This is such a complicated subject as there's a bazillion ways to do this most likely. Some just use the same key or note for the 808 like in skrillex's new song with the game.. Very popular.. Others use just one note then I believe they pitch it up an octave before the down beat to give a little variation. And lastly my favorite others use it as a complete bassline and give it tons of depth and variation. How do you make a bassline with an 808 and kick drum, lets say trap genre. I am making an electro-trap song right now and wanted to spice it up with a nice variation and 808.. Which leads me to my second question...

What do I apply to 808s to make them phat, controlled, and powerful? And anything else that needs to keep it in check with the groove and mixed in nicely...

 

Use a Roland 808 Drum Machine

 

Last edited: Mar 23, 2016

Any sine wave from any subtractive synth. Saturation, EQ and lowpass.

Layer with any suitable lowpassed kick. Adjust sine amp attack envelope to blend with the kick envelope.

 

there are at least half a million tutorials about this on Youtube

 

Most of the tutorials on youtube are INCORRECT MY MAN... So how about you slow your roll down?

 

Glad u asked,

everything that can produce a clean sine-wave ( 3osc/spire/etcetc)

I also like producers choice 808 warfare for kontakt, it has decent ADSR,
where I can go straight to splitting the signal in highs and lows and go from there.

I've made a all purpose 808- sub- bass- Patcher fx preset for this:

• splitted in 2 bands with Pro-q 2
• bypass buttons on pro-g, cla 76, devastator, tube saturator2 and waves rbass
• faders for useful parameters, with reasonable ranges for this purpose

this is most likely the most useful organizing 'thing' what I ever did, and this might only be useful for myself
but I think everybody should try standardizing his/her own chain if 808 subs are your thing

 

get a tr-8

 

Sonic Academy Kick. The "Trap" presets already work out of the box but can easily be tweaked (as hell) ;)

 

I second 808 warfare . . . really great sounding stuff and very easy and tweakable as a Kontakt instrument.

 

ty ty ty ty

Now that's settled.. How do you create your variations and basslines? I know this one is complex but there's SO many different ways I have heard 808s tuned and pitched ... And put into tracks.. Speaking maybe from music theory what is there to keep in mind? I know a lot of the theory is thrown out the window with beats sometimes and that's ok but I like having theory for a 'baseline' of how I am doing things..

 

Tuned. Always!
But in all fairness, if it's only playing one key and its sound is corresponding with (probably) the root key. I call that tuned but technically it might not be

 

Thanks for ignoring my suggestion about using a Roland 808 Drum Machine to make 808 sounds. In my humble opinion you can't beat it for authenticity, originality and versatility. It even sounds like a real 808 too

 

Last edited: Mar 24, 2016

This guys is 808 trap guy based on FL studio.
My number one for FL studio too. Most of his tutorials are so fresh.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHzcS9Hm5dieyRWDMY-earw

 

Another vote for 808 Warfare (I have mine re-sampled at the rates I produce at). I've rented 808s over the years and made lots of great samples... as well. But nothing beats having one of those bad boys in the studio mixed through your own chain... and programmed / phrased the way you want.

 

I found this post a while back, I found it pretty insightful, I love some of the 808 samples floating around the web but I guess It's also time to start creating more synth based sub bass.

Disclaimer: deadmau5 doesn't seem to use spell check

do you even kick bro? some kick insight.
alright… sorry, in response to a twitter Q: @deadmau5 I’m so confused. Phase reset on the osc..

welll…. most modern day EDM “Producers” are more inclined to use samples of 808′s and kicks for a reason really…. because with a sample… every kick that gets triggered starts playing back thhe EXACT same sample, at the exact same point in the sample…. which is great. i guess? for a consistent sound upon retriggering the kick….
however, there are drawbacks to doing this…. pitch. Since everyones all trying to get arsty fartsy with their leet 808 samples, as you play it in a higher pitch, the sample changes its playback speed… so youre left wiill all sorts of goofy shit… like envelope time compression / decompression… and transients start to lose or gain “fatness” or whatever bro… SO! your best bet, for repitching dat 808 and playing it like a mo-fuckin stratovatis or whatever, is to use an osc, any synth will do really…. juuuust as long as the note trigger will also reset the phase of the oscillator…. most good synths have this option, serum for example…. dial the phase / random phase knobs all the way to left… and voila. consistent 0 crossing attacks erry time the thing goes off….. as for “adding a transient bro or layering to make it fatter bro” just find a generic ass kick sample…. highpass it a decent amount, and decay the env really tight. and layer that, however, the transient.. should always remain in the same key everytime the event is triggered…. then that way, your sub is all over doin this n that and youll have a nice short lil transient to accompany it so the trigger sounds consistent.

another note, if your going to compress the fuck out of it, which youre probably going to anyway…. after youre done find something remotely close to what you want…. print the audio to a new channel…. then you can pick out any goofy transient / or “dud” kicks and just move around better takes…. for whatwever reason, most, if not all VST compressors (with the possible exception of LFO tool) use FFT…. or emulate some kind of optical / RMS attack…. so “printing” kicks is a lot better for the sake of consistency, rather than just putting a compressor on it and leaving it there while you master.
Link: http://deadmau5.tumblr.com/

 

thanks man i'll check out

spent all my $ on a push 2

 

thus to prove I did not ignore; next I will say.. "Wow, a guy who can afford a Roland 808 ! "

now since I don't have a grand (or so ) burning a hole in my pocket...
I am happy to see other more affordable suggestions..

 

It's a good investment, especially considering the pending financial collapse

 

ackkkk touché monsieur... sacre bleu... and once again I am slain !!

seriously i want one of these ... so that grand just might burn through

 

sorry to call you to the spot, ( as in I can't actually put you on the spot )
but could you post some of your homemade 808 sounds ?

just curious how good it could be..