808 Sub Pitch Bend Tip.

So I recently discovered a little trick to help all you trap heads spice up your 808 subs a little bit. Was listening closely to some pro tracks, most notably RL Grime's Love Sosa remix and noticed some subtle pitch bend on the sub.

Set yourself up with your main sub bass as you normally would (I use Massive). Now raise the sub's oscillator pitch modulation box (the small box below the main pitch box) to 3.00. Hook the pitch modulation box to an envelope. Now adjust the envelope with the shortest attack setting (keep the attack level all the way up). Then lower the decay level to 0. Now play with the decay length so that you can hear a slight pitch bend going down to the root pitch of whatever note your sub is playing at. You want to keep the decay short enough so your sub has time to pitch down to the root note otherwise it'll sound out of key. But you also want enough decay so you can just hear that little bit of pitch movement. It might be easier to transpose your sub up an octave while you adjust the decay length so its easier to hear.

The difference is subtle but effective. It gives your 808 sub a bit more movement and dynamics. Instead of sounding too static, it has a bit of a downwards swell to it, if that makes sense.

Anyway, listen closely to how RL processed his sub in Sosa and you'll see what I mean. Once you notice it, you'll hear it everywhere. Subtle but cool.

Note: this is not to be confused with using an envelope to modulate an octave or two to give a clicky sub. That's something entirely different. If you need clarification, I'll be happy to help. I hope this all makes sense.

EDIT: Someone helpfully pointed out that I l originally said slide the oscillator's pitch up to 3.00. What I meant was the oscillator modulation box, the small one immediately under the main pitch box. So your oscillator's pitch would be -24.00 and the pitch modulation box with the envelope linked would be 3.00. Sorry for the confusions

Bass is life. Peace.