MIXTIPS* Mixing 808's and Kicks
Mixing 808s and Kicks
When it comes to hip-hop, and sometimes pop and other genres, the 808 is as much the focal point of a song as the Vocal. Bass is to me, whether it be an 808 or a live bass line, provides the soul for the music. It’s very important to be able to bring that 808 to life in the mix without drowning out the kick or other musical elements. Why is it difficult to do this? Because when considering frequency ranges, typically bass and kicks share similar ranges from 30hz – 400hz for the low end and sometimes higher than that for clarity.
A few plugins and tools can help make the 808 really stand out. First, it starts with the 808 sample. Depending what the producer used in the instrumental will determine what tools you use to make it stick out. There have been hundreds of different sounding 808s I’ve come across in my time engineering. From super clean sine wave 808s to muddy, slightly distorted ones.
For the cleaner 808s, most times not much is needed. For compression I like using CLA-76 or CL1B plugins. As far as Eq, I may use Renaissance bass to boost the low mids and use an eq like SSL e-channel or Fab Filter Pro-Q3 to cut any frequencies that may be clashing with the kick. I also tend to lower any high frequencies that aren’t needed (typically over 500hz) For 808’s I tend to focus on freq range from 40- 120hz. If I am looking for some character or extra harmonics, I will use Blackbox Analog Design.
When it comes to kicks, I look for the part that really punches through with enough body to feel it through the speakers, and not just your main monitors. A lot of times, this lies around the 120- 350hz range. Depending on the sample I will start by using a high pass filter to cut as much of the low sub frequencies as possible (typically under 45hz where the Bass will be knocking) before it affects the tone of the kick. A great way to control the dynamics a specified range of frequencies, instead of notching, is to use a multi-band compressor. This allows you to not only raise or lower the gain of the frequency range but also compress the targeted range. For this I use waves c6 on every mix.
Lastly, to really bring out the room shaking sub end, I rely on parallel compression. This means duplicating the 808 (making a copy or double or using an aux to send the signal to) and using heavy compression and processing on the copy (or aux), then bringing it up slowly in volume to blend with the original unprocessed 808. Parallel compression is a must on every mix. For the highly compressed signal I will use either Renaissance compressor, CLA-2A, or an 1176 plugin as well as Blackbox to add 2nd and 3rd harmonics.
If you would like to learn more mixing tips for any genre, please let us know.