808 mixing help

the bass is in the "wrong key". that said, there's not really such thing as a wrong note in music. if you reference how your bass line sounds pitched a few octaves up, that can help to hear dissonant tones
 
moon. said:
the bass is in the "wrong key". that said, there's not really such thing as a wrong note in music. if you reference how your bass line sounds pitched a few octaves up, that can help to hear dissonant tones
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That depends on the key signature you are working in. yeah there is no such thing in general, but a C# does not belong in a C Major or A minor Scale, which then makes it a wrong note.

Anyhow, if you are using a sample, find the root note of that sample and readjust so that when you hit a C note on your Keyboard/ Midiboard / PC it actually hits the note C and not F or something else...

Get into basic music theory, learn how scales work and you should be fine :)
 
That track is dope as hell. I don't hear it being in the wrong key (didn't listen all the way through, but what I heard that didn't strike me as the issue). I think you need to be more specific as to what you don't like about it. The "key" thing I think stems from the fact that there's a awful lot of distortion on the 808. Obviously, you WANT distortion, but if there's too much harmonics then it can confuse the listener, especially on smaller speakers when the fundamental (which on an 808 is generally going to be the lowest frequency represented). They will hear those harmonics and almost no fundamental. Plus, I honestly think it would just plain sound better with less distortion, but that's an aesthetic issue really. If the 808 is a sample with the distortion in it, then there's nothing you can do except pick a different sample really. If it's not, then I would try dialing back the distortion a little. Hopefully you are distorting in parallel so you can just lower it without actually changing the sound of the harmonics.
 
The 808 sample is distorted, I havnt added any distortion, I really like the 808 sample because it has a grimy, hard feel to it which ive been looking for for a very long time because of producers like wondagurl and eestbound. theres just something about when i play the track in my lower end studio monitors the 808 seems off, out of tune or something and it just sounds terrible compared to when I listen with my headphones.
 
You should always make sure to mix in monitors first. Then adjust for other speakers. Normal things like headphones and car speakers are often designed to give a hyper-realistic version of the actual sound
 
NSmusic said:
You should always make sure to mix in monitors first. Then adjust for other speakers. Normal things like headphones and car speakers are often designed to give a hyper-realistic version of the actual sound
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If the room is causing the perceived issue, I'm not sure if starting or predominantly using monitors would be the best idea until whatever is off about the room setup is corrected in some way. No idea what headphones are being used, but there are plenty that give a relatively flat response (or at least one that isn't distorting the original audio).
 
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the 808 is not out of key. Sometimes when you pitch it too high it can sound off because of the resonance, you can try to find the resonating frequencies and try to tame them a little with eq, that will help.

But what I would do is just lower the 808 volume. Cause now its just too much in your face. Cool track btw.
 
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Well the people that commented on Soundcloud seem to like it! :cheers: Its a little too bright and buzzy for my taste but overall I don't really see anything dramatically wrong with it. The pitch doesn't sound off to me either. Sometimes those 808s with plenty of distortion might sound a bit off because of the harmonics created by the distortion. I'm listening in a proper monitoring environment and the pitch sounds fine here.
 
Yeah I don't know what the hell you're talking about. Honestly I'd like to know how you made the 808. Sounds pretty good to me. I'll hold your hand and scratch your back for 30 uninterrupted seconds if you let me know what you did to that 808.
 
Lol your listeners on SoundCloud actually love it ;D
They must be on headphones. Im kidding!

It does not sound like typical 808 from rap or trap but makes good dramatic effect.
 
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