Trap

The 808: tuned, long, saturated, glided

The defining sound. A sine-based bass with a pitch-drop transient, a long decay (a full beat or more), saturation so the harmonics carry the note on a phone speaker, and glide between notes for the slides. It plays the melody of the low end: usually one note per kick, with slides on the pickups.

1. Operator, algorithm B→A. Osc A sine 0 dB. Osc B sine, Coarse 2, level −18 dB: a controlled 2nd harmonic (you will add more with distortion). Voices: Mono; Glide on, 60–120 ms, Legato on so overlapping notes slide and separate notes retrigger.
2. Pitch envelope: Initial +12 to +24 st, Decay 20–40 ms, back to 0. This is the "knock" at the start of an 808; shorter = tighter.
3. Amp envelope: Attack 0, Decay 1.2–2.5 s, Sustain 0, Release 100 ms. At 140 BPM a beat is 429 ms, so a 1.5 s decay rings across three beats — normal for trap. Note length controls the actual duration; draw notes to the next 808 hit.
4. Saturator (12.1) Analog Clip, Drive 6–10 dB, Soft Clip on. Then EQ Eight: HP 25 Hz, +2 dB at the fundamental, −3 dB at 400 Hz to tame the clip's upper harmonics.
5. Roar for the "distorted 808" character: Single stage, Soft Sine or Diode, Drive 4–8 dB, post low-pass 250–350 Hz, Dry/Wet 30–50%. Parallel-ish grit without losing the sine. For aggressive southern/rage 808s, set routing to Multiband and drive only the 80–300 Hz band.
6. Compressor sidechained from the kick: ratio 8:1, attack 0.1 ms, release 40–80 ms, threshold for 6–10 dB GR. The 808 ducks for the kick transient then returns immediately — this is why trap kicks "punch through" a sustaining 808.
7. Utility: Mono, Bass Mono on. Nothing on the 808 is ever wide.

Variations: Drum Sampler (12.1) on a sampled 808: Pitch to the root, Decay long, Sub effect +30%, Bitcrush effect 10% for grit — fast but no glide. Simpler on a sampled 808 in Classic mode with Glide on and Mono: the classic sampled-808 workflow with slides. Drift Sine with Osc 2 Shark Tooth −30 dB and MS2 filter drive 30%: warmer, more analog-808.

The kick: short punch that cuts through the 808

Trap kicks are short and mid-forward: a click and a 100–150 Hz body that lasts under 100 ms. The 808 provides the low end, so the kick is almost all transient — its job is to mark the 808's attack.

1. Drum Sampler on a punchy, short kick. Decay 70–110 ms. Punch 50–70%. No Sub effect — the 808 covers that.
2. EQ Eight HP 50 Hz (yes, high for a kick: everything below is the 808's), +3 dB at 100–140 Hz for the body "knock", +2 dB at 3 kHz for the click.
3. Drum Buss Transients +20–30% and Drive 15–25% (Soft) for aggression; Boom stays at 0.
4. Compressor 6:1, 1 ms attack, 30 ms release, 3–5 dB GR: this flattens the kick into a consistent "tick" that triggers the 808 sidechain cleanly.
5. Operator alternative: Osc A sine, pitch env +36 st 15 ms, amp decay 80 ms; Osc B Noise at −20 dB with 5 ms decay for the click; Saturator Hard Curve 6 dB.

Snare and clap: the crack on the 3

The trap snare is a layered event: a tight acoustic or 808-style snare for the crack, a clap for width, often a rim or a "snap" for the transient, with a short bright reverb. It lands on the 3 (beat 3 of the written 4/4, i.e. the half-time backbeat) and is the loudest transient in the mix.

