Recording bass dry and wet signal into Logic Pro

You might try the 'loop' out and see if it gives a dry signal. I too always record bass wet & dry (one stereo and one mono) and man oh man the amps and fx in Logic are amazing... it's kinda embarrassing how much work (money) I've put into a pedal board yet the signal I can form in Logic from the dry signal slays everything.

 

So the exercise is to split the signal coming from the bass before it hits the Tone Bone/Envelope. That can be accomplished using a direct box if you have one. It might also work using the tuner out from the tone bone and use that to feed the other channel in your apogee although it will have some processing effect of the circuit in the tone bone. Another way might be plug directly into apogee and record a mono signal the on playback split that signal to bus. Route the buss to feed an output on the apogee, feed that back through ToneBone/Envelope and record the round trip to a new channel. You may have to move the track a few ticks to compensate for phase delay, but not a big deal. That would work with my UA Apollo, not sure about your apogee.
Finally, you have tons of Eq and processing right in logic, including some amp modeling and stomp box envelop filters.... before going further, try using those built in capabilities. I have made some great sounding recordings using the built in processing in Logic. Be happy to share some... IM me.

Hope that gives you some things to try.

 

I always go direct unless using a Sans Amp or similar ( make sure it is LOW NOISE ) , most EQ/FX etc. are done in the box , you want the best tone/sound possible raw then screw it up

 

That pedal has no "through/parallel out" both outputs are wet. There is no way to split a wet and dry with that set up.

 

What I would do, besides buying a splitter, is plug into my amp. Come out the fx loop into the pre pedal, etc. Wet.

And, also come out the di of the amp, with the "pre" switch engaged. Dry.

Or, record straight into the interface. Dry.
Then, run your computer's output into the pedal, press play, and record the output to a seperate track. Wet.

 

use a passive DI box backwards like a Country gentleman or Radial ( I use Radial excellent box )

reaD THIS
DI Box - What is a DI Box and How to Use One in the Studio - Vintage King DI Box Blog - Vintage King Blog - Vintage King

 

I love a Q-strip. It meets the needs of all input/output scenarios.

It will accept any input level, it has a through/dry output to run into a tuner or whatever, it has a di out put that runs wet when pedal is on, dry when off, high and low pass filters, and an additional 1/4" output that you can take into an amp at a switchable level for instrument levels or line levels. Plus, a sweepable parametric eq, volume knob, and an all analog build. Thing is dope.

 

Why don’t you record dry and reamp?

 

The dbx 160A is a single channel compressor. You're not going to be able to compress both the dry and wet signals without two of them. That being said, Logic Pro has a bunch of compressor models that sound pretty good to me. I would suggest bypassing the dbx and run striaght into the Duet.

 

The multiple ins and outs on the dbx unit are for cabling flexibility only - "either, not both." They go to the same compressor circuit, and can't be processed separately. There's no way around this on a single-channel hardware unit - it was not designed for your use case.

I would suggest the following chains:

Dry: Bass > radial (balanced) > interface
Fx: bass > radial (unbal) > FX pedal > interface

With the dbx inserted into one of those chains if absolutely necessary.

I prefer to record completely dry (at least on my dry track) and handle any tone shaping or compression at the mixing stage. I typically use two separate DIs (standard radial/countryman), one before and one after any pedals.

 

You really only need a passive DI box. Sure, you can spend big $$$$ on more expensive DI's but most mid-range DI's will give you a signal that is more than good enough in most mixes.
You can then just go from the bass to the DI then XLR-out to your interface for the dry track and then out of the "Thru" output to your pedals etc which then go to your interface for your wet signal.

Or, if you don't want to buy a DI......

If you're doing any recording or live work having your own DI can be very handy at times.

 

I always record dry and add fx in post. That way you have complete control of fx. When you record wet you are stuck with the pre-fx.

 

There's something to be said for getting a sound and committing. You can always grab a backup dry signal via DI, but if you have a vision for the sound you want to create in the analog realm, then commit. Worst case, you retrack till it's right. If you're self-recording, you have that luxury. If you're getting paid, maybe not. Or maybe. Depends on the scenario. I've tracked some pretty wild stuff because the artist and producer loved the concept and didn't want to try to recreate it from a dry channel at mix down. The dry was there, but not the primary track. Nevermind that your performance will be completely different tracking dry vs. wet.

As others have stated, you can't compress pre and post effect on a single-channel unit like the 160A. If the filtered sound you're looking for is achievable with the 160A after the filter, then stick with that as your wet chain and go straight into logic with the dry chain.

Dry: bass>Tonebone XLR>Apogee CH1
Wet: bass>Tonebone 1/4" out>envelope filter>dbx 160A unbal in>Apogee CH2. You should be able to use the balanced output of the 160A into the Apogee.

Do any additional comp/EQ on both channels in the box. You can probably find a 160A plugin that'll get you in the ballpark.

 

I’d strongly recommend just spending more time learning your DAW.

Logic is very powerful and comes stock with a lot of great emulations of classic analogue hardware units: there’s nothing the dbx comp or envelope filter pedal can do that can’t be done in the box with stock Logic plugins.

 

Get a Countryman Type 85 Direct Box. There's a reason it has nothing but 5-star reviews on Sweetwater. It's great, and affordable. Now, granted supply is low right now (like it is for most gear). So you might have to pay a bit more on the used market than usual. I got mine for $100 used. It's built like a tank. I run my bass through it even in recording situations where I don't technically "need" it.