Killer Bass Guitar sounds in Logic

Depending on which of the several John Entwistle (R.I.P) bass sounds you like I'd steer you towards your technique, bass and strings - preferably Rotosounds. A nice tube pre certainly won't hurt. Remember most of John's recordings were done to analog tape, and recorded at saturation point, so the amount of tape compression was quite considerable. Oh, and split into DI and real amp.

Also, maybe consider more what you EQ out of the sound when mixing, rather than trying to put something in that isn't there.

You must have:

1. Exellent bass player
2. Perfect bass guitar
3. Good cord
4. Hi-End Tube mic pre
5. Expensive AD Converter
6. All Logic parameters set to zero and don't use any external plugins.

I'm not sure how the converters are on the 410, but I think your best bet is to get the best tube pre you can afford, even something cheap can make a difference before going straight into your front-end box, IMO. EQ and PI are to taste, true, but I personally find there's no unifying theory (almost like drums) from track to track b/c it all depends how it sits in the mix.
Then again, you could also have a John Entwistle-caliber musician play bass into the 1/8" input on your powerbook and it would sound good.

Seriously, though, I would say get the cleanest signal going in before it hits your box, then tweak from there.

These days, I'm usually plugging my bass guitar through the bass guitar plug-in. Quite often, it works by itself or with some compression, limiting or even the Overdrive plug-in. However, others have alluded to, if the chops aren't there, then getting a killer sound is the least of your worries.

jord

I've been recording alot of bass guitar as of late (being a bass player) and also small jazz trio's. Ive recorded using 5 string Roscoe's, Tobias, Fender Jazz, and even a Dean "Pace Bass" Electric Upright. I've even used cheap Squire P Bass's. ALL OF THESE have been recorded direct into LOGIC using a Presonus Blue Tube II Tube pre amp and WOW what results, I mean, I may plug in a little eq and compression AFTER recorded (I record "Dry") I've also used a little chorus on a fretless but the Tube and Logic sound great together. I know I've listed some pretty nice Bass Guitars in this post but I also listed that I used a Fender Squire and got pretty much the same results. Here's to the Presonus Blue Tube and Logic...my hat is off to you!

I was able to watch a big name bass player record recently. His whole rig for this session: Fender Jazz -> Boss Tuner -> Ernie Ball Volume Pedal -> Ampeg SVT DI. Recorded to PT Dry, split to another channel for FX (McDSP Comp, AmpFarm). Sick sick tones. I guess it really is all in the fingers.

John makes a very good point - strings are massively important, and can make or break the sound.
Slightly off topic - you can make some awesome bass guitar sounds with Sculpture! I've been using it a bit later - great stuff!

Maybe consider stereo out of:
http://www.line6.com/basspodxtlive/

Please post if you figure a way to input

Logic's Bass Amp
Space Designer
with a touch of the PSP Mixpressor or Vintage Warmer

mmm, radalicious!