I always wanted a real one and finally got a vintage Roland TR-808! So now I want to ask what suggestions you guys have for a processing chain that I will use in Ableton Live. I make classic vocal House music ((duh)), be it 80's, 90's early 2000's, so you can get an idea of the sound I hope to achieve. I will eventually buy some hardware, but right now I can only afford plugins. I am thinking EQ + compressor + tape, but then most of those classic records were recorded through mixing boards, so maybe a saturator or some other type of mixing board emu could be good? For those who know the 808 and style of music, I would really appreciate your experienced thoughts on and ideas for this setup!
How are you going to record it?Directly into line in or some preamp etc.? Raw 808 is pretty "raw".. Congratz btw ;)
When i think about good analog sounding 808 drums the first thing that comes in mind is an API preamp. If you record em through analog gear a digital colorless SSL style Channel Strip plugin (Like Native SSL Channel Strip plugin, or Brainworx with low to none THD)would put you in that ballpark. If you want to get crunchier the 4000 E from brainworx is a solid option. I wouldn't record anything that i want 'vibe' through SSL preamps BTW. But this combo of recording through API and mixing on SSL sounds amazing on 808's and it's the state of art of the sound.
aside from the 808,909, and 303; the most common pieces of gear to all those late 80's-2000's house records are the MPC60,3000, and 2000.
Seri is the first to share tips on how to use compression and the pitch envelope in Simpler to create full, crisp 808 sounds without a kick drum. In the next video, DECAP covers three different techniques for making 808 basslines move in Live using pitch bend, glissando, and modulation. Incorporating the powerful overtones of an 808 into your mix can be tricky. With helpful mixing and sound design tricks, Guido from Catandbeats reveals the secret to a powerful 808.
btw 808 was the hiphop machine, 909 was the house machine, together with 707 (claps) and 626 (hats). But it's still cool to have an 808.
A budget friendly hardware option is to get a mixer from the Boss BX-Series (like BX-800, BX-16 etc.) They have a vintage 90s feel and saturate very quickly, which brought them into the reputation of being "techno mixers" Maybe worth a try, they are dirty and cheap
Less expensive still is Airwindows Mackity which saturates, may I dare say, sweetly and almost the same as the the Mackey 32.4 I had before this century was a thing. I like it a lot and use it to beef up a bass. https://www.airwindows.com/mackity/
