kick drum/808 bass conflict

[Chris mack]

When it comes to the usage of 808 basses, I am starting to notice that people remove their predominant kick when the 808 plays. Does anybody have any tips to help avoid conflict between regular punchy kick drums and 808s?

[grooki]

Because they are both bass sounds, it is usually best to remove any overlap that they have in order to have a clear bottom end. As you said you could remove the predominant kick when the 808 plays. Alternatively you could eq out the upper frequencies of the 808 (say above 100hz or around there) and eq the lowers out of the kick, this way you'll get the character of the kick with the boom of the 808. Alternatively you could sidechain the 808 to the kick so that when the kick plays the 808 is reduced in volume, thereby removing conflicts.

[Pedro Sánchez]

909 kick + 808 bass = match made in Roland heaven.

[dubbyconqueror]

Kind of a combination of grooki's suggestions, but you could also side chain the 808 to the kick's eq in the lowest register (presumably where the overlap is, around sub 100hz) so when the 808 hits the lowest part of the kick drops out. This will make it so while they're playing independently you still get the full nature of the kick (and 808), while when they're playing together the 808 fills in the missing part of the kick, giving the impression of fullness. This is more complicated than the other suggestions and doesn't make a ton of difference, but its definitely something to look into as a general technique.

[ChadDub]

What I do with my 808s is I boost in the 100hz range so that they're a kick on their own. Or I make my own 808 by taking a sine wave and treating it like a normal sub except I have an envelope on the decay of the volume.

[Chris mack]

Sweet thanks fellas. I have experimented with most of these, but was just seeing what other peoples techniques were like. Cheers

[extremesociety]

For me I think it all comes down to timbre. An 808 sub-bass deal has a serous sound and you don't want to put anything down there that will muck it up, but if you want it to punch through layering a punchy short kick on top of it will sound great, I wind up then giving the punchy kick it's own space for some context.

[grooki]

Or I make my own 808 by taking a sine wave and treating it like a normal sub except I have an envelope on the decay of the volume.

For 808 sound you also need a pitch drop which is drastic in the attack and levels out in the tail.