Beefing up an 808 sample

adrian wrote:Take that 808 sample you used and layer a kick drum on top of it. Filter some the highs off the kick drum and add a decay to it. Then add a bit of distortion.

...i have tried layering it w/ a kick before, but i actually wanted to use the 808 as a kind of punchy bass line in this instance... i guess the sample was not really suitable for the job from the start :p

im willing to bet that your problem is not your monitors or your sample, but your room. you could spend $200 on some DIY bass traps and it would blow you away how much clearer that 808 would sound, but no one wants to hear that, they want to know what piece of gear/ magic potion "the pros" use.

ways to beef up 808s...


start with a good sample. if need be, create your own by layering different 808s and kicks together.

Waves RBass

dbx 120 subharmonic generator

Distortion, i use Sansamp but there are a lot of other good distortion plugs out.

EQ-sometimes you're actually better off cutting low end to be able to turn the 808 up louder and not have it eat up all your headroom

sidechain a gate on a 50-60Hz signal generator signal with the 808.

compression-depends on the sample and the song, i go from not compressing at all to really smashing them with L1 or Distressors.

transient designer-if you have one, they come in handy




i've given away too much!

signal generator / gate