synthesis

I thought i write up a decent 808 tutorial as its one of those things people ask about.

The 808's a classic sound, and if you know how to synthesize it, it opens up lots of oppurtunies for creativity. As its very simple patch to learn, if you're new to synths this could be a handy learning experience.

I will be using the subtractor (reason), but you can do it with any half arse synth.

Synthesizing 808s:
1. Load up your synth, with the default/initialized patch
2. make sure any LFOs are off, FM is off, any velocity controls are at zero.
3. Select a LP filter, no resonance.
4. Enter a lowish bass note (somewhere around C1/C2) on the sequencer, and loop the sequencer playback, so you can hear it as you make changes.
5. You need one sinewave oscillator (the regular '~' curve shaped wave).
6. Turn off any other oscillators, and set the mix to osc 1 (if it has this function).
7. On your amplitude envelope, set decay to about half (this may vary on synths, but find a setting so it has a nice fade out). Set any other amp-env variables to zero - attack, sustain etc.
8. Ok, it should sound pretty 808-like now, but here's the important bit.
9. On your modulation envelope, wire it to control osc1 or pitch (same thing really).
10. Raise decay to about a quarter of the way up.
11. Set the envelope amount about 2 thirds up (or adjust to choice).

This pitch envelope drops the pitch sharply at the beginning of the sound, causing that nice 808 thud.

10. BUMP BUMP BUMP. Tune to the correct key

Now, if you want a more 909 sound:
1. Set amp decay much shorter
2. Frequency envelope - decay up about the same as the pitch env.
3. Amount about a third
4. Low pass filter, anywhere between zero-quarter way up, resonance any between zero and full, depending on what tone you want your thud. (adjust these to your taste).
5. Tune
6. Save your patch.

Quick Tricks:
• Play two adjascent notes on your keyboard for that wobbling noise like in Kenny Ken & Andy C - 'the quest'
• Raise pitch env decay for that classic BOOooom bass
• Switch to a saw or square wave and fiddle with the filters, envelope and LFOs have fun with it
• Try using more than one osc for thicker sounds (remember to envelope both their pitches, and adjust the mix balance)

Processing:
• When distorting, it usually helps to hipass the distorted channel at around 300hz, and then layer with an original clean channel to retain clean bass freqs.
• In Reason i tend to use the foldback distortion or scream overdrive as these produce cleaner harmonics and tones. Try using two foldbacks in a chain for interesting results.
• Mixing down bass and distorted frequencies: 808 Bass-channel should be as loud as your kick drum (standard mixing), and the distorted 808 channel should be anywhere between 50-75% of the bass-channels volume. This seems to sit well for me, but experiment.

Further Info:
There we go, you should have some nice thumping sounds. The pitch envelope technique can be applied to almost anything to create that thump sound, reeses, pads, you can even do it in a sampler if you like. I find if i have a kick sample lacking thud, a quick pitch decay adds a thump easily without bothering with EQ.

The same sort of technique can be applied if you're trying to make a natural 'plucked' string sort of sound. A subtle LFO and reverb will make it sound more natural aswell.

When im looking for a kick to layer, i find its easier to load up my 808/909 patch and personalize it to how I want, rather than search through a folder of kick samples.


or....


Try this:

- Load up Soundforge

- Choose where you want your bass drum to boom... I've been using this technique to make sort of Psytrance bass drums, so I'd usually go for 45hz...

- Make a 1 second sine wave (Simple Synthesis) double that frequency - So 90hz sine wave;

- I'll usually mute the second half of it, so I've got a 90hz sine wave, then half a second of quiet;

- Go into Pitch Bend and get experimenting drawing pitch curves - You want to go from +12 semitones to -12, and draw a kind of sharp attack envelope/curve... You can spend all day here, there's a million different sounds you can get, from subby 808 bass drums (almost indistinguishable from the real thing!) to zappy Trance bass drums to realistic sounding thuds;

- Last stage is to apply an Envelope and design the dynamics...