Ah, that makes sense.
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Example of just applying an amp/cab sim in the DAW, here’s a track I recorded of me working on Hysteria a while back, just the clean bass and my drum machine for tempo:
here’s the clean bass track with an amp and cab sim applied in Reaper (Ignite Amps SHB-1 and NadIR IR sim, respectively):
Sounds like it came through a slightly overdriving tube amp and cab, with the advantage of not having to deal with noise on the mic.
Good cab sims let you position the virtual mic in different places as well, for different effects.
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Hah, thanks. Probably actually a little overdone (on purpose for this example). For reals I would probably dial the amp presence back a bit.
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Thanks for that example. It’s good to know one can achieve good sound like that, but what the DAI outputs is still rather flat.
So I will mention that option but still describe the DAI output as flat in the summary is how I want to go about it.
Still - especially with example. Good stuff. Thank you.
I’m on my way home from the guitar center in cologne and the guy was immediately like “oooooh that needs a setup”. Happy I went there but the guy knowledgeable in recording hardware is sick unfortunately.
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For this one I would say actually the cheapest option is just taking the bass directly to a Line In on a sound card via a 1/4" to 1/8" cable. This works on PC, though on Mac it can be tricky since the only audio in on most macs is the Mic In on the TRRS headphone jack, and it’s more tricky cable-wise to get OSX to recognize the input. Still possible though.
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Really? I will try that out immediately. Oh no… My bass is at the shop. How does that work with a non-active bass? I’m confused about that. Sorry.
But I am still intrigued by that cable and what kind of quality it delivers.
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Ableton lite was included with my Zoom U-22. I installed it, but it is damn complicated and difficult to learn. I can’t imagine any need for midi at this time, so I’m okay with Audacity.
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Active (preamp, passive pickup) and passive basses output similar line levels, so it should work fine 
Active pickup basses are hotter but still in the same range.
Sound quality is not so good with this method in my experience, but it works.
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@howard
thanks. I’ll try it out and put both cable options in the “broke af” category.
Well I have use for midi outside of bass so learning a DAW that already supports it instead of doing it twice might be an option.
So far Reaper sounds nicest to me, having a large enough feature set, but an easy enough interface. At least that’s the impression I get from opinions of others.
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I happen to like Reaper a lot. MIDI support is good, and it supports virtual instruments, amps and effects well. It comes with tons of stuff out of the box, very customizable as well. Plus it’s inexpensive.
Not quite as easy as GarageBand/Logic but it has tons of high quality tutorial videos out there. This guy makes a ton:
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Well if you want to try getting bass signal to your computer on a budget with some decent results one of the single input instrument cables to USB will probably solve the problem. The interface and goodies can come later.
I’m using a 2010 Mac laptop But it seems to recognize almost any input. Out of curiosity a few months ago I used the Rocksmith cable from my PS4 to plug in. I think it’s called a real tone cable. You might find one used for $20. I think new they are like $35. It worked surprisingly well. Some of the other usb/instrument cables might do the trick too.
aufweiderhoren? I think?
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I took a peek at Reaper last year when I first got my Zoom U-22. At the time, it seemed too complicated for what I was trying to do, so I moved on to the much simpler Audacity. However, since Reaper is so well loved by people whose opinion I respect (@howard and @terb), I’m going to try to learn how to use it.
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Cool! For just recording I think you will find it pretty similar.
Laurent pointed me at it months ago and I am so glad he did.
Check out the videos by Kenny Gioia like I linked above, the guy has obsessively tutorialed every feature in the app.
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I just subscribed to his channel and will obsess about learning Reaper so I’ll be up to speed by the time my U-24 gets here. GC says it will ship May 22. Meanwhile, I’ll continue with my U-22.
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Auf Wiederhören = Hear you later (works in German, doesn’t in English)
Auf Wiedersehen = See you later (works in both)
Thanks for the input. Could it be that an “active audio cable” is the same as an “A/D converter cable” I mentioned? Sounds like it does the same.
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First off: I am not an expert. I am new to this, had help in this forum and from an audiophile friend of mine. Still I think there are other newbies interested in this summary of what I found out, but If I misinform on something don’t hesitate to let me know and I’ll correct it.
I have a bass, amp and PC with a DAW and now I want to record my music
That’s nice. First you have to decide on budget and quality requirements. It goes without saying that without budget you won’t get the same quality as you would with. I categorized three possible tears of budget/quality:
- No Budget / Low quality - Fine if you just want to record for practice or send some recorded bass lines to friends and family so they can praise your improvement.
- I have some money (60-150€) - Should be all you need for actually producing songs.
- I want the best possible quality (Money shouldn’t be a question) - Probably more than you need if you don’t professionally create music.
So let’s go through the budget/quality tiers.
I have no money
Option No Money A: Get a 1/4" > 1/8" TRS Adapter or cable. Connect your bass to the sound card line in.
Option No Money B: Play like usual and set up your phone to record. Considering the effort the quality is really good.
Option A little Money: Get an active audio cable. (A/D converter cable - different names, same thing). Should be a bump up in quality compared to the other option.
Option Nice Amp: If your amp got a line out you can connect the amp to the line in. Probably the best quality in the no money option.
I have some money and G.A.S.
Buy a Digital Audio Interface (DAI). There are a lot and I mean A LOT of options out there, but I made a comparison table for the interfaces used by bass players here, because interfaces are not primarily made for instruments and every product series of interface generates a different sound. Make sure you like the sound of the one you want to buy. Trying it out would be the best option, but there are recording youtube videos for almost every model out there.
If you really only want to record bass and nothing else and never want to upgrade your system you can even find cheaper models from most brands like Behringer and FocusRite. All you need is a DAI with an Input.
If you want to upgrade later Phantom Power and how many Inputs and Outputs there are and if it has MIDI I/O might be interesting.
I want to reiterate that point: More money spend for the DAI gives you more options not better quality (in most cases). For example: the sound of the UMC 202HD is most likely exactly the same as the sound of the UMC 404HD.
Depending on your amp you can use the line out or DI to connect to your DAI. If you don’t have those don’t worry - there’s a solution.
Although this post focuses on hardware a quick software mention: the solution is the virtual amp - applied effects in your DAW. The sound coming from the DAI is very clean, but often very sharp and kind of hollow. An amp gives it more body and roundness.
Prices are taken from Thomann (except Zoom, had to use amazon. Thoman doesn’t have it anymore.)
I want the best possible quality That’s not even G.A.S anymore. Too much money?
I won’t go into details here, because a) if you chose this tier you have to inform yourself anyway and b) microphones as a topic are a rabbit hole in itself, but the basic setup for the best quality according to sources like Scott from Scotts Bass Lessons and the youtube reverb channels is to use your DAI together with a mic that records the amp output.
So you plug in your bass to the DAI, route the output of that into your amp and then record the amp output with a mic that’s also plugged into the DAI and then record both Inputs at once.
So what I mentioned before with the software is now done with hardware: Combining the clean DAI sound with the full and round amp sound.
P.S: I don’t know what keeps me from editing the first post in this thread. Would have wanted to put the info directly at the start of the thread 
P.P.S: There is already a thread about DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) - the software part. If you are interested in recording I highly suggest to check it out too: What's your favorite DAW?
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Thanks. I assume it’s in USD, but may I ask the price of the U-24 since you just ordered it?
I just couldn’t find a price for it. At least not a retail/new price.
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$149.99 seems to be the going price everywhere.
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