Well, I don't think so. I know a lot of the recorded songs pretty well and what should be the bass seems to be there, it is just higher in the range so that in my jeep (scary that it is the best listening environment I have) the bass is heard through my mids rather than felt through the subs.

A microphone and a tape recorder (used normally at normal speed) can't alter the pitch of an instrument. It can just color that pitch by introducing a different frequency response.

Remember that an instrument like a bass guitar covers a wide frequency range. What's happening is that certain frequencies are getting lost while others are being accentuated. The pitch of the bass notes has not been changed, which is what you're claiming it's doing.

What you're talking about here is a recording that needs plain old EQ and compression. The recording engineer's first two tools in his toolbox. Nothing magical about it, just the subtle art of audio mixing.