Dubstepforum.com

Trying my hand at some 808 bass stuff. I've got an 808 that I'm pretty happy with, but I want to layer another mid range kick drum to give it more presence in the mix.

Here is an example of what i'm sort of trying to get at:

Soundcloud

Notice there is an 808, which is entirely the sub, probably cut between 80 and 100

But the kick on top of it. It's wide, and boomy. That's what i'm having trouble with. I've tried many samples to do this, adding short delays to give it the width, but I'm having problems with the reverb on. To me, that kick sounds like it's got a bunch of reverb on it making it sound big and dark, yet still clean in the mix.

Any tips? Mine keeps sounds flimsy and muddy with the reverb, same issue you'd get by adding reverb to a kick in general, that sort of flappy sound.

One thing that helped me layer drums was when i stopped dropping the samples directly into the arrange, but when I dropped them into individual samplers instead. Gives you a lot more control with envelopes to only use the part of each layer that compliments the sound best. Like just getting an attack on an 808 for example

If you want a big 808 to be a primary element in a tune I feel like its not about layering but rather arrangement and mixing. If you insist on reverb do it on a send am eq carefully!

Undrig wrote:One thing that helped me layer drums was when i stopped dropping the samples directly into the arrange, but when I dropped them into individual samplers instead. Gives you a lot more control with envelopes to only use the part of each layer that compliments the sound best. Like just getting an attack on an 808 for example

The 808 (sub) is a massive patch in midi, and the drum sample is on a drum rack, so yea they're on a sampler, but I'm not sure what freedom that gives me, I find a lot of options outside of transpose in any of abletons samples rather useless. if you could give me an example of how abletons samples could help me thatd be great

I've never just dropped drums onto arrangement, feels sloppy to me.

fragments wrote:If you want a big 808 to be a primary element in a tune I feel like its not about layering but rather arrangement and mixing. If you insist on reverb do it on a send am eq carefully!

Well, the 808 is the only things in the entire mix doing anything below 100, so thats mixed about as cleaning as it can be. and the kick that is more mid range, is cut at 100ish also, so once again, cant be mixed much cleaner than that. would setting up a reverb on a send have a distinctly different effect on the kick than having it on the drum rack?

You can buy layering at most out of town retail centres. Carpet Right does some good deals.

Put the reverb on a send so you can gain stage and eq it independently! I think putting a the reverb on the kick channel is why it sounds muddy...think of all that low end reverb muddying things up...