How to Mix 808s: Essential Basics and Tips from Top Producers

Eight leading producers, mixers and DJs share their tips on how to get the most punch, clarity and low-end impact out of your 808 drums and bass lines.

808 samples are a staple of modern production, used in everything from hip hop to electronic music production to contemporary metal. But they can also be a challenge to mix, often competing with other elements such as your kick and bass, and if not well-chosen or well-processed they can easily muddy up a mix.

We’ve asked eight top producers and mixers how they deal with challenging 808s, especially when working with source material where they did not choose their own 808 samples. Here are their tips and techniques – from adding distortion, to sidechain compression, to shaping your 808 harmonics and transients.

What Is an 808?

The true meaning of “808” is derived from the Roland TR-808. It’s a classic drum machine that has spawned classic sounds and genres that live on today. However, in today’s producer slang, the term "808" refers to the iconic sound of the 808 kick drum, which is used both as a percussive kick and for melodic basslines. It’s a highly recognizable sound that is commonly used in modern hip-hop, trap, and pop music.

Thanks to its clean, warm, and mostly sinusoidal waveform, the 808 kick drum sound lends itself well to being saturated, tuned, and processed with effects, creating booming, resonant basslines that can hold down a tune on their own.

When mixing an 808 sound, you can think of the sound as being split into three distinct elements:

• The Transient (Knock) - The initial percussive tone, typically a click or thud, that creates the early tactile impact of the drum.
• The Body (Tone) - A fundamental, tuned frequency that provides the pitch/note of the kick when used as a bassline.
• The Decay (Tail) - A long, sustaining sub tone that fills out the bass and brings energy.

What a Finished 808 Should Sound Like

If you want to Mix Your 808s Like A Pro, you need to understand how they should sound.

Ultimately, a finished 808 sound should sound right for the specific track - it should be noticeable without overpowering other elements.

When it comes to how loud an 808 should be in a mix - for starters, it needs to fill your chest. 808 kicks and basses need to be sub-heavy, with weight and a good amount of low-end presence, typically in the 30-60Hz range.

That said, you also need to pay attention to the mid-range, as this is where a lot of the melodic/harmonic feeling comes from. It should be tonally sculpted so that all the other elements sit on top of it, but it still cuts through and has its own voice.

Between 200-500Hz is an important range for projecting the upper harmonics and carrying the melody. This is particularly important when listeners aren’t listening on low-frequency compatible speakers or phones.

Volume consistency is important too. Use compression to keep the volume balance between each note tight.

Besides these technical mixing areas, ultimately, the tone of your 808 just needs to sound right for the vibe of the track, which can’t always be described in words and comes from critical listening.

Essential Steps for How to Mix 808s

Mixing low-end sounds like 808s is a game of compromise and balance.

Because there are limited frequencies in the low-end, sounds take up more space, and you need to be more precise when sculpting and carving out sounds compared to the upper frequency range.

Follow these steps to maximize the impact of your 808 while retaining a natural balance with your other layers:

1. Sound Selection and Pitch Tuning

A classic mistake in 808 mixing is trying to fix a bad sample instead of swapping it out. If the core 808 sound is thin, weak, or low-quality, mixing will only make issues more noticeable rather than correcting them.

Tools like the 808 Toolkit by Damien Lewis make it easy to quickly dial in a sound that works using raw 808 samples.

When you’ve got a good core sound, make sure it’s tuned correctly. If it’s just used as a kick without pitch modulation (like a bassline), use a tuner or EQ to check that the fundamental frequency tone of the kick is in tune with the key of your song.

You must be precise with tuning when it comes to mixing bass and 808 sounds. If the kick is a few cents out, it can create beating against melodic layers. If it’s a note that’s out of key, it’s going to sound clashy and incohesive.

2. Surgical EQ Sculpting

Due to the limited space of the low-end, you have to be very accurate with frequency carving to make sure that everything has its space for impact.

Load up a precise dynamic EQ like the F6 Floating-Band Dynamic EQ.

• Sub-Sonic Cut - Apply a high-pass filter to cut everything below 20-25Hz. This is below the human hearing range, but speakers and processors still have to work to produce it. Removing it creates more headroom for processors to work with.
• Carving the Kick - If you have a sustaining 808 bassline, you need to make room for the punch of a kick drum. Find the kick’s fundamental frequency (usually 60-100Hz), and make a side-chained dip in the bassline, so that space is made for the kick in the bassline.

