need those hard 808s?

[BADMANN]

looking for some serious 808 sounds those deep southern 808 like polow da don, lil jon , nitti or any well known producer?

[Scoobz]

My advice would be to search the internet for some free 808 samples (there's lots) and then experiment with some freeware distortion vsts.

Then later down the line get a real 808 and a thermionic culture vulture

For now just experiment and learn how and why certain distortions have the effect they do and how they can alter sound in general. This will serve you much better in the future than someone posting a sample for you

[verb1]

You can buy Gold Baby's or Sonic Specialists' 808 collection. They're both pretty cheap.

[Tibbon]

Why not just either use 808 samples or a real 808 then compress them to taste instead of relying on others work? Seems lazy to me. You've got a studio- use it!

[elmolemon]

First of all you need GOOD samples! Without them you'll never achieve the sound you're looking for...

The sonic specialists drums seem to be a good starting point!

[Tibbon]

Originally Posted by elmolemon

First of all you need GOOD samples! Without them you'll never achieve the sound you're looking for...

The sonic specialists drums seem to be a good starting point!

Or just get an 808. They made a ton of them, and they are all over.

[mix-it-well]

Originally Posted by Tibbon

Or just get an 808. They made a ton of them, and they are all over.

Why buy a ticket to fly when you can buy your own plane right?
Not everybody can spend the money ,esspecially when it's not really a essential thing to have.

Another thing is ,using samples is not lazy at all.
It's just another source of sounds. Synths got advances for sure. You can tweak the sound right from the beginning. But as we all know ,limitations help the creativity and working with good collection of samples is just fun and leaves more time for the actual producing.

So why hate on that?
It's an option. You really shouldn't consider that lazy.

[Nahuel]

+ not everybody have nice collection of pres (same for eq n comp) + nice a/d or a collection of sampler wit great sounding d/a a/d + sound designer skills etc. n not everybody wanna stick wit the 808 seq and buy a din sync to midi etc.

[Scoobz]

Surely it's a sliding scale, if you got no money then you use free samples and educate yourself using that and freeware plugins. When you start making money with that learnt knowledge then you can afford a real 808 and record thru whatever you got. Then when you start making some serious beats you can afford all the fancy pre's and convertors.

But just asking someone to give or make you the perfect 808 sample is, in my opinion, lazy.

See my original post for my initial advice.

(Good point about the pre's and convertors btw. Playing a real 909 thru my system sounds very different to the samples I had)

[Scoobz]

Btw @ mix-it-well

No-ones hating on samples. we all use em but this guy's after a specific treatment on a sample, what I'm saying is you'll learn more by working it out yourself then have someone give it to you

[Scoobz]

Found these for ya, not exactly expensive

TR 808 Drum Samples Library Rap Hip hop Quality Samples on eBay, also, Samples, Samplers, Electronic, Musical Instruments (end time 02-Feb-08 21:26:28 GMT)

[bino_5150]

complete 808 and 909 kits can be had for free all over the internet... why spend money on an 808?

With an mpc or fl studio etc... and a little compression and eq, you'd be surprised what you can do with those free samples...

think polow da don/ lil jon / nitti uses a real 808? nope...

And who said *REAL* Roland 808 machines were cheap and easy to find?!?

[filterayok]

please dont buy an 808, theres better things to spend your money on, like this


Buy Land on Mars - Gift Packages Starting at $29.95

[joemad]

LOL... I'll give you some of our 808 samples to see if you like them. Just hit me up.

[mix-it-well]

Originally Posted by Scoobz

Btw @ mix-it-well

No-ones hating on samples. we all use em but this guy's after a specific treatment on a sample, what I'm saying is you'll learn more by working it out yourself then have someone give it to you

Saying using samples is lazy isn`t hating?
It really doesn't make a difference for me ,I really care more about a dope hook and a nice bridge...the actual producing of the track.

If you need a real 808 and have to tune it all day to get it sound ok ,you might want to throw away the whole track anyway.
Something wouldn`t be right for sure.

I really like Erics answers lol.
Your posts def. get the "Realness"-Award from me.

[jeremycox]

You could try using a sine wave osc in a soft synth to get exactly the feel you're looking for.
Modulate the osc pitch with an envelope to get the punch out of the kick.

[filterayok]

Originally Posted by mix-it-well

Saying using samples is lazy isn`t hating?
It really doesn't make a difference for me ,I really care more about a dope hook and a nice bridge...the actual producing of the track.

If you need a real 808 and have to tune it all day to get it sound ok ,you might want to throw away the whole track anyway.
Something wouldn`t be right for sure.

I really like Erics answers lol.
Your posts def. get the "Realness"-Award from me.

dude you had to see how amused i was with my own reply.. i was like i hope somebody else finds this as funny as i do...

[nynofi]

Originally Posted by joemad

our 808 samples.

