Got so many request on making a tutorial on creating those 808 kicks you hear a lot in hip hop music and even in pop music. Here are some examples of songs which has the 808 kicks in them.
First off, Martin Gaye
Next, sounds familiar? That’s the 808 kick in action.
In fact, there are many popular songs which uses the 808s. I’ve also included some samples for download with the tutorial, go grab them for free.
Visit Audio Mentor to see the full tutorial: http://www.audiomentor.com/audioproduction/creating-the-808-kick-drum-with-massive
Why The ‘808’ Kick?
It’s called the 808 kick because it originated from the Roland TR-808 drum machine/rhythm composer, which was a huge success back those days and even today.
TR stands for Transistor Rhythm and the TR808 was one of the first programmable drum machine – no wonder so many got excited using it. In fact, if you listen to it, it does not actually sound much like a drum kit.
It’s hard t find a good working TR-808 these days (you may get lucky if you dig around some stores). They have made digitalized versions of the Roland TR-808 though:
Click to see the Roland TR-8
Should I Use The TR-808?
Should you use the vintage TR-808? I think you should if you can, it will be a great experience putting your hands on some analog. We spend too much time clicking and staring into screens these days.
Sound-wise, it doesn’t really matter if its an 808 drum kick, snare or hi-hat. As long as a kick fits in your music and sounds good, that should do.
Just my 2 cents. Don’t worry too much about the ‘name’ of the kick. Just because it was a signature doesn’t mean you can’t create another signature drum hit.