Should 808s be in the drum bus?
808, Kick, Snare, Snare Reverb, Hihat, and Open Hihat are all routed to my drum bus.
Since you're just beginning here's the simple, reliable approach you can use right away to get it.
The point of busing your drums is for control.
The control we want is for all our disparate drum samples to sound and behave similarly. Since much of the time we're working with samples, or different mic recordings etc., our samples can sound disparate (i.e. not the same).
So the
PRIMARY GOAL of a drum bus is to create
cohesion or what many call '
glue.' We're simply bringing things together.
With all our drums (808 kick included) sent to the same drum bus we can deliberately
force cohesion by using a compressor to subtly pump the sound of all our drums in a rhythmically pleasing way.
I configure the compressor on my own drum bus with the safest and 'idiot proof' setting of 2:1 Ratio, Attack 10ms, and Release 2-5ms. The threshold should then be lowered to the point that you're only getting 1-2db of gain reduction at most. (I prefer 1db gain reduction)
I personally enjoy having all my drums (808 kick included) going into the drum bus.
Now what is the effect of bus compression on drums? The effect is like making a great aromatic, flavorful dish in the kitchen. And so when it's done all the aromas, scents and flavors are all there, but they aren't sticking out-- You can't quiet taste them, but you can smell them.
And so as any cook knows the finishing touch is simply adding salt. By adding just a little bit of salt we can bring all those wonderful flavors to life.
Salt has the effect of not only
boosting all the flavors, but
bringing them together by giving them all the Same overlying salted Quality. Bus compression is just like salt, you're adding it in to bring your drum dish (set) together so that everything has that subtle but
SIMILAR compressed Quality.
Since a compressor is just an automatic volume fader, then the compressed quality we're talking about is just the rhythmic timing (as determined by your attack and release settings) of your compressor as it moves the volume up and down in response to the incoming signal.
This is the character quality of your salt or compressor-- that rhythmic pumping of your compressor. In the same way you've come to understand the flavor of salt you'll gradually familiarize yourself with the different rhtyhmic timings and pumping intensities of your compressor while using it to bring your drums together.
Hopefully that helps.
-Nathan