1. Drum Rack pad with three Drum Sampler chains: a crisp snare (Decay 180 ms, Pitch 0), a clap (Decay 150 ms, −4 dB, Pitch +2 st), and a snap/rim (Decay 40 ms, −8 dB). Offset the clap by 3–6 ms (nudge the chain's sample start or use a tiny delay) for a flam-wide transient.
2. EQ Eight: HP 150 Hz, +3 dB at 200 Hz for body, +3 dB at 2.5 kHz for crack, +2 dB shelf at 8 kHz for the clap's sizzle.
3. Drum Buss Transients +20–40%, Crunch 5–15% for the "mp3 snare" edge. Compressor 4:1, 5 ms attack so the transient stays, 60 ms release.
4. Hybrid Reverb Quartz or a short plate, 1–1.5 s, HP 400 Hz in the reverb's EQ, 15–25% send. The tail is bright and short — long tails blur the half-time pocket.
5. Program on beat 3 (step 9 of 16 at the written tempo). Add a ghost snare or a second clap on the "a" of 4 every 2 bars, and a snare roll (1/32, 4–8 hits, rising velocity) into the drop.

Hi-hats: 8ths, 16ths, triplets and rolls

The hat pattern is the rhythmic identity of trap. A closed 808-style hat alternates between straight 8ths, 16ths, triplet (1/8T, 1/16T) runs and 32nd rolls, with velocity ramps and pitch changes on the rolls. Programmed at the double tempo so 32nds are a reasonable grid.

1. Drum Sampler on an 808-style closed hat (short, metallic). Decay 40–60 ms. Map velocity to Decay a little so quiet hits are shorter.
2. Base pattern: 8ths for the first beat, 16ths for the second, back to 8ths, then a triplet or 32nd run into beat 1 of the next bar. Vary per bar; never repeat the exact roll placement two bars in a row.
3. Rolls: select 4–8 hits on a 1/32 grid (or 1/16T for triplet rolls), draw a velocity ramp 40 → 110 with the Velocity Shaper transformation; add Pitch automation +2 to +7 st across the roll (Drum Sampler Pitch or the Pitch MIDI tool) for the rising "zip".
4. Open hat: on the "and" of 2 and the "and" of 4 (half-time off-beats), Decay 250 ms, choked by the closed hat. Occasional open hat on an odd 16th for a stumble.
5. EQ Eight HP 3 kHz (hats need nothing below), +2 dB at 10 kHz. Saturator for density. Auto Pan-Tremolo (12.3) in Auto Pan mode synced to 1/16 at 30–50% so the rolls bounce left-right. Fast compressor to keep the roll hits consistent.

Dark pluck / bell melody: the hook

The main melodic loop is 4 or 8 bars of a short, dark, reverbed sound — a pluck, a bell, a music-box, a detuned synth — playing a minor-key melody with the 808 following its roots. Simple notes, lots of space, long reverb.

1. Wavetable: Osc 1 Basics category, a pulse or triangle table, position 20%. Osc 2 same table −12 st at −8 dB for weight. Unison Classic 3 voices, amount 20%. Filter 1 LP 24 (Clean), cutoff 1.8 kHz, Env 1 → filter +40% with Decay 300 ms.
2. Amp env: A 1 ms, D 500 ms, S 0, R 400 ms. The pluck is the filter closing, not the amp.
3. Write an 8-bar melody in harmonic minor (raised 7th for the "Arabic/menacing" colour) in the C4–C6 range, mostly 8th and quarter notes with rests. Clip Scale set to the key; use Seed with Density low and Scale lock to generate, then prune.
4. Chorus 25% and Utility width 130% for stereo; Echo dotted-8th + quarter with filtered feedback for the trailing echoes; Hybrid Reverb Dark Hall 4–6 s at 30–40% — the reverb is part of the sound. HP 250 Hz keeps it out of the 808.
5. Level: 10–14 dB below the 808. The melody sits "behind" the drums in trap.

Variations: Collision Mallet + Beam resonator, decay 1.5 s, slight inharmonic ratio — the "bell/music box" trap sound; Operator with B→A, B sine ratio 3.5 at −12 dB fast decay — a metallic "DX bell"; Electric with hard mallet, high register, through Grain Delay pitch +12 at 30% — the "toy piano" sound. For the flute: Meld Reed engine or a sampled flute in Simpler with Auto Shift vibrato, Hybrid Reverb Shimmer.

