so i layed down some 808s... sounds muddy as hell tho. how do i get them to hit like pierre or southside? and do i tune them to the key of the song or leave it at c (using fl studio)

Post ..?

u dont kno wat an 808 sound like?

Perfect 808s i heard in my life are kanye 80 degrees
If u can do that ur good

Never leave it at C it needs to be in tune with the rest of your track and if you dont know theory then just pitch it up and down on the piano roll until it sounds right to you. To make it less muddy take an EQ and take a sharp bell and boost it 20db and slowly move it through the frequencies 250-500 to find the frequency that sounds boxy and then cut around 3-5db with a Q of 1-4

Tune your sample. This is good practice for all samples.

If your 808 is an F, tune it to F1/F0/F2. If you play any note on the keyboard it'll be accurately playing that pitch. Alchemy in Logic does this automatically.

if u want ur 808s to hit hard just turn em up, dont worry about EQ and all that

Answer to op's question: parallel saturation/distortion

Keep under 150hz entirely in mono

Under 100hz clean with zero distortion.

for getting them in tune I usually just go by ear on the piano roll until it sounds right. Takes a bit of practice but it gets easier the more u do it

Not this. If its muddy it needs to be fixed and theres ways to get it to hit hard without turning it up all the way. EQ is going to first let the 808 come thru in the mix better and get rid of the mud and and you dont really even want anything under 20hz and after you cut that then the clarity off the 808 will come out a lot better and if you want it to hit hard without it actually clipping then just use a limiter and also a soft clipper is also good too but never not use an EQ that the worst thing you could not do it’s important

get better 808 samples

throw OTT on it

This

If the sample is trash youre not going to be able to fix it in mixing

he asked how to make them hit like pierre/southside

southside himself said that all he does is turn them up

and i guarantee you most platinum producers nowadays dont EQ their 808s

they dont even sidechain them

but yeah seriously just turn them up

The engineer is going to have to deal with the clipping tho so you might as well just take care of it so they dont have to. A lot of producers especially in hiphop dont do a lot of mixing but it still goes through the engineer who has to fix a lot of those issues and especially considering that a lot of people on here dont have an engineer to go to and will probably have to do it themselves then doing things the right way in mixing will help a lot. I see why producers do stuff like that tho because theyre focused on the feel of the beat rather than the technicalities which is fine if youre going to send it to someone else to clean it up but if he just uploaded it to spotify without making sure everything was in check it wouldn’t sound right and then because of LUFS regulations on streaming services the track would get turned down and sound different to how its supposed to sound and ive experienced that first hand before. Its a lot better for producers to learn all these things about mixing because if you can do it on your own thats one less thing you have to outsource and you can also do things the way you really envision and also keeping more money in your pockets especially if you have low to no budget. Its good to listen to the producers because theyre good at what they do but the engineers are really the ones who make the track shine after the producer does their thing so you should most importantly listen to engineers when it comes to matters of mixing but a good engineer also make sure that the track sounds how the producers originally wanted it to sound and keep the feeling so there’s still a way to keep that same sound and feeling while staying withing certain “rules” within mixing so your track can be heard by everyone the way you want to without issues. A really good person i say you should look up is Alex Tumay he’s thugs engineer and he also has a podcast where you can definitely get a lot of really good tips and pointers.

The producers dont mix because they send it to the engineer

When you get that big as a producer you dont have to worry about mixing anymore because its not your job anymore

Nothing comes out from any artist you know without going through an engineer first and then even after that it goes to a separate mastering engineer and theres a lot of jobs and things going on in the work before a song comes out that you may not realize but it’s definitely something that you want to know about because it will improve your tracks

Using a limiter will let your 808s sound like they’re clipping without it actually clipping. The producers DO let their 808s clip but it ends up getting turned down by the engineer anyway but he still knows how to make it sound the same and you can do the same thing. At this point in making music its better to not worry about sending your tracks to an engineer and doing the job yourself will save you big time

Ily but read my post 🖤

The engineer always is in the background while the producer is in the forefront but with that comes a lot of lost and misinformation being taught and spread but remember to always look at everyone in the picture because a lot of the most important jobs dont get the same look

And don’t forget about the mastering engineer too but most of the time you shouldn’t master a song if you mixed it yourself so if you can afford to then you should hire a mastering engineer but if not then you can still do that on your own as well

Well yeah, I plan on sending beats out for placements and id rather not waste time getting perfect mixes on every beat when I could be spending that time making more beats.

And chances are the engineer is just going to change your mix anyways so its just a waste of time imo, let them do their job.

Its not a waste of time if it takes two seconds to do. All you have to do is put a limiter on the track and turn it up. Plus especially if you’re submitting for placements and not working directly with an artist its a lot easier to get turned down if lets say you send an unmixed track and then next person they listen to their track is mixed and they were really able to put in how they wanted the track to sound because they had more knowledge of mixing and wanted to put in the effort to do it and the presentation of the product automatically sounds better because of that. You have to remember a lot of these producers didnt get up there by doing placements they got where they are because they had relationships with the artists and produced for them while they were coming up and it was getting sent to an engineer anyway. Being able to do more than one job will get you more looks than just the person who can only do one thing and especially because thats one less person that they have to pay for and they consider that most of the time when it comes to those situations. If you have a vision in your head of what the track sounds like its hard to get someone else to see the same thing without it being done already but if you can do it yourself and make it sound the way that you really want it to then youll be able to get your foot in the door a lot easier. Dont look at mixing as task and too much time because that really can be the difference between a yes or no to a lot of opportunities. This is all to help you not argue or anything but it will most definitely show a difference in your work. And also A&Rs do not go easy on tracks that get sent in. Currently in the industry they already expected everything that comes in to be properly recorded and well mixed somewhat if not fully. Demos no longer are just sketches of a vision and they will have hard judgement toward anything that comes to them and ive seen it a lot and it’s definitely an important thing to think about during the process of making music

Also you can still focus on making a lot of beats but even implementing some good mixing habits that dont take a lot of time to do will help a lot. And after you get the hang of it its not a task to do its just second nature

I'm not saying that I dont do any mixing at all.

All I do is add a soft clipper and do a bit of levelling, I meant that its a waste of time doing all that other s*** like EQing your drums and getting a perfect mix.

Also have your 808 follow the root note of your chords or melody or whatever so it sounds good

But you can also break that rule if you want to