It’s all about making room in the bass for the kick, and vice versa.

3. Saturation and Harmonic Enhancement

Distortion, saturation, and other harmonic processing serve multiple purposes for an 808. Not only can it add grunge and excitement, but it also helps for translation on speakers with limited low-range reproduction, which is very common on commercial speakers and phones.

• Saturation tools like Berzerk Distortion to add grit to the mid-range and fatten up the subs.
• Subharmonic exciters like Renaissance Bass add psychoacoustic harmonics to enhance the low-end, making them sound deeper and more present without increasing headroom-eating sub-bass energy.

Even a subtle amount of saturation can bring some extra thickness to your 808 bass while still keeping it clean - it doesn’t always have to get nasty!

4. Sidechaining for Duck and Motion

For a satisfying glue, sidechain compression makes kick drums pop through the basslines, creating a grooving pump effect and making room for the kick’s impact. This is very important when it comes to how to mix a kick and an 808 bassline.

• Load a sidechain-compatible compressor onto your 808 bassline track - the H-Comp Hybrid Compressor is a good example.
• Set the sidechain input as your kick drum channel.
• Lower the threshold until you hear the compressor start to duck the bassline. Dial in your desired amount of pump using the ratio and threshold, then tweak the attack and release to adjust the speed.

Sidechain pumping is one of the most important processes to allow your kick and 808 bassline to dance around each other.

5. Dynamic Control and Tail Management

808s can have varying volume and pitch across different notes depending on the sampling technique you’re using. This can create inconsistencies in your groove - when you really want your bassline to have a more stable energy.

Unmanaged tails can cause cluttered overlaps, and volume mismatch ruins the groove. This can be managed by automating the ADSR and gain of your sampler, or by using a slow leveling compressor like the CLA-2A.

Tips from Top Producers and Mixers

Lu Diaz
Mixing Engineer & Producer
(DJ Khaled, Pitbull, Daddy Yankee)

There are various ways to get your 808s sounding big and powerful. I have found in my experience that 808s vary in character almost as much as vocals. I know, I know – you're saying, how is that possible? But if you have a high workload, you will come across all types of 808s, from a simple, clean, beautiful sine wave, to an 808 sampled from an mp3 that was time stretched and processed to sleep.

So, the tools I use depend on which 808s I get. In the case of starting with a nice, clean sine, it may be as simple as inserting a Waves SSL E-Channel or G-Channel and simply boosting a little 40 Hz and maybe a bit of compression. But when an 808 is in bad shape I need to use several plugs. When it lacks in sub power and just sounds flat, I’ll use Vitamin or Renaissance Bass to bring the low frequencies up to a level that feels right. When the 808 lacks in top-end attack and is too round with too little definition, I’ll use Smack Attack to shape the initial transients and sometimes even exaggerate the tails.

Remember that compression is your best friend when it comes to 808s. Some of the compressors I go to are the CLA-2A, the Renaissance Compressor and sometimes the dynamic section of the SSL E-Channel.

But I would be remiss if I didn’t share my most important piece of advice: After you’ve spent the time crafting the perfect 808, you will realize that the moment you add a kick into the mix, everything changes. If your mix has a kick and an 808 that play together, always keep in mind while working on the 808 that you need to consider its relationship to the kick. I have found that one of the biggest challenges is in blending those two elements together. Sidechain compression and multiband compression will play a big role. A C6 multiband compressor can help you dip a frequency in your 808 to make room for the kick. In some cases, just rolling off the low end on the kick at around 80 Hz with a Q10 or an eMo Q4 can leave plenty of room for your 808 to sound big.

In any case, practice, practice, practice. Over time you will develop your own ways to arrive at the same place we are all trying to get to.

Dave Darlington
Recording, Mixing & Mastering Engineer
(Avicii, David Guetta, Sting)

Often in contemporary R&B and especially trap music, the bass line is created by tuning an 808 kick across the keyboard and playing a melodic pattern. This 808 bass line becomes the foundation of the whole track and must remain HUGE in the mix.

But when applying a single-band mastering limiter to get the final level up to commercial standards, the 808 bass can get crushed and often sound floppy and distorted.

My solution is to use the L3-16 Multimaximizer multiband limiter and increase the ‘priority’ setting on the low-frequency band.