Atmosphere pad and choir: the cinematic bed

Under the pluck sits a wide, dark pad or a choir "aah" — sometimes a reversed, granulated version of the melody — that makes the empty 150–400 Hz zone feel intentional rather than thin. Quiet, slow, and sidechained from the kick.

1. Wavetable: Osc 1 Formant category (vowel-ish table), position modulated by LFO 1 at 0.08 Hz; Osc 2 Basics saw −12 st at −10 dB. Unison Shimmer 5 voices, 30%. Filter LP 800–1000 Hz. Amp: A 1 s, S 1, R 2 s.
2. Play the chord tones of the melody's key (root, minor 3rd, 5th, sometimes the minor 6th) in the C3–C4 range, one chord per 2–4 bars.
3. Ensemble 35%, Hybrid Reverb Prism or Shimmer (+12 st at low mix) 5–8 s at 40–60%, Utility width 150%. HP 200 Hz and LP 5 kHz so it occupies only the middle.
4. Sidechain 4:1, 4–6 dB GR, 200 ms release — the pad breathes with the kick.
5. Choir alternative: Sampler with a choir "aah" multisample (or your own voice resampled across 5 pitches), filter LP 2 kHz, same effects. Granular alternative: resample 8 bars of the pluck melody, reverse it, Granulator III with Grain Size 200 ms, Spray 40%, pitch −12.

Vocal chops and ad-libs: pitched, chopped, drowned

Ad-libs ("yeah", "skrrt", "ay") panned wide with delay, and pitched vocal chops used as melodic layers or risers. The chop is short, formant-shifted, and lives in the reverb.

1. Simpler, Slice mode (Transient) on a vocal phrase you recorded. Play the slices as a melody from Push with the Scale MIDI tool after Simpler (or clip Scale) locking to the track key.
2. Auto Shift (12.1): key-locked hard pitch correction (100% strength, fast) for the "robotic" chop; Pitch +5 to +12 st for the chipmunk tone, formant shift −2 to −4 to keep it from going thin. Vibrato off.
3. Auto Filter HP 500 Hz, Echo ping-pong at 1/8 with 50% feedback for the bouncing trail, Hybrid Reverb long and wet, width 140%.
4. Ad-libs: a second Simpler (One-Shot) with short shouts, each panned differently via Utility, through the same Echo. Place one every 2–4 bars on the "and" of 4.
5. Vocal riser: a sustained "ah" chop pitched up 12 st over 2 bars using Simpler's pitch automation or Auto Shift's pitch parameter, into the drop.

Risers, reverse crashes and impacts: the transitions

Trap transitions are explicit: a 2-bar noise or vocal riser, a reversed crash into the 1, a sub-drop or impact on the 1, and a "hat roll into silence" before the drop. Unlike house, these are supposed to be heard.

1. Noise riser: Operator Osc A Noise, Filter BP res 30%, Filter envelope rising over 2 bars (set the clip note to 2 bars and the Filter env Attack to ~3.4 s at 140 BPM). Auto Filter HP sweeping up with automation; Hybrid Reverb Shimmer for the "ascending" feel. Fade out abruptly on the 1.
2. Reverse crash: a crash sample in Simpler, Reverse, length exactly 1 bar, ending on the 1. HP 500 Hz, Hybrid Reverb 30%.
3. Impact / sub drop: Operator sine with a pitch envelope from +24 st down to 0 over 800 ms, amp decay 1.5 s, Saturator 10 dB — the "boom" on the drop's first beat. Or a Drum Sampler kick with Sub effect 80% and Decay long.
4. The silence: delete all drums for the last half beat (or full beat) before the drop, leave the riser and reverse crash, and let the 808 of the drop hit alone. The gap is the transition.
5. Stutter: Beat Repeat on the melody bus, Grid 1/16 → 1/64 via Variation, Gate mode, automated on for the last bar before a section change.