What would you recommend? (audio rec)

A sizeable percentage of the tone you get from you bass is from your cabinet. A similarly large percentage of the tone you're going to get from recording is going to be from EQing, Reverb, Mixing, etc etc. To my knowledge there are few, if any, ways to make a bass sound good in a "plug and play" situation.

 

Right, that's totally fine! You'll just have to learn about EQing, reverb, mixing, and the like - there are plenty of tutorials out there aimed at beginners, I don't have youtube access at work but hopefully someone else can chime in. I just make my guitarist do everything.

 

Personally, I would do this:
Take the XLR output of the B7K into your Input 1 on your Scarlett.
Run the 1/4" into your EBS head, and take the 1/4" line out on the back of the EBS head into input 2 on your Scarlett.
Record onto separate channels in your DAW.
This way you can have points of reference of how the amp affects your signal. You can also blend the pre- and post-amp sounds to better craft your tone.

Do you have fresh strings on your bass? The difference between new and old strings is much more noticeable when you're recording, especially if you're going for a modern sound. If you have older strings, I think changing them will be the simplest way to improve your tone.

 

I've been really happy with the direct recording tone through my Scarlett, but I ought to try this with my old Trace tube head.

 

That's going to depend on your personal tonal goals. I wouldn't add too much more amp simulation because that tends to muddy things up (in my experience). Cabinet and mic simulation is nice though. Try to get at least 75% of your tone before you start messing with plugins. But above all, use your ears. If you do the opposite of everything I've suggested and it sounds good, then roll with it.

Yeah, preamps in the Scarletts are awesome! They have the same preamps that are in the higher-end Focusrite interfaces.

 

I agree that they're awesome, but they're not the same preamps as what you'll find in the Clarett and Red models, which are their current batch of higher end units.

 

Only thing that would potentially help is just a tad of limiting on the way in if you have a outboard compressor. I also use a mxr m81 to tone shape a little bit from the start. Otherwise. Just record a good clean di. Once in the box, get some good quality impulse response from red wires or own hammer and use a plug like mixIr to blend your di. Forget about amplitube. The gain staging is a nightmare. Get a good plugin compressor and eq. Most daws have that already. You don't need to buy fancy analog emulations of gear to get good results.

 

What kind of bass are you playing?

 

Wow. Just subed your channel. Great playing and tone.

Yes. I forgot to mention. The mxr has two outputs including a pre/post switch. So I always get an uneffected clean di as well in a separate channel as a clean back up.

 

Amplitube may be worth at least trying (though previous comment re: gain staging is true, so important to balance levels)... The "360 bass direct" preset gives a really full sound. A little eq afterwards to clean up the low mids and you could be happy.

 

Youtube is your friend when it comes to recording technique.

Try these two for starters:





The advice to get a good clean sound onto two tracks, apply processing to one of them, and then mix the two has always worked best for me.

What processing you use depends on what you have by way of outboard devices and software plugins. I've generally found some combination of: amp/speaker emulation, a hint of some sort of modulation, some reverb/delay, and some judicious compression (the DAW I work with has really nice compressor plug ins) manage to provide a really nice bass sound.