Recording bass guitar in GarageBand

[rsherid]

I have my bass plugged into an iMic (USB) going into my MacBook. It's picking up a strong signal except for two things: it's only playing out of the left side and there's a noticeable amount of static if I increase the Recording Level.

Is there a way to fix these two things? The main thing I need to is to get the bass in stereo.

 

[jackerin]

The left channel only is because you're running a mono source into a stereo input. Select to only use one of the channels in the Garageband track info and you have it centered.

The noise issue may be impedance-related. For the cleanest sound you would be using an audio interface with a dedicated instrument input.

 

[rsherid]

Thanks, got it all figured out.

But now I'm not sure how to mix the bass. Is it supposed to be panned to the left and right -- one track for each? Or is bass just usually one track panned center?

 

[jackerin]

Bass is a pretty non-directional sound, meaning you hear less where it is coming from compared to the higher frequencies. Usually you'd put it in the centre though.