808 Bass

Sampled 808 in Simpler with Glide

The most common way: a single clean 808 sample, retuned, played mono with glide. The sample’s own decay does the envelope work; your job is tuning, note lengths and the processing after.

1. Drag a clean, long (1–2 s) 808 sample onto Simpler. Mode Classic. Warp off; warping a sub adds grain.
2. Find the root. Put Tuner after Simpler, play the sample, read the note in the tail. Set Transpose and Detune until a played C0 reads C0. Most 808 samples are recorded somewhere between A-1 and F0 (27.5–43.7 Hz) and need both coarse and fine adjustment.
3. Voices 1. Glide on, time 50–100 ms. In the clip, overlap the previous note into the next by a 32nd or more to trigger the slide.
4. Amp envelope: A 0, D 0, S 100%, R 150–400 ms. Release is what you hear when a note ends before the sample does; longer release = looser tail.
5. Filter: off, or LP 24 at 3 kHz if the sample has a harsh click.
6. Saturator Soft Sine 3–5 dB, EQ Eight high-pass 28 Hz, low-pass 1.5–2 kHz, Utility Bass Mono.

Synthesized 808 in Operator

Building it yourself gives you independent control of pitch drop, decay, harmonic content and glide, and it tracks pitch perfectly across the whole range with no sample stretching artefacts.

1. Operator. Osc A Sine, level 0 dB. Algorithm with B modulating A. Osc B Sine, Coarse 1, Level −30 dB (a touch of FM for the 2nd harmonic; raise for grit).
2. Osc A envelope: A 0, D 1200 ms, S −inf, R 300 ms. Decay is your tail. Set the envelope slope to exponential-ish if the shape control is available, so it decays fast then lingers.
3. Osc B envelope: A 0, D 200 ms, S −30 dB. The FM is strongest at the attack, then settles to a faint harmonic.
4. Pitch envelope: Initial +12 to +16 st, decay 50–80 ms to 0. This is the 808’s characteristic soft "boo" drop; faster and higher is a kick, not an 808.
5. Voices 1, Retrigger off (legato), Glide on at 60–100 ms. Pitch bend range 12 if you use pitch bend for slides.
6. Saturator Analog Clip 5–8 dB. EQ Eight low-pass at 1.5–2 kHz. Utility mono.

Variations: Add Osc C Square at Coarse 1, −36 dB, through the same amp envelope for an "808 with teeth" (phonk); turn on Operator’s LFO to pitch at 5 Hz, tiny amount, for the wobbly Memphis tail.

Drift 808 (envelope to pitch, filter drive)

Drift has glide, legato and a drive-equipped filter built in, so a full 808 with slides takes one device and no extra saturation.

1. Drift. Osc 1 Sine (or Shark Tooth for built-in harmonics). Osc 2 off, Noise 0.
2. Envelope 1 (amp): A 0, D 1500 ms, S 0, R 250 ms.
3. Envelope 2: A 0, D 60 ms, S 0. Mod matrix: Env 2 → Pitch +12 st.
4. Filter MS2 low-pass, cutoff 300–500 Hz, resonance 10%, Drive 40–60%. The drive is the saturation; higher drive = more harmonics in the tail.
5. Voice: Mono, Legato on, Glide 60–100 ms. Drift amount 0.
6. Mod matrix extra: Velocity → Filter cutoff +20% so harder hits are brighter.

Analog 808 with sub-octave and noise click

Analog’s two-oscillator layout lets you build the 808 with a clean sine fundamental and a separate "knock" oscillator with its own envelope and filter, plus a noise click, all in one patch.

1. Osc 1: Sine, Octave −1, pitch env +12 st at 60 ms. Routed to Filter 1 (LP 24, 500 Hz, drive on). Amp 1: A 0, D 1400 ms, S 0, R 200 ms.
2. Osc 2: Square, Octave 0 (one octave above Osc 1), Level −18 dB, same pitch env. Routed to Filter 2 (LP 12, 800 Hz). Amp 2: A 0, D 120 ms, S 0. This is the knock; it dies before the tail.
3. Noise: level −24 dB, routed to Filter 2, with a dedicated short decay via Amp 2. It adds the pulse click of the original.
4. Mono, Legato on, Glide 70 ms.
5. Roar after it, Soft Sine 6 dB, post low-pass 1.5 kHz, to glue the two oscillators into one harmonic series.

