why do my 808s sound soo bad :'(

  • Thread starter Thread starter ucheeeco
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ucheeeco

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hey guys whenever i make a beat and i add boom 808's it sounds like they just ruin the song... they dnt sound like anything youd hear in steady mobbin or somting like that.. i no its not my samples im using gold babys 808 tape kit, i dnt no if i need to do some efects to them or somthing to make them sound right thanks !!
 
try using some moderate compression along with carving out some eq where the kick frequencies are. sometimes I play around with lowpass and highpass eq filters depending on the track.
 
wow thanks, the compression helped alot, tho im a lil confuesed about the eq, could you elaborate a lil bit more :) haha thanks
 
ucheeeco said:
wow thanks, the compression helped alot, tho im a lil confuesed about the eq, could you elaborate a lil bit more :) haha thanks
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Sounds are on different frequencies in your mix. EQ allows you to control/change the levels at certain frequencies. So.. a lot of times, you can throw and EQ on the 808 drum, and adjust it dramatically just so you can find what frequency your 808 drum is at (where the sweet spot is). Then... change it back to 0. Now go to other instruments (usually instruments that have bass in them) and use an EQ to get rid of some of the noise at that frequency... that way your 808 can come through better.

Basically.. the 808 drum and other instruments clash a lot.. so you get rid of the sounds that are clashing. Make sense?
 
ucheeeco said:
wow thanks, the compression helped alot, tho im a lil confuesed about the eq, could you elaborate a lil bit more :) haha thanks
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Glad the compression helped. Make sure you play around with different ratios/thresholds along with the attack/release settings.

For EQ, as an example, if your kick has a lot of frequency at 50hz, you would want to cut/dip/notch your eq a BIT on the 808 at the same frequency otherwise you will get a messy bottom end where kick and bass fight over the same space. I put emphasis on the word bit because it's generally a good rule of thumb to go more on the conservative side with EQ (especially with boosts). Let me know if that makes any sense lol
 
no joke both of you guys have just helped me soo much.. i feel you actually gave me a really good understanding it, and the sound was getting very messy where my baseline, 808's ad kicks came together.. i didn't get to actually practice it yet but this all seems to make perfect sense to me now, i was SOOOO frustrated because i didnt know how to eq it, but now im happy lol thanks
 
And sometimes it's a good idea to attenuate everything else from that frequency range rather than the instrument - in this case, the 808 - itself.
 
Make sure you have your 808s in the right key....

You'd be suprised how many people forget to do that. Because alot of drums dont really need to change key but 808s really do. Also the samples your using may not actually start out on C. So when your changing the note it may not be what you think it is....
 
Goldbaby's 808s sound great without any additional fx, eq or compression. Set them at the right levels and they will sound good. I would suggest your mix isn't right before I would suggest changing the drums.
 
DaBomb is right, the 808 has a tone control for tuning the bass drum and that is the first thing you need to get right when using a long decay because that boom is a sine wave.
 
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um, thanks for alll the tips and all, really thanks, but one problem.. how do i make sure my 808's are in the right key?
 
Route them thru a guitar tuner if you can. That would work. Most 808 samples I have are in C1. I use subfreak (freeware VSTi) instead.
 
deanlofts said:
Route them thru a guitar tuner if you can. That would work. Most 808 samples I have are in C1. I use subfreak (freeware VSTi) instead.
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Brilliant lol.. why the hell have I not thought of that yet.
 
the way i would fit an 808 to the key of the song is to play the 808 an octave or 2 higher so you can actually hear the note rather than feel the note. then after you match the right notes of the 808 to the chord, i would retranspose them an octave or 2 lower, depending on the key.
 
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