Some good advice in here already, but the one thing I’ll add is that I’ve been told that it’s easier to play fast if you play lightly. So being able to pluck lightly will enable you to play faster bass lines, as well as allow you better control of your dynamics (light when appropriate, strong when appropriate, vs only being comfortable plucking strong) as was mentioned.
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That’s a good point. I think I heard or read somewhere that Steve Harris (of Iron Maiden) plays with a very light touch and just turns up the volume on his amp to compensate. What’s known as “letting the amp do the work”.
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Had a boss/head chef in my college days when I used to cook in our dining hall kitchen.
When you asked him how long to cook something, his answer was always “you cook it 'til its done, man”. I had thought he was being an a$$ at first but then realized he wanted me to learn when it was done.
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Exactly what I was thinking of @Mike_NL. It might have been in Josh’s “Reasons Steve Harris kicks ass” (or whatever he titled it) video, or it might have been some other Steve Harris interview or something…
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Well it sounds like it is just lack of experience and as others have said it will all come in time with practice. Just don’t give up 
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you can do whatever you want, but there are advantages to plucking lightly. mainly it’s far less fatiguing and you have a wider dynamic range. absolutely let the amp do the work, turn it up!
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I’m relieved to read these responses. I prefer having a lighter touch on the strings and it seems to suit the jazz and blues that I want to learn to play.
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This is true, @skydvr and @Mike_NL . . . 
Steve Harris and John Entwistle used this technique much to their success. I would just love to really crank it up, but I don’t think my neighbors would appreciate it. 
Cheers
Joe
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I think you should definitely aim for plucking lightly, and turning the volume up. (Same way you should aim for light touches with the fretting fingers as well.)
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Agreed, @akos . . . 
Which brings up a good point: you can’t fret lightly unless your action is low enough so that you don’t have to press very hard on the strings.
@NipperDog and @fosskers might want to check their action.
Cheers
Joe
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So true.
I have had to adjust the neck relief on my Bass twice so far in April because of seasonal weather changes.
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My approach is what some others have said. I crank the volume all the way up on my bass, use the pre-amp/amp to adjust as necessary, and pluck lighter. This leaves me headroom that I can control if I want to accent a note or the song requires more to it. I would be careful of digging in too much or you start getting a “clacking” sound like you are slapping at the strings when that’s not the intent. It’s something I still work on.
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Wisdom!
This is the best solution by far. It keeps your hands relaxed and will save you muscle strain and efforts and pains.
But… it’s hard to rock out this way. So if you’re into huge, energetic musics, stage antics and the physicality of playing, this will be hard to maintain (said the guy who is into huge, energetic musics and the physicality of playing… and volume).
This is too hard for most things… but Flea makes it sound awesome. If you want to be aggressive, this is a useful thing to bust out. But - yes - ideally the amp is working harder and you can relax your plucking hand to get nice even smooth sounds from your strings.
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I should have also asked how my gain control should be set. 
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So gain and volume are related in that they both affect loudness but are very different in practice.
Gain affects how much the input signal is modified. This can be useful if you have a low-output instrument, pluck softly, or if you want to, say, overdrive the preamp to get some overdriven warmth or distortion.
Volume affects the overall output volume, controlling not only your instrument volume but also any additional tonal qualities added by the preamp/onboard effects/etc.
tl;dr, play with them both to get the tone you want! Get the tone you want with gain, and set the overall volume with volume.
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Thanks Howard, that’s very helpful info. 
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I can’t speak for everyone. But I tend to pick rather hard sometimes. I was using a medium pick for tremolo picking on my bass to get myself used to it. I’m after clank & grit on my bass though.
But now I’m back to my heavy pick for that too. I especially pick hard if I have to do palm mutes. (In my case wrapped pinky mutes)
I want to add as much clank before I mute the string so in those cases I tend to strike harder.
Everybody plays differently though, you always can supplement with EQ’s afterwards as well.
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Mark Smith just released a teaser video about this topic…
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Lot of good information in that video link of Mark’s you posted @skydvr
Thank you.
Knowing how to set the Bass and Amp controls has always given me the tone I prefer as opposed to trying to achieve the same thing with pedals, which do have their place at times.
I am not a pedal junkie and only own a couple for my bass but my most used pedal would be my tuner 
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It comes down to personal preference, and style of music.
For classical and jazz, not too hard.
For rock n roll, like Geeer Buttler among others, they have a rep to play very hard.
It comes down to personal preference.
What suits your stye, and allows you to play without too much interference,
And what type of loud music you may or may not be trying to play