How to Control Your 808s

Dave Pensado working on an 808.

Dave Pensado showcases some great plugins this week on Into The Lair that he uses to control an 808 to fit within a Pop song. He starts off with a real dirty 808, like the kind you might find in 808 Warfare. Pensado takes us through his workflow without saying very much except for a couple comical punchlines. He lets us hear for ourselves how each device he adds to his processing chain is affecting the 808.

Pensado starts off by applying McDSP’s FilterBank to cut some of the frequency content below 100 Hz. The interesting thing about this is that it doesn’t sound terrific; not until Pensado adds the next device. When he applies the UAD Cambridge EQ and uses it as a low pass filter, the sound starts to take form. It seems as though he may have inserted FilterBank into his signal flow after he’d already low-passed it. This form of top-down processing is something you don’t always see, but it’s a clever technique none-the-less.

The 808’s broad dynamic range is addressed with the JSP Finality Advanced Limiter. This device lets Pensado morph the decaying type of 808 you may find in a Hip-Hop track into a Pop-oriented 808 that sustains much longer. I personally think that this reduction of dynamic range is the missing piece that many people are looking for when they can’t get their 808s to sit right in their Pop songs.

Providing us with two more limiter options, Pensado auditions Stillwell Audio’s EventHorizon Limiter, and AOM’s Invisible Limiter G2. The EventHorizon seems to add a touch of color and saturation that makes the 808 a bit grittier than what I think may suit a Pop song, but the Invisible Limiter G2 offers an alternative option, applying compression in a way that causes minimal distortion to the low-end. Every song has different needs, making both of these limiters solid choices.

Watch the full video with Dave Pensado via Pensado’s Place to hear for yourself how he fits this 808 into place.

Charles Hoffman is a Mixing and Mastering Engineer at Black Ghost Audio. After graduating from the University of Manitoba with an English degree, Charles completed his education at Icon Collective in Los Angeles, CA.

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