clueless recording question regard XLR out from amp to interface

[Justin darden]

You might not want to hear this (which I say because I was in a similar boat a few months ago, and I didn’t want to hear it), but you’ll probably get a better sound recording with plugging your bass via your instrument cable directly into the instrument input of the audio interface. I say "probably", not "definitely" - try both and decide for yourself. On many amps, the onboard DI Out isn’t the best. Every amp is different, of course.

Anyway, with my amp’s DI, the sound quality is a little soft and blurry, so I’ve finally come around to plugging direct to the interface with my instrument cable (no amp). From there, you can EQ the sound to roughly simulate an amp, or you can use [software] "impulse responses" to really sound like a particular amp.

There are other ways to record bass too, of course, such as using a mic on a cab or using a dedicated recording direct box, etc. Anyway, not to throw to much at you - just saying plugging right in with your instrument cable (about the easiest thing you could do) might give you a better result. But the main thing is just to plug something in, hit record and see what happens!

Have fun with it

I think this is why they say don’t buy a piece of musical equipment based on features… my xlr doesn’t sound so great either much better to use the parallax