What’s your secret to crisp 808’s?
Dear Reddit and fellow music producers
I’m a producer, and I’ve been producing for around 7 years. My main focus has been hiphop, rnb, soul and indie pop. That sort of stuff.
Recently I’ve picked up a new clientele, which practice some of said genres, but they’re also really big on trap beats. And I’ve been doing trap to an extend, but usually with subs and other synth basses. But listening to the reference tracks they’ve send over, it has become clear that I will need to learn to do 808s properly.
Now this is not to say that I haven’t experimented with 808’s before. I most definitely have. But I’ve also come to the conclusion that I suck at mixing them… I’ve tried cutting off the entirety of the lower end on the melody, and what not, and I’ve still not been able to make them sound crispy, round, managed.
I’ve dealt with distortion, clipping, frequencies and I just can’t get it right. Now, I’ve heard it many times before…. Sound selection. But I’m really having trouble accepting that good 808’s just aren’t that available.
What can you do for me Reddit.
Thanks in advance
Edit: so I think I’ve found myself a good combination of a good sample and gained myself some knowledge. Instead of carving way to much low end of my melody, i’ve started rolling a tad of, and then rolling even more of in the mids. Also making sure that my 808 is entirely mono with some utility plugins, and if dubbed with a kick, I’ll add some slight attack.
Also flattening the sample/melody with a limiter helped me control the dynamic range of the frequencies as well, at least I feel like it does, I guess.
I’m yet to like the way distortion breaks the round softness of the 808s, so i’ll be on the lookout for good 808s samples instead. If anyone can recommend any I’d be more than happy to know, if it’s allowed in this sub.