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I'm currently recording music using a focusrite 18i8 on logic pro x. I have Pro Tools 11, but have not yet learned how to use it. I am pretty unhappy with the results of my bass guitar recordings. Everything else that I record sounds awesome, but my bass just seems kind of uneven.

I imagine that some of this is due to how I'm playing the bass guitar. I play bass proficiently, but it's not my main instrument so as I said I'm sure that some of the volume inconsistencies are coming from my end.

I'm playing a hofner bass hooked up to a 25w fender bass amp, the tone that I can get is pretty decent, but when I record it using the line out from the bass amp into the focusrite, I feel like there is way too much volume variance and not enough punch. Some parts sound beautiful, and then other parts sound weak and muddled. Is there any sort of plug-in, preamp, or mixing technique that can help this? Perhaps some sort of plugin that makes an audio track have equal volume throughout. Does anyone have any insight for this?

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I think it is important to mention, although you probably already know, is that the quality of the instrument and the performance are hugely important factors. Something you can consider though, or maybe purchasing an inexpensive preamp like those by ART, and some other companies like the presonus blue tube. As far as the volume discrepancies, that is certainly an issue with bass that an experienced player knows how to approach. You might want to consider getting a stomp box or rackmount compressor to track through.

Depending on how low you can get the latency in your system, you can even track through some plug-ins in logic.

Not sure if this answered or help, but I hope it does.

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    I wouldn't recommend monitoring through the DAW with compressor. Not only is the latency another problem you'd rather not be bothering with, also the compressor will make the problematic parts less obvious while recording. Not the right point to surpress them there: when you hear the problems right away, you'll rather counteract by playing better. You can still compress in post-production, that's fairly standard to get some more punch even when the bass track sounds great already uncompressed.
    – leftaroundabout
    Apr 23, 2014 at 19:27
  • yea, i definitely agree with you, i was including it as an option. I don't love tracking thru daw plug ins because like you said, you never "really" hear what's going in. Always best to get the best possible on the track for sure.
    – Dave
    Apr 24, 2014 at 17:41

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