Where did Beats by da Pound get their TR808 sounds from?

  • Thread starter Thread starter kvmoore
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DonoftheDead said:
In the Nov/Dec issue of Scratch, they have an article with KLC, from Beats by the Pound, they have a full-page photo of him sitting on a couch with a genuine 808 at his feet.
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You have a link?
 
Try layering some kicks together, some compression, and it doesn't have to be 808's layered, it can be an 808 and some other type kicks, catz go through mad processes getting their sound together...peace
 
I just bought an 808 on ebay. It has a minor problem with the start/stop button or the sequencer. Can't wait to get it home!!!!!!! I know a guy at a local music shop who can probably fix the problem, whatever it is. THen, I can sample away!!!!!!!!! Then I'll have nice 808s to use in conjunction with the hundreds of other drums sounds I have from my other gear.
 
kvmoore said:
I just bought an 808 on ebay. It has a minor problem with the start/stop button or the sequencer. Can't wait to get it home!!!!!!! I know a guy at a local music shop who can probably fix the problem, whatever it is. THen, I can sample away!!!!!!!!! Then I'll have nice 808s to use in conjunction with the hundreds of other drums sounds I have from my other gear.
Click to expand...

how much?
 
I paid less than $550 for mine. I've seen most of them go within the range of $800-$1600 (perfectly working though) on ebay. I don't want to spend that much on one if I don't really have to. If the repair cost for mine's is inexpensive then I'll have a nice 808 for a heck of a deal.
 
I just adjust the sound until I like it, I never try to make it sound like any other producer's sound.

Try to sample the sounds from one of their songs. It should be easy to get a hi hat.
 
Yeah. I've tried sampling their high hats directly from their songs too. I did manage to get the ride cymbal. There's maybe a slim chance that I might be able to grab the 808 closed hat. However, the open 808 high hat and snare are pretty difficult to capture as they always have music, vocals, or both under them. I haven't heard a song where they had just an 808 beat with the open long decay high hat going along with the snare.

Ahhhh but get this!!! Another thing I've noticed is a tonal difference in their 808 snare in various songs, which is a sure indication that they probably did either sequence a true 808 or sample it's snare at different tone settings!!!!!

Once I get my hands on a real 808, I'm going to try sampling it to my satisfaction and see where that takes me. If I get satisfactory results with that venture, I'll just stick with that even if it doesn't sound 100% like their's. The real 808 is the real 808. With that, I'll have so many options in terms of sound tweaking and sampling options.
 
Yeah. I've also heard they sound different, which may explain why their's sound slightly different from any other I've heard. I'd say that's just their signature sound that can't be 100% dead-on duplicated due to the analog nature of the 808. Who knows--mines might sound different from the others I've heard, which could also be a good thing too. I'd have my own unique "signature" 808 sound.
 
Thanks Heezzi,

That was a good little read. In the interview, he never really mentioned what type of drum machine he had but I'd guess he probably made numerous samples of a real 808 and used a good sampling drum machine to play them with. Then he probably mixed the 808s with other various drums.

That's what I think.
 
I finally got hold of a real 808!!!!! There's are a couple of non-working buttons on it that prevent it from being fully functional as far as making a beat. I'll get it fixed though. However, I was able to hear it and sample it. These sounds are SWEET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The high hats are very crisp and clean, just like in the old No Limit Tracks.

After doing a comparison, this most definitely sounds like what KLC used. I was able to reproduce the high hats and I may be able to get that ride cymbal to closely match their's after a bit of EQing and chorus effect, which is what I think they used to get it to sound like that. I also think they used a little bit of chorus on the open high hat too. However, the snare on my 808 is tuned differently from their's, but after I sampled my 808 snare, tuned it, and did a little amp envelope processing and EQing, I was able to get it pretty darn close. Actually, I think my 808 snare sounds a little better then their's now.

Thanks guys. Now I can take my new 808 kit, dump it into my MPC and start making beats!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Once I get the 808 fixed, I can start making tracks on it too.
 
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Once I get the machine itself 100% working, I'll probably eventually get a MIDI retrofit. The problem I'll have though is getting someone to install it. That's a big issue because I don't just want to get anybody working on my machine who might not know exactly what he's doing, especially when it comes to technical modifications.
 
check ya personal messages KVMO'
flipped ya some pertinent info.
 
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