Sometimes bass players have it the worst. Many (most?) of them have a refrigerator-sized amp that won’t even fit in that car of theirs, what with the sleeping bag and Coleman stove taking up all the room. In fact, a little-known statistic is that 30% of chiropractic clients are actually found to be bassists who have been lugging around monster amps for 10+ years. Sad.
Furthermore, vintage tube-driven 8×12 bass rigs can be a pain to record with, because those loud, wide, bass- frequency waves cut through EVERYTHING, and it can be nigh-impossible to get any sort of isolation when tracking live. And recording that thing in your apartment? Fugeddaboutit. You’d be evicted faster than you can say “Joey DeMaio.”
Enter the PreSonus Studio Channel. A lesser-known application of the Studio Channel is that of a direct injection box for recording bass. Heck, you could even use it to play bass live and run directly into the front-of-house. HomeTracks over on YouTube illustrates this application perfectly in his recent video, showcasing the myriad tones that can be achieved by running your four (or five-, or six-) string baby into the Studio Channel—no amp required! Keep the gain low for cleans, or push that glowy li’l tube for some mid-range grittygrind.