This enables the 808 bass to rumble through, all the way down to the sub frequencies, while bringing up the track level by shifting the limiting to other frequencies.

Here’s what my settings might look like for mastering a song with an 808 bass line:

Here’s my normal process for processing 808s:

1. First, make sure you’re using the right sound to begin with! One recommendation I have is the 808 Warfare for Kontakt.
2. I normally get rid of any high frequencies I don't need using an EQ plugin – normally from 500 Hz upwards. I will also sometimes get rid of some of the very low frequencies, 0-25 Hz, if I don’t intend to use them.
3. Quite often I will boost the lower mids using Renaissance Bass. This allows me to give a precise boost in whatever area I want to feel the 808s most.
4. Normally I will put 808s in mono.
5. Lastly, I usually sidechain the 808 to the kick drum.

Focus…
Producer
(Dr. Dre, Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar, Eminem)

It's funny – with all of the hip hop I have produced, I was never a huge fan of 808s until just recently. I used to use them instead of bass lines for a while, but then I started to figure out how to combine them with the bass lines. I had to learn that the sub frequency of the 808 has a literal place where it needs to exist in conjunction with my existing bass lines.

I now use sub 808s to round out my mixes, and I always push them through the Renaissance Bass: I just dial through the frequencies until I find the right feeling.

Morgan Page
DJ, Producer & Remixer
(Madonna, Katy Perry, Tegan & Sara)

For big bass-heavy drums, it’s all about space and contrast. Try sidechaining the long sustained bass hit to a separate punchy top kick, so the low end has a slow attack. This space allows the punch of the beater to cut through, before the tail of the bass rings out.

Chris Rakestraw
Producer & Mixing Engineer
(Megadeth, Deftones, Danzig)

Mixing 808s can be tricky. I get mix projects from all over, and never know what sort of recorded 808 I will be working with.

The weird thing that most people probably don’t think about when they are listening, is how much character an 808 can have. You have pitch, pitch travel (sub drop style), attack, sustain, and release. I find that the two parameters I need to adjust most often are the attack and the sustain, unless the pitch of the 808 directly offends other notes in the key, which happens sometimes: in that case, I’ll transpose whatever is happening in the section and fly in an 808 that doesn’t bend your ear all out of whack.

To adjust the attack and release, I will often use the Smack Attack transient shaper, which is the first plugin I’ve found that really does the job. Some of the problematic 808s that I get are too ‘ticky’ or ‘clicky’ on the front end. In the past, I’d sometimes go as far as to edit the envelope manually with fades and automation, which was tedious and just not rewarding. With Smack Attack I can address the attack extremely quickly and musically with one knob.

Tweaking the release is sort of genre-specific. In heavy music there are different approaches for each subgenre. In a more traditional rock/metal track you might choose not to put the largest 808, or maybe just use it low in the mix for weight. In other genres, the 808 will be a very loud and proud sound, where you might have it right up in the mix and more than one in a song. So it’s important to have an idea of the genre you are working on to make an informed mix decision.

How you set the sustain of your 808s is always going to be relative to how present the 808s are in your mix. The main thing with setting the sustain is the tempo of the song, and which part of the song it is. If it’s the giant drop after a buildup in the bridge, you can bet I’m gonna make that thing long and huge. A conservative 808 would be a count of Boom, 2,3,4, out…, whereas a long one could be Booooommm 2, 3, 4, 2, 2, 3, 4. It’s all relative to taste and the content, but hopefully you get the idea.

Here’s my Rakestraw 808 Fixer preset that I worked up after messing with Smack Attack for a while.

One last tip: Probably one of the most important things about mixing 808s in heavy music is having an adjustable high-pass filter sidechain working your mix buss compressor. In the past, and you can hear this sometimes in mixes, when an 808 dropped, the whole mix would suck in a little bit. By using a high-pass filter in the sidechain of my mix buss compressor, I can prevent those 808s from collapsing my mix for their duration.

Mark Ralph
Producer, Songwriter, Mixer
(Clean Bandit, Years & Years, Jax Jones, TIEKS)

Here are my presets and tips for mixing 808. Click here to download all the presets.

808 Chunky Sub Bass – PuigTec MEQ-5
Provides some clarity in your chunky sub bass lines.

808 Hat Softener – PuigTec EQP-1A
The old boost-and-cut trick – but only on the top end, which does wonders for more laid-back electronic tracks.