Distortion for presence (Saturator, Roar, Overdrive, Amp)

A clean 808 is inaudible on a phone. Distortion generates harmonics of the fundamental so the note reads even when the fundamental is gone. The choice of distortion changes the character more than anything else in the chain.

1. Always high-pass at 25–30 Hz before any distortion; DC and infra make clippers asymmetric.
2. Pick one main distortion from the table. Roar Multiband is the default for modern trap: fundamental untouched, harmonics generated above 120 Hz.
3. Low-pass after the distortion at 1.5–2.5 kHz. The harmonics above that are fizz and they mask the hats.
4. Cut 3 dB at 300–500 Hz if the 808 gets boxy; distortion emphasises this region.
5. Gain-stage: Utility after the distortion so the peak level matches the pre-distortion level, then decide on the clipper (below).

See saturation and distortion and Roar and saturation.

Clipping to lock the level

A modern 808 is clipped, not compressed. Clipping flattens the peaks so every note hits the same level and the fundamental stays loud for the whole tail, which is why trap 808s sound so consistent.

1. After all distortion and EQ, add Utility and raise Gain so the 808 peaks 3–8 dB over 0 dBFS internally (Live is 32-bit float; nothing clips until the clipper).
2. Saturator in Digital Clip (or Hard Curve with Soft Clip off), Drive 0. The ceiling is at 0 dB; everything above is cut flat. Watch the output: the attack is flattened, the tail is barely touched.
3. Utility after, Gain −3 to −8 dB, to bring the clipped result back to the level you want in the mix.
4. Limiter at the end, ceiling −1 dB, only as insurance. If the limiter is working, the clipper is set too low.
5. Compare with A/B (12.3): the clipped version should sound louder and more even with the same peak level.

808 + kick layering and sidechain

The 808 provides the sub; a short punch kick on the same hits provides the transient. They must not share the sub band, and the punch kick must not have a tail that beats against the 808 note.

1. Punch kick: a short 909-ish or acoustic kick in Drum Sampler, Decay 60–120 ms, Pitch tuned to the key, high-passed at 50–70 Hz with 24 dB/oct. It carries the click and the 80–200 Hz knock only.
2. Place the punch kick on every 808 note-on where you want a hit. Not every 808 note needs a kick; slides into a note usually do not.
3. Compressor on the 808 with sidechain from the punch kick: Ratio 6:1, Attack 0.3–1 ms, Release 40–80 ms, 3–5 dB of gain reduction. The 808 dips for the kick’s transient and recovers before the 808’s own attack is over.
4. Alternative: no sidechain, and instead trim the 808 sample start by 5 ms with a 3 ms fade-in so its own click is gone and the punch kick owns the attack.
5. Bus both into a Bass group with Glue Compressor 2:1, 10 ms, Auto release, 1–2 dB, then Utility Bass Mono.

Pitch slides: Simpler Glide, legato, Pitch Hack and Glissando

The slide is the 808’s signature phrase. There are four ways to get one, with different feels: portamento (smooth), legato retrigger-free, stepped (Pitch Hack), and drawn pitch bend (Glissando MIDI tool).

1. Portamento: Simpler/Operator/Drift Glide on, Voices 1, overlapping notes. Slide time is fixed regardless of interval. Trap standard.
2. Legato without glide: Voices 1, Retrigger off, Glide 0. The pitch jumps without restarting the envelope, so the tail continues on the new note. Drill likes this for octave jumps.
3. Pitch Hack stepped slide: Pitch Hack after the synth, Pitch amount automated in a step curve (0 → +5 → +7 st over an 8th). Grainy, obviously digital, deliberately rough. Also useful for a reversed grain tail (Reverse 50%).
4. Glissando (12.1 MIDI tool): apply to the clip; it writes pitch-bend ramps between consecutive notes with a chosen curve and length. Set the instrument’s pitch bend range to 12 (or 24 for big drill drops). You get per-slide control of time and shape that Glide cannot do.
5. For a slide down an octave at the end of a phrase (the drill "drop"), write the target note one octave lower, overlap by a 16th, Glide 120 ms. Or Glissando with a long ramp.

Trap, drill and phonk patterns

808 lines are rhythmic first, melodic second. Trap sits on the 1 and syncopates late in the bar; drill uses off-beat slides and the characteristic 3-3-2 on the snare bar; phonk rides a steady bounce with cowbell melodies above.

