808's and Production

[D'Majishin]

Hello me being a newcomer to the Illmuzik Forum I'd like to say hello to everyone. Secondly the 808's that are used in hip-hop today, how are they being eq'ed to get them presence and then the kick as well as the bassline, if there is one? Like what frequencies should be boosted, cut or what. That has plagued me for quite some time now. Heeeellllppp!!!

 

[trez260]

Welcome to Ill homie. good question, this is something i'm wondering myself. Peace.

 

[x-squizet]

swell the 808 sounds like that with little eq it has that fat crunchy sound to it, if you can just get you some samples from banging beats you will be straight

 

[Shonsteez]

You basically gotta dead the upper-end frequencies and then depending on the sound of the kick already, boost the low end, say around 60k usually...but it all depends on the sound. What u have to do is scan with yer EQ through the different bandwidths (while yer kick is soloed and plays continuously) until you here that sweet-spot, then either attentuate that spot or cut it, depending on what your going for....

Something to keep in mind tho:

Often what you here on a CD is not achieved in the beatmaking stage, but rather by a good mix guy and a excellent engineer. THats their job, to seperate unwanted freq's/ boost others, while maintaining a crystal clear mix, and all that other kinda stuff to make yer shit sound plush.

 

[KurtisRich]

I usually sample a certain sound or kick and fuck around with it.

 

[D'Majishin]

You basically gotta dead the upper-end frequencies and then depending on the sound of the kick already, boost the low end, say around 60k usually...but it all depends on the sound. What u have to do is scan with yer EQ through the different bandwidths (while yer kick is soloed and plays continuously) until you here that sweet-spot, then either attentuate that spot or cut it, depending on what your going for....

Something to keep in mind tho:

Often what you here on a CD is not achieved in the beatmaking stage, but rather by a good mix guy and a excellent engineer. THats their job, to seperate unwanted freq's/ boost others, while maintaining a crystal clear mix, and all that other kinda stuff to make yer shit sound plush.

You're absolutely right abou the enigineering thing. I'm somewhat of an enigineer as well as a producer. I'm a fledgling engineer, being a local phenom here in Omaha, Nebraska, everyone thinks I know certain things some I'm trying to live up to that and get the info from somewhere. That's why I was wondering if someone knew specifics

 

[Shonsteez]

Dam, sorry homie...I dont know the specifics beyond that so i guess yer on yer own....I will give you the heads up tho later on - say into november or so....Im in a tech class right now that will most likely cover that kinda stuff.....Ill keep you posted.

STEEZ

 

[Haze47]

yo steez fucking hot hot hot hot hot new shit fo real....fucking sickness...really amazing all three tracks, really feeling that dark one drunkers anthem...that last one, sample = ella fitz, summertime? who knows, well you big big big ups really good shit....

 

[Formant024]

If you have the last model 808 you wont need much eq, the electronics have filters embedded to create each sound in the orginal 808 ( last model 808 has a bigger sonic range*). Each voice on the 808 is a synth on its own in fact, a filter is just like an eq. What you need is good compression and keep the signalpaths from the 808 as loud as possible (and clean).

















* more sub in the bass kick

 

[wavez]

Hello me being a newcomer to the Illmuzik Forum I'd like to say hello to everyone. Secondly the 808's that are used in hip-hop today, how are they being eq'ed to get them presence and then the kick as well as the bassline, if there is one? Like what frequencies should be boosted, cut or what. That has plagued me for quite some time now. Heeeellllppp!!!

well,one way is to find the sweet-spot on ur bass and on ur kick.
boost ur bass's sweet-spot, cut the kick's frequency at the bass sweet-spot.
boost ur kick's sweet-spot, cut the bass's frequency at the kick's sweet-spot.

or


2. use side-chaining

or


3. layer ur bass with some other bass which has more upper frequency's


or

use stereo kick, mono bass = mono kick, stereo bass


....

 

[Shonsteez]

yo steez fucking hot hot hot hot hot new shit fo real....fucking sickness...really amazing all three tracks, really feeling that dark one drunkers anthem...that last one, sample = ella fitz, summertime? who knows, well you big big big ups really good shit....

Haha, thanks Hazy, i hollared back at you on yer SC, oops i mean MS, SC is old news now, lol.....

Anyways, back on topic.

(thanks for the hollar tho Haze, i appreciate it)

STEEZ

 

[DJ Reflex]

808 screenshots

ok here i attached a cupl of screenshots. u see i eq'd my 808 pattern then processed it a bunch of ways and just tweeked the eq again at the end of the chain to make sure its perfect. dunno if it helps but hope it dus.
808 2 is the first doc and the last eq can be seen in 808 1

 

[Formant024]

why would you eq twice in a chain ?

 

[DJ Reflex]

ok cos to start with i wanted to eq the drums to get a generally ok sound. take off the top end etc. but once the general sound was achieved i thought, ok now lets make it crunch a bit more, ok now lets widen the sound over the stereo image using chorus and now we'll need to compress it to make it kick more, but as a result of so much processing there will be maybe excess treble, hiss, maybe rumble or sumthing, so instead of changing the eq prior to the processing which the tiniest change will evoke a huge change in sound and mean all the processing is for nothing. instead eq the sound after processing just to take off any unwanted sounds that have arisen from processing. Hope that explains it,
Reflex

 

[Formant024]

ok cos to start with i wanted to eq the drums to get a generally ok sound. take off the top end etc. but once the general sound was achieved i thought, ok now lets make it crunch a bit more, ok now lets widen the sound over the stereo image using chorus and now we'll need to compress it to make it kick more, but as a result of so much processing there will be maybe excess treble, hiss, maybe rumble or sumthing, so instead of changing the eq prior to the processing which the tiniest change will evoke a huge change in sound and mean all the processing is for nothing. instead eq the sound after processing just to take off any unwanted sounds that have arisen from processing. Hope that explains it,
Reflex

So are you using crappy samples ? Cuz then I understand what you are doing. All you need to fatten up an 808 is a comp, limiter and gate. Keep the signal as pure as possible, with as less as possible. But again, this is talking from the drumstation perspective, with samples it's always shit to gain those real 808 dynamics.

 

[DJ Reflex]

nuh uh im workin with pure 808 sounds from the fantom x8, here ive stuck the track on the site, its called, ive got to be me. ull hear, its a specific type of sound i wanted, u know and ull hear wot im talkin bout.

www.soundclick.com/reflexakadaslick

 

[Formant024]

I'll check em out later, wont be the first to destroy my earpieces with them 808's lol!

But even from the fantom I'd say send em out as loud as possible into a decent comp, just a clean signal and build a track around it. I dunno the setup but a clean and unscrewed 808 gets you places, but then again, I dont know fantom and I dont know wether those are just plain samples or you got a 808 interface along the kit, cuz that's what I use to make the sounds go pop.

 

[DJ Reflex]

yeah i never realised we were talkin bout getting them to bang. u see the sound i made em in the track using those filtering takes the bang and makes em more subtle and rests em in the track without the thump more like a traditional hip hop kit sound. if it was to make em bang hard then u are right compression and a gate does the trick everytime!