808 Thick Kick – PuigTec EQP-1A
Adds a good chunk of bass, and a dash of top end to help lifeless kicks.

808 Suuuub Kick – PuigTec EQP-1A
Boosts the low and cuts the top for when your 808 kick needs to shake your bones and nothing else.

808 Kick Intensifier – Renaissance Bass
I use this when I’ve been sent an 808 kick that needs some love. Tweak the frequency to match your track for best results.

808 Dirty Clap Spreader – CLA Effects
Gets your claps sounding a little more lo-fi and spreads them out from the center of your mix, giving you more room for vocals and lead lines.

808 Bass Punch – CLA-2A
Adds a bucket load of front to 808 bass lines in need of some encouragement.

808 Snare Comp – CLA-76
Similar to my ‘808 Bass Punch’ preset for CLA-2A, but for electronic snares: This will give you a snappier, fuller-sounding 808.

808 Hat Improver – Maserati GRP
Brightens up your 808 hi-hats to really help them poke out in the mix.

808 Kick Tops – SSL E-Channel
I often get sent projects to mix with multiple kick drums, some covering the bottom end, and some covering the top. This preset helps tidy up the ‘toppy’ ones and accentuate everything I need for them to do the job in the mix.

808 Toight Snare – SSL E-Channel
This one mimics what I do on my SSL during a mix: There’s some top end added for clarity, while scooping out some of the lows, plus a snappy gate and a touch of compression help keep things sounding nice and tight.

808 Mixing Challenges to Watch For

Mixing 808s presents a couple of easily overlooked challenges that can make your mixes sound weak if left unaddressed.

Phase Alignment must be correct to ensure that the bass is as powerful as possible and doesn’t have any cancellation issues. Use phase monitoring and management tools like InPhase to keep your bass clean.

If you’re mixing multiple layers for your bass (like an 808, sub-synth), you need to be careful with how the frequencies are layered in addition to phase. Make sure the EQs are set so that neither occupies the other’s space.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

How Loud Should 808 Be in a Mix?

It depends on the purpose of the 808 in the track, but often an 808 bassline is a very central element, and can even be the only layer besides drums and vocals.

A good starting point for how loud an 808 should be in a mix is to have it leveled just below the peaks of your kick drum. This gives it a nice weight, but also allows the kick to have impact. The 808 should always feel present in a track and never fade into the background.

Can 808s Work in Acoustic or Non-Electronic Genres?

808s can work in acoustic and non-electronic genres. There aren’t any real rules when it comes to where you can and can’t use an 808; you hear them all over the place these days.

When filtered to just the lower end, they add some subtle weight to any style of music and layer in some subs that aren’t found in acoustic recordings.

Can I Layer Multiple 808 Sounds?

Layering 808 sounds is a common practice, but you need to be careful that they aren’t clashing, out of phase, or creating frequency buildup. Typically, they are stacked in a way so one is more sub/low-end focused, while the other is centered around the mid-range for more of a melodic presence using high-pass filters.

Should 808s be Mono or Stereo?

As a rule of thumb, all bass frequencies below around 120Hz should be in mono. Stereo basslines can cause noticeable phase issues on club systems, which can create hollow mixes lacking in sub. You can still have the mid and high frequency regions of your 808 in stereo, but you need to use a plugin like Vitamin Sonic Enhancer for proper mid/side frequency management.

Do 808s Need Compression?

Generally, 808s need compression to keep them more consistent - particularly if they’re being used as a melodic bassline. When mixing 808, a compressor around 4:1 prevents notes from popping out and creates a consistent and energetic sustain.

Start Mixing 808s Like a Pro!

Despite seeming like a blunt, simple instrument, there is a lot of nuance and finesse when it comes to mixing an 808. You need to focus on volume, saturation, envelope, and frequency, while managing each element of the 808 - the transient, body, and tail.

Listen to the way 808s are mixed in your favorite tracks for inspiration, and aim for a sound that is powerful and clear. Using secret tools like Berzerk Distortion for saturation, Renaissance Bass for sub enhancement, and Vitamin Sonic Enhancer for high and mid management will keep your 808s heavy but controlled.

Got 808 tips of your own? Share them below in the comments!

Originally published on August 08, 2017