LPF on 808 Bass

[StanleySteamer]

Hey guys quick question, I am looking for advice on cleaning up some 808 bass in a track I'm working on. I'm rolling off some high end on the top to make room for the mids and the percussions and what not and I'm stuck between a range of 500-1000hz. I'm rolling off with a LPF and at 1000 it sounds pretty good and so does 500 but the only difference is 1000 kind of leaves a bit more high end but I'm not sure if I like it due to it's presence in the mix or if it is interfering with other instruments. Any advice on where some of you guys would roll off on the 808 bass using a LPF or any other techniques you guys use would be much appreciated thanks!

 

[chris carter]

It's insanely rare that I LPF an 808 kick. If anything, more often I'm boosting the highs in them so they hit harder. But if you are going for a lo-fi kind of thing, I suppose it might be more warranted.

 

[localspace]

I generally don't use high and low pass on my subs. You want the mids (1-2k) in there for the transient, and obviously you want the low frequencies in there. Everything in between is fair game.
The main problem with subs is that, with a smooth sine sub, there isn't a whole of anything but that bass frequency to work on. So the key to getting a rich sub sound is to add more harmonics with
saturation, exciters and effects that add to the sound before you start cutting away at it with EQ and compression.

 

[The Funk Junkie]

Yeah it definitely depends on the track and vision you have, but I'd leave all those frequencies in unless they're super loud or obnoxious. A lot of the higher stuff on the 808's are helpful for people listening on earbuds and laptop speakers. If you roll it off it might sound like there's no bass at all. Maybe just export it once with no LPF and once with it and just listen to both on a pair of laptop speakers to check it out.