How To Make 808 Sub Bass

Welcome to our guide to making 808 sub bass in Ableton Live using Ableton’s Operator synth for a huge punchy sub bass.

We cover all you need to know…

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The 808 Sub Bass

As everyone knows the tr808 was a drum machine with a really huge bassy kick that has been used in countless records from pop and house music through to hip-hop, trap and techno.

More recently with the rise of trap music people have used them as sub basses as well as kicks. And for this we normally synthesize our own so we can tweak them and extend them longer and have control over the pitch envelope.

On a basic level you want a sinewave or triangle wave pitched down low and use a pitch envelope with short decay to make the punch of the kick as it jumps in pitch. The 808 itself did not have a much control over the pitch envelope.

For sub basses we sometimes want it a bit longer and bit less punchy like a kick so making your own and tweaking them is key. You can also add more osculators and process it with distortion for a phatter sound.

Adding harmonics via distortion or FM or adding other waveforms is key to getting the sub to cut through and translate well on smaller systems as it adds higher frequencies. It also give the sound a lot more grunt!

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How To Make 808 Sub Bass in Ableton Live

Step 1: Set up a Sinewave in Operator

Set up Ableton Operator with one sine wave Oscillator. play a low note like C1 for example.

Step 2: Engage the pitch envelope for punchiness

Turn the pitch envelope to max

Step 3: Set the peak of the envelope

Set the pitch envelope peak to 12 semitones.
This is great as it is exactly and octave and will dive down to be in key an octave lower

Step 4: Adjust the pitch envelope ADSR settings

Cut the sustain and release to 0 or as low as they will go and set the decay to be less than 1 second. this will affect eh sound a lot as it is how quickly the pitch drops.
Tweak it until is sounds good.

Step 5: Set the synth to monophonic so the notes don’t overlap

In Operator you go to the routing tab and set the Voices to 1.

Step 6: Add a Low Pass Filter

Add a low pass filter and adjust it to cut out some of the higher frequencies and the pop of the pitch envelope.

Step 7: Add distortion for grunt and more high end harmonics

You can do this with other effects unit or add it in Operator at the Filter by using the Drive settings, try setting the Distortion type to OSR and then turning up the Filter Drive.

That is the basic 808, here’s some other things to try to make it you own…

I’ve made a preset pack of 21 Ableton racks of sub bass and 808 style subs…. I hope you can find use for it in your music… Buy the whole pack here (use this code for 25% off: SBCOM25STWD).

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Other things to try for huge 808 subs

• Changing the pitch envelope peak to +24st (2 octaves) will lead to for a much punchier sound as the pitch jump twice as much. Experiment with it and different values.
• Tweaking the pitch envelope decay will massively change the sound too – experiment with different decays and try changing the curve of it too.
• You can build on the basic sub bass by adding in oscillators and detuning them for a phat wobbling sub bass.
• Add in an FM source to add harmonics.
• Add effects after the sub – you can add multiple distortion effects units to add different flavors of distortion, and filters to tame down the high end.
• You can use Wavetable in Ableton too and start with a sinewave but make it move with the pitch envelope, so that it ads harmonics as the envelope moves.
• Add in other oscillator / waveforms type for more harmonics, like the Triangle. I like to later a 4 or 8 bit sinewave in Operator over a purer sinewave for harsher harmonics. You can filter out some of teh high end harshness with a low pass filter.

How to do 808 slides in Ableton

Playing 808 subs that overlap and at different notes with glides and pitch slides between them is a common technique. In Ableton you want to make sure your 808 sub bass is mono (make sure voices is set to 1) and switch glide on. When you want a slid at a notes that starts slightly later and higher up than the current note (they can play at the same time, but the higher one should start milliseconds later) and you’ll get that sliding sound.

Also you can get a lot more control with the MPE tab of your clip where you can draw in the exact slides /pitch bed you want.

How to make 808s more punchy

The punchiness of a kick or sub comes from the pitch envelope, so the more the pitch envelope is modulating and the higher it starts the punchier the 808 sub will be. You also want a tight decay to keep that punch, so it doesn’t fade out slowly over time.

Also you can add some distortion after the synth to accentuate the pitch envelope. You do not want it fully wet as you also want the booming sub to cut through under the distortion.

I’ve made a preset pack of 21 Ableton racks of sub bass and 808 style subs…. I hope you can find use for it in your music… Buy the whole pack here (use this code for 25% off: SBCOM25STWD).

How to get 808 sub bass to cut through the mix

There are 2 main things to think about when mixing 808 sub bass:

Mixing the bass for a clean low end: this can get muddy when the sub bass and kick play at the same kick. You can clean this up using sidechain so the sub bass channel dips in volume when a kick plays. You can also EQ them differently, so the main frequency that the kick is punchy, you can boost that frequency on the kick with EQ and take it from the sub so there is a hole for the kick. To do this just boost the kick with a thin peak using EQ8, then copy the EQ8 to the sub and turn the peak down so it is a cut.

Mixing the high end: often sub bass does not translate well on smaller systems which do not produce much sub bass. To get your 808 sub basses to cut through the mix you want to add high end harmonics from saturation, or layering different waveforms on top of your sine, like a triangle for example. You can also use FM. You want to make sure your clean sine subs still boom in the low end, but add harmonics so the sub hits higher up the frequency range.

Hope this helps, get in contact if you have any further questions and please check out our Ableton live preset pack……

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Buy Our 808 Sub Bass Pack For Ableton…

I’ve made a preset pack of 21 Ableton racks of sub bass and 808 style subs…. I hope you can find use for it in your music… Buy the whole pack here (use this code for 25% off: SBCOM25STWD).

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