why does the tone alter

hi there,i recorded a bit of live bass guitar the other day and when i played it back i noticed the tone had changed,the brightness and presence seemed to dissapear , why does the tone alter ,i didnt alter anything when playing back the recording , i havent realy noticed anything like this before,i was recording at 32bit 44.1 khz i am using C4 ,soundcard is EMU 0404. thanks