1. Write the 808 as rhythm first on one note. Then move notes to the root, fifth and minor third of the chord, keeping most on the root.
2. Slides: pick one or two per 4 bars. More becomes a cliché. Drill slides tend to go up a fifth or down an octave; trap slides go up a whole tone or a fourth.
3. Live 12 Rhythm generator: density 30%, accent on beat 1, generates 808 skeletons; Seed with a 1-note range gives rhythmic variations you then pitch by hand.
4. Note lengths: trap tails usually extend until the next note (legato), drill notes are shorter (an 8th) with a quick release so the tail is tight and the slide-free notes punch.
5. Phonk: long 808 notes, sometimes a full bar, with the cowbell melody (see below) doing the movement. Tails are allowed to overlap slightly with a long release for the smeary Memphis feel.

Genre context in trap, drill, phonk, and the full build in the trap track deconstruction.

Mono fundamental, stereo harmonics only

A wide 808 sounds huge on headphones and collapses in mono. The trick is to widen only what is above 150 Hz, where phase differences are harmless, and leave the sub dead centre.

1. Audio Effect Rack with two chains after the 808 processing. Chain "Sub": EQ Eight low-pass 24 dB at 150 Hz, Utility Width 0%.
2. Chain "Harmonics": EQ Eight high-pass 24 dB at 150 Hz (same slope, same frequency, so they sum flat), then Chorus-Ensemble in Ensemble mode with a slow rate and a modest amount, or a Phaser-Flanger in Phaser mode at 0.1 Hz for subtler motion.
3. Utility on the Harmonics chain: Width 110–140%. Not more; above that mono compatibility suffers even in the mids.
4. Rack output: Utility Bass Mono at 120 Hz as a safety net.
5. Mono-check. The 808 should be identical in level in mono and stereo; only the "air" around the harmonics should change.

More in mid/side and stereo.

Note-length and release tricks

The difference between a sloppy 808 and a tight one is almost entirely where notes end. You can control this in the clip, with the Note Length MIDI effect, or with a Gate on the audio.

1. Clip-level: make every 808 note end exactly where the next begins (legato) or one 16th before the next kick. Live 12’s Quantize transformation with note-end quantize on cleans this up.
2. Note Length MIDI effect: Sync mode, length 1/8 or 1/8 dotted, Gate 100%. Every note becomes the same length regardless of how it was played. Drill tightness in one device. With Trigger set to Note Off and a short length, it can also fire a tail only when a note ends (a cheap "ghost note" trick).
3. Release as the shape: Simpler Release 60 ms for staccato drill, 200 ms for trap, 600+ ms for phonk smears. Release is the fade that happens after the note ends, so a long release with short notes gives you overlapping tails without legato.
4. Gate on audio: Gate after the 808 with a sidechain from a separate "duck" MIDI track, or just with a slow release; this hard-cuts tails at fixed points for the stuttered-808 effect in some drill.
5. Choke on the kick: put the 808 and the punch kick in the same Drum Rack choke group and every new kick cuts the previous 808 instantly. Harsh but very tight.

The "808 cowbell" and phonk variants

The TR-808 cowbell is two square waves a tritone-ish apart through a band-pass; phonk uses it as the melodic hook over the bass. Not strictly an 808 bass topic, but inseparable from the genre. Alongside, the "phonk 808" is the standard 808 with more distortion, a longer tail and a lo-fi coat.

1. Operator, an additive algorithm (all four oscillators in parallel). Osc A Square, Osc B Square, Fine detuned so the two sit roughly 540 Hz and 800 Hz when playing the root (the original cowbell frequencies). In practice: A at Coarse 1, B at Coarse 1 with Fine around 48, then tune the note to taste. Both envelopes: A 0, D 150–250 ms, S −inf.
2. Operator filter: band-pass, around 800 Hz, resonance 25–35%. Only the clang survives.
3. Play it as a melody, typically a minor pentatonic, with the 808 bass on the root below.
4. Phonk 808 bass: the Simpler recipe, Saturator Hard Curve 12 dB, release 500 ms, then Redux at 12-bit and Vinyl Distortion on the whole beat bus for the cassette feel.
5. Memphis-style pitch wobble: Operator LFO to pitch, rate 4–6 Hz, amount tiny, only on the cowbell.