Ok so, like most people on here I use Ableton. I read a TON! of fourms (SA, Trance.nu, KVR, Audionews, ect…) and I always read things like 808 kicks, or some other numbers and things like and “The cut off should be 30hz.” My question is how can I find out what kicks and other drum things I have are? Is it even important to know? What does 808 even mean? Does anyone have a good link to a site where I can read such things about XYhz?
Thanks.
808 is in reference to the Roland TB808 drum machine. This, the 909, and 606(I think) were the most popular drum machines before anyone had computers to rely on. They were great because you could tune the kicks (which you still can do if you know how). Search for 808 drum sounds on google to hear what they are talking about.
[quote]FallenOATH (17/05/2010)[hr]Ok so, like most people on here I use Ableton. I read a TON! of fourms (SA, Trance.nu, KVR, Audionews, ect…) and I always read things like 808 kicks, or some other numbers and things like and “The cut off should be 30hz.” My question is how can I find out what kicks and other drum things I have are? Is it even important to know? What does 808 even mean? Does anyone have a good link to a site where I can read such things about XYhz?
Thanks.[/quote]
well, lets face it most of us are MEGA GEEKS 
(i shall include myself) so we like operating a ‘secret’ language, understood only by those with in the circle, it took us time to learn the language too, we are proud of it and shall not stop using it! lol
808 is kind of important from ‘foundation’ of electronic dance music perspective,
do you need to know what it means…or what it did…ehhh only if you want to impress other geeks…IMO point is to make music…
…technical knowledge comes with time too, 30hz Cutoff simply reefers to frequency at which is handy to ‘cut’ the signal, by using high pass filter to only allow frequencies over 30 hz to pass thru. Reason being is that anything that low can not be replicated by 99.9% of sound systems, but its using up the ‘headroom’…its all rather lengthy story…
My suggestion is, don’t relay just on forums get yourself a good book on mixing and go thru it (boring bits too) 
btw 808 kick for most part will refer to really deep, sub bassy kick drum
This is why i love this forum… ask this on another board and youd get mauled… well done every body!!! yay!
Roland TR-808 - Wikipedia
good history there of the TR-808
aslo check TB-303 SH-101 as boxes that had a lot of influence on dance music.
[quote]phil johnston (18/05/2010)[hr]This is why i love this forum… ask this on another board and youd get mauled… well done every body!!! yay!
Roland TR-808 - Wikipedia
good history there of the TR-808
aslo check TB-303 SH-101 as boxes that had a lot of influence on dance music.[/quote]
Haha! I know - I’ve been holding myself back, trying to remember where I am!
Ah no… What this chap is looking for is a history of everything coupled with the manual of how everything works.
It will take a while Grasshopper.
How fast you learn depends on Google, You Tube, SA Tut’s & Music Production Books & Magazines, and analysing the tracks that inspire you :)
Get your sleeves rolled up Mate - Its a full time job! Without pay! LOL :cool:
Hey guys
Just bought and started reading “The Secrets of House Music Production” from Sample Magic. So far, so enlightening. Really very much so.
First book I’ve found that discusses things like this; so, cut off freq for kicks and EQ’ing kick/bass to avoid muddiness, kick drum sounds specific to dance music genres, etc. All really informative without being tooooooo technical. Accepting that there’s a necessary amount of technical depth needed to explain the issue of course.
[quote]jonsloan (18/05/2010)[hr]Hey guys
Just bought and started reading “The Secrets of House Music Production” from Sample Magic. So far, so enlightening. Really very much so.
First book I’ve found that discusses things like this; so, cut off freq for kicks and EQ’ing kick/bass to avoid muddiness, kick drum sounds specific to dance music genres, etc. All really informative without being tooooooo technical. Accepting that there’s a necessary amount of technical depth needed to explain the issue of course.[/quote]
Yeah I got that too… Very informative. A ton of useful stuff - Well worth the money. Better than spending Hours on the Internet!
Its like a good Future Music +1,000,000.
if you would like Emulations of these Classic Drum Machines you really can’t beat these
606 D16 Group Audio Software
808 D16 Group Audio Software
909 D16 Group Audio Software
and of course you’ll need the classic 303 D16 Group Audio Software
now only if we could get a great replication of the SH101, SH09 the Juno 106, 06 Jupiter 8 and.
basically friend, these are all classic synths form the 80-90’s made mostly by Roland and i think at the time they had a thing for numbers lol
Awesome info guys. Thanks again for the help.