How were these recorded/made? Sounding good.

[nynofi]

Originally Posted by J Twin

You can buy Gold Baby's or Sonic Specialists' 808 collection. They're both pretty cheap.

Where exactly is this 808 collection on the Sonic Specialists' site?

[smoke]

Originally Posted by jeremycox

You could try using a sine wave osc in a soft synth to get exactly the feel you're looking for.
Modulate the osc pitch with an envelope to get the punch out of the kick.

That's what I've been doing. Sometimes, I just like to sit around and create 808 variations. I leave synths open for this reason. I can be washing dishes or something and I'll just walk by the computer, hit a key and ZZZZZMMMMM... the dishes shake.

Fun stuff man! Gotta have fun with shit.

[Charlie-O]

Originally Posted by smoke

That's what I've been doing. Sometimes, I just like to sit around and create 808 variations. I leave synths open for this reason. I can be washing dishes or something and I'll just walk by the computer, hit a key and ZZZZZMMMMM... the dishes shake.

Fun stuff man! Gotta have fun with shit.

Yup dats the bizness, sine waves make great kicks , subs, and layers.

[Tibbon]

Originally Posted by bino_5150

complete 808 and 909 kits can be had for free all over the internet... why spend money on an 808?

With an mpc or fl studio etc... and a little compression and eq, you'd be surprised what you can do with those free samples...

think polow da don/ lil jon / nitti uses a real 808? nope...

And who said *REAL* Roland 808 machines were cheap and easy to find?!?

Finding an 808 isn't hard... Try Craigslist, eBay, friends, etc. I didn't say anything about cheap, but in the scope of other thing in a studio, if an 808 is your main "sound" then it's fairly cheap.

Why get an 808? How else are you going to perform live with it? I know a lot of guys that wouldn't do their club sets without a real 909 there.

I don't do things cheap- I do them right.

Honestly however, I'd rather just have a modular with an 808 kick module.

[bino_5150]

Naw, I don't come across too many real 808's floating around... they are getting few and far between, and very expensive. More of a collectors item now than a piece of equipment... And honestly, I can't say I know anyone that lugs their 808 or 909 to the show. When you said that, I had to read it again, as at first I though that was just sarcasm... and then I realized that you were serious. We bring a show burn CD when we perform live, and the acts that I know that do use a sequencer usually use the MPC with the 808 or whatever kit loaded up. The flexibility of modern drum machines far exceeds that of the ancient and obsolete hardware.

If you get a good sample kit from the net, and you can't tell the difference between my FL studio track and the real 808 track, then whats the difference? I have 808 sample kits that are well over 200 samples, taken directly from a real 808... so why buy an 808?

Can you really justify spending all that money on an 808 when you can get the sample kit free? That I guess is a personal question that everyone has to answer on their own... And even though everyone loves that 808 kick, the 808 as a machine isn't really that great in this day and age. Just doesn't seem like a very efficient purchase, in my opinion...

*ESPECIALLY* when he just wants to make some Lil Jon-type rap beats...

As for availability, I looked on ebay, and there was only one 808, current bidding well over $600. I typed "download free 808 drum samples" in google and came back with like 28,000 results.

I like how you said you don't do things cheap, you do things right. But right and expensive are not always synonymous, as neither are free and wrong.

I don't mean to harp on, but I just don't feel that the answer to the thread starters question is "go buy an 808 machine".

[Tibbon]

There's still a few reasons I could see to buy an 808.

First of all being just to record to tape, mix on a desk (to tape) and only go to digital when you're cutting the CD. I still appreciate albums that are done 100% analog and I honestly consider it to be a fun workflow. Not for everyone, but rather fun. Were that the case, I'd much rather hit tape with a real 808 than some digital samples. Start analog and finish analog.

Yea, I've seen some people actually using 808/909's live. I'd use one myself but I have my Machinedrum that I'm fairly content with for the moment, although I'll likely get one of the new Linndrum II's when they come out as well. There are some good alteratives to the "real things" however. I love my x0xb0x and I'd honestly rather have it than a TB303.

I'm also the type of sadist that would take a modular synth and sequencer live. I have random fantasies of using a French Connector or Theremin live, but just haven't gotten to do so yet.

Admittedly these probably don't fit the standard hip-hop thing very well, as instrumental performance isn't seen for whatever reason as a big thing in hip-hop. Regardless of musical genre I like to see people performing live as much as is humanly possible.

Overall, you're probably right however. I just figure if you can't make your 808 boom, and just searching Google isn't working for samples then the next semi-obvious step to me would be to get a real one for a bit.

As a serious suggestion: Why not try to borrow one from a friend. Surely you know someone (or can find) someone in your area that has one. I'm sure if I had to sniff out a TR808 by 5pm tomorrow in Boston I could do it.