mix and matching everything:

cakewalk (recent version)
mxr bass DI
maudio fast track usb
fender 50s pbass and active jazz bass
boss me50b (has a decent compressor)

[GianGian]

Originally Posted by paulfon

okay. i have been trying, trying, trying to record bass parts to some tracks ive been recording, but i cant for the life of me get even a halfway decent bass sound! i have decent gear, but everything i try to record comes out sounding super thin, and it peaks and begins to distort before i get anything remotely deep sounding. higher strings and harmonics sound good, but nothing low! anything know what im doing wrong??

heres what i have, ive been mix and matching everything:

cakewalk (recent version)
mxr bass DI
maudio fast track usb
fender 50s pbass and active jazz bass
boss me50b (has a decent compressor)

You need some mixer or sort of preamp to decrease the gain of your signal. Also be sure that you are using the audio input, not the microphone input.

[paulfon]

like the sansamp bass di preamp?

[projectMalamute]

You shouldn't need anything you don't already have. That audio interface has a mic pre in it.

Bass -> DI box -> micamp.

if it's distorted turn down the mic pre.

[GianGian]

Originally Posted by projectMalamute

You shouldn't need anything you don't already have. That audio interface has a mic pre in it.

Bass -> DI box -> micamp.

if it's distorted turn down the mic pre.

Yeah, it is probably a better advice than mine. The thing is that when I recorded directly on the computer, it always distorted, no matter what were the input levels. I added the mixer and the problem was solved.

[fretlessrock]

Bass -> DI -> Interface/Preamp -> Cakewalk

Use the XLR out on the DI, and make sure that the preamp is on (XLR input on the FastTrack). You are using a mic cable between the MXR and the preamp. The DI should be sending a mic level signal, and the preamp should be really happy with that. Avoid running the output of the MXR too hot, as you want to be able to hit 0db with the mic pre gain level set between half and 75% level. These settings are not gospel, they are a basic approach to getting your gain staging fixed. You will find a happy medium where the DI isn't overloading the preamp, and the preamp isn't running so much gain that the noise floor is up in the mix.

Once you have that worked out you can work on tailoring the MXR settings and coming up with a processing solution in cakewalk. Keep it simple. No need for the ME50B (I'm a former user of one and loved it for live work). Start simple. Get a good solid signal recorded and then work with it in post production. Think of it as having a raw bass signal "on tape" that you can always go back to.

Printing compression or effects is best when you have the rest of the process figured out. There are a lot (I'd wager "MOST" of them) of awesome bass tracks that you hear every day that began life as a vanilla DI take.

Good Luck!

[FF Petro]

Are you using computer speakers or headphones? If you are, that could be the problem right there. If you have good speakers or monitors I would start checking the levels to see if there is anything weird there ie an abnormally high/ low gain or output level.

[porkchop[]

Thats why I just mic my amp, with a SM 57 and a kick drum mic.
Always had better luck that way verses direct methods.