Stop Using 808s (DO THIS INSTEAD!)

using 808s might be holding you back from making better beats in today's video i want to show you why for a lot of you guys making trap beats might have been where you started and it might be the main genre that you focus on when it comes to making beats and because of that the 808 might be the main tool that you use whenever it comes time to adding bass into your beat but the 808 can be limiting your beats in a few different ways if it's all that you ever use and in this video i want to outline some of the reasons one by one so here we have a beat that i made where i came up with the main loop as well as the drum pattern and by the way i want to quickly say if you enjoy my videos think about subscribing it really does help my channel out if you ever get bored of my channel it's just one click away to unsubscribe anyways back to the beat now listening to this main loop it's not melodic by any means it's only a handful of notes and it's repeating the exact same thing over and over again so at this point introducing a layer that's a bit more melodic and not as repetitive can be a good idea and using our baseline can be a great way of achieving this so i could program a nice melodic bass line into the beat like so and by the way if coming up with bass lines is something that you struggle with i would recommend checking out the video right above my head in it i show some really helpful tips when it comes to creating bass lines exactly like this to me this bass line is sounding pretty good so far but this is sounding so good mainly because i chose the right type of bass instead of an 808 let's take this exact same bass line that i created here and instead of using this base that i selected which is a pretty straightforward finger base for a massive and acoustic sounding base here and let's say i use an 808 instead it doesn't sound quite as good as the acoustic bass it doesn't fit quite as well so in this case our 808 might not be the best tool for the job here when thinking about which base you should use it's important to know and understand the various types that are available to you in doing so you'll be able to use the right tool for the right situation if you don't understand what i mean let's say that your toilet was clogged now you could use the right tool in that situation like a plunger that would be a great way of getting the job done but there are other tools that you could use instead for example you could go and use your hands obviously your hands are a great tool in other situations like when you're opening a jar of pickles but that doesn't mean you should use them for every single problem that you have like unclogging a toilet you can view your 808 the same way you shouldn't use your 808 in every situation either different situations call for different tools and knowing what tool to use is really important and if you don't use the right tool you don't end up picking the right base for your beat this is what happens you get butt juice all over your hands now here the 808 might not be the right tool for a few different reasons let's think about why for one something that i commonly see a lot of producers ask is why is it that 808s that you download all have a different key for example here's my 808 library they're all in different keys here and you think wouldn't it be easier if everything was just in a c well with the way that most ada weights are created with these specific effects and distortion that they have on them they end up only sounding optimal if you stay within a more narrow range of its natural pitch and once you exit that range that's when the 808 might not sound as good as many of you have probably experienced so when i try to come up with a bass line like this where we have a wide range of notes that are being played using an 808 might not be the best option because of this reason now this issue might arise due to the specific type of distortion that's applied onto the 808 or just by the nature of the 808 being created using a sine wave whatever the case may be it can really start to sound harsh and piercing the more higher and higher we move in pitch or ineffective when we move lower in pitch like we can't actually hear the bass if we listen to these lower notes down here these sound fine to me but once we start jumping up here this type of tone is not something that i would want and my beat i know some people really like these high pitched 808s but if not done well it can easily start to become harsh and overbearing now if we compare this to the more acoustic bass that we looked at earlier these notes just sound a bit more natural as we jump up and down in pitch it still sounds like we're playing the exact same instrument whereas when we jump up and down in pitch using our 808 it just starts to sound very different from the original bass tone that we had at the lower pitch it almost starts to sound like a completely different sound is being used so when it comes time to creating a bass line that's a bit more melodic 808 can be a bit limiting in regards to the pitch flexibility but let's take this a step further if we do another analysis on what's happening here here we have our first baseline that was using our acoustic bass now i do want to point out as you can see with the notes in this bass line we have many different velocities here so let's see how this baseline's waveform looks [Music] now if you play this exact same bass line using our 808 let's see how this looks and if we compare these two we can see another reason why the acoustic bass works a bit better here looking at the 808 it's a lot more uneven we have these notes that are high in volume and then it just jumps down immediately to a note that's lower in volume whereas with the acoustic bass it just works a bit better because we have something that looks a little bit more smooth and natural with his tapering effect with each and every single note it's just not as blocky as the 808 is and this is going to go a long way into helping our bass line fit into the beat and not sound as uneven and jarring as it did with the 808 now with that said this might be a little bit unfair with this example with the way that the 808 is being used here having this much change with your notes velocity when it comes to using an 808 is just not something that you would naturally do but if you changed all the velocities here to be a little bit more consistent so we don't get that constant jumping up and down you guys can hear what's going to happen unfortunately this baseline here is just going to get very exhausting to listen to very quickly for those of you that watched my prior video on three red flags that i see in many trap beats you will remember why this can be such a big problem when it comes to making trap beats i really recommend checking that video out if you mainly make trap by the way so looking at everything we've covered so far the 808's not going to be as flexible when it comes to pitch it's also not going to be as flexible when it comes to adding detail to your volume as well but there's one more thing that i want to point out let's take a look at another beat here here i have this beat where in terms of the overall frequency i have a lot of space that i can fill up here [Music] now this might be a situation where the 808 might work well but again even in a situation like this the 808 might not be the optimal tool if you guys remember my video where i walk you through the different types of bases that you should use for your beats the link to that is right above my head as well in situations like this it might be a good idea to use a synth bass that might work better for this type of beat so let's compare if we play this beat using a synth bass it sounds pretty full now let's take a listen to how this beat would sound if we play this exact same pattern with an 808 instead [Music] the beat doesn't sound quite as full the 808 isn't doing as good of a job as the synth bass was doing the reason why is because the 808 can be limiting in terms of the frequency space that it can fill up as well with this 808 here i tried to look for one that had a lot of distortion that filled up a lot of room you guys can hear if i go through my library [Music] and then take a listen to this 808 this 808 is one of the more distorted 808s that i have in my entire library and even still it can't do as good of a job as a synth base when it comes to filling up the beat and if you do a bit of analysis here is the frequency spectrum of our 808 [Music] and if we compare that to the frequency spectrum of our synth base [Music] you can see the synth bass does a better job of filling up more of the high-end frequency space and therefore just does a better job of filling up the beat as a whole compared to an 808 so in a situation like this choosing a synth base instead of an 808 can make your life easier when you need to fill up a lot more space in your beat as you can see the 808 can be limiting if you use it in every single situation now i don't want to sit here and say that 80 weights are bad to use by any means there is obviously a good time and place to use them they're a perfectly fine base to use in many situations i just think it would be helpful for you guys to start exploring different types of sounds and ideas that you may not be used to you will end up broadening your skill set in doing so and in turn you'll have more tools in your toolbox that you can use to help you make the best beat possible which is all i want for you to get out of this video so if you found this helpful and you want more advanced tips head over to betterbeatmaker.com and if you want a review of some of the different types of bases that you can use the link to that video should be showing up on your screen right now for those interested in my free drum kit it's available in the description box below as well as a link to the discord if you want your beats reviewed live i do that every so often and i will see you guys next time

Channel: Navie D

Views: 44,180

Rating: 4.9124875 out of 5

Keywords: 808 fl studio, 808, 808 fl studio 20, 808s, navie d, 808 tutorial, 808 tips and tricks, why do my 808s sound bad, advanced 808 tricks, 808 tips fl studio, trap 808 bass tutorial, 808 fl studio tutorial, 808s tips and tricks fl studio, beatmaking, how to make beats, beats, fl studio, fl studio tutorial, how to make trap beats, trap beatmaking, trap tutorial

Id: s0sK4Y8txEc

Length: 10min 31sec (631 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 16 2021