I fake it.
 
with a guitar and a bass synth. 

Right now, I only record me playing on other folk's tracks but I like running my Music Man 5 string into a Country Man DI > Fender Bassman 20 tube amp w/15" speaker> SM57 close mic'd.  I also have a room mic (U87) either 3 ft or 6 ft back.  I track three tracks - DI into a UA 6176, close mic and a room mic.  I usually low pass the DI around 100 hz and then blend the room mic and close mic depending on what I need.  I send the three tracks to an Aux track or an audio track and then disable and hide the original tracks unless what I have isn't working out later.

Mod Bod, I assume you are using a splitter to go direct and mic at the same time. Have you ever tried using the stereo jacks on your white Rick to split the signal? I have been wondering laterly if tht would work similar.

The best sound I have gotten on my bass was going direct to the edirol interface.

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Mod Bod, I assume you are using a splitter to go direct and mic at the same time. Have you ever tried using the stereo jacks on your white Rick to split the signal? I have been wondering laterly if tht would work similar.

Rick o Sound isn't quite like stereo or split mono, it is more like two mono signals from two different sources. You may want to use both sources and on top of that you may want to split both direct and through amp/mix setups for a total of 4 tracks. Maybe.

Direct to board from Pre-amp.  Through a simple solid state pre, and a cheap Alesis compressor.  Before the box compression is at about 4:1, knocking down 6-10dB when hit hard.  I have simple 3 band tone control in the pre with a little boost on the low, and a lot of boost on the high.
 
In the box I use the good old fashioned Cakewalk Tape Sim for extra warmth and a little grit.  That sucker is old, cheap, but still really quite good for Bass.  After that I use a Waves rChannel for a tiny bit of extra compression and limiting.  EQ in the box is slight, depending on the track.
 
I find that the tone of your bass is dependent primarily on your playing style.  It's best to play with the treble boosted heavily to hear exactly what you're doing to the strings.  If you can control the tone yourself with +12dB of high boost, you'll be a much better bass player.
 
Examples: https://soundcloud.com/paul-graves-1

I have tried different approaches. I think in my case I need to upgrade my bass pickups or change strings as I haven't had the best of luck with my tone.
 
I had been using the pres on my sound card which aren't terrible, but it leaves a lot to be desired if you want to compete with pro mixes. I haven't really attempted to use an outboard pre yet for bass. One thing that really made a difference was changing the battery in my bass duh..
 
 
Right now my best bass tracks are midi played in to a sound ITB. I might sweeten that up a bit with Amplitube  SVX or GR. There are some  good bass samples out there. ....so I guess I'm at almost the same place you are. 

Rick o Sound isn't quite like stereo or split mono, it is more like two mono signals from two different sources. You may want to use both sources and on top of that you may want to split both direct and through amp/mix setups for a total of 4 tracks. Maybe.

 
Sounds like I may have to do some experimenting with this as time allows.