Hint: if you’re using Ableton Live, make sure to try out the pedal. Serum already comes with a bunch of cool algorithms you can try out, but your DAW of choice should also have some decent options. Now, to make the 808 sound gnarly, we need to add a ton of distortion to it. If you don’t have access to these tables, a pure sine or a saw wave with a low-pass filter should also get the job done. I personally like to pick one of the hard tables from our Serum 808 preset pack 808 VIP, simply because they already sound kinda 808. Once you got this down you can start searching for a decent waveform. Now go to OSC A and decrease the “RAND” to 0. First, set the voicing to mono in the bottom-right corner and set the “PORTA” to 100ms (you can fine-tune this later on). In this case, I’m using Serum because it allows you to use custom waveforms and because it’s simply the best synth in my opinion.īefore starting with the sound design process, you should take care of a few things. The first thing to do is open up a synth of your choice. If this is the first time making an 808 bass from scratch, don’t worry: It’s actually not that hard. Unfortunately, this can take a while, so instead, I’d highly recommend going for option two. If you aren’t that experienced with sound design yet, you can simply try to find the perfect one-shot for your arrangement. To get the perfect 808 for your song there are basically two options: Option 1: Find The Perfect Sample Modern 808s (especially in Phonk) in contrast have a lot of harmonic overtones and can be distorted quite hard. When trap evolved, 808s were basically sine waves with a fast pitch envelope. Listening to Phonk, you’ll realize that the bass doesn’t have a lot in common with traditional 808s anymore. If you however go for a harder sound, you can also try out a soft or hard clipper. Saturation for example introduces subtle harmonics. Here’s what we came up with: ProcessingĪlthough your goal should always be to select perfect one-shots, which don’t need any processing, adding a few effects to the drum buss can help to make your drums hit even harder. Now select a heavy kick and try to come up with a cool pattern. Pick a nice hat sample and draw in 8th notes. Once you hooked yourself up with some decent drum hits, pick a snare of your choice and add a note on every second quarter hit.
HOW TO ADD EFFECTS TO VOCALS GARAGEBAND 10.1 FREE
However, if you don’t want to spend any money at the moment, you can also take a look at our free Chaos kit, which comes with some harder Trap samples & loops as well. Our own Phonk drum kit is filled with 350 drum hots and should therefore be more than enough to get you started. So in contrast to typical Trap drums, Phonk usually hits way harder. I made a list of the best lo-fi plugins a while ago and since Phonk also has some lo-fi elements, feel free to check it out here.
Once you got the notes right you can fine-tune your melody by adding effects, like reverb, compression, or because it’s Phonk: distortion. This interval is called a minor second and always works if you’re going for a “dangerous” vibe. In order to make the melody sound dark, you can add a few C#s (as long as your root note is C). Next up, try to transpose some of the notes up or down.
Now set the tempo of your DAW to 140 BPM, add a new MIDI clip and try to come up with a nice rhythm. Since Phonk melodies often rely on 808 cowbells, we’ll pick a tuned one shot taken from our new Phonk drum kit “Reticence”. So instead of searching for a fitting sample, we’ll make our own one. Unfortunately, most of those records are copyrighted and it’s quite hard to legally use them for your own productions unless you’re incredibly successful or have really good connections. Step 1: Find or Make a Phonk MelodyĪs previously described, Phonk is often based on samples from old Funk or Jazz records. Some known Phonk producers include Inteus, JASON RICH, or DJ YUNG VAMP. A lot of times it’s accompanied by vocal samples from Memphis rap records and compared to common Trap beats all elements are usually distorted quite hard. Phonk is a style of Hip Hop or Trap, often based on 808 cowbell melodies or lo-fi samples from old Funk or Jazz productions.