Making an NI Massive 808 Kick Drum

Although this video was produced with Trap music in mind, you can apply the things shared in it to any kind of music you want to use a 808 kick in. One nice thing about this NI Massive 808 kick drum is the ability to pitch and shape it to your specific needs. It’s very easy to do and eventually you can build up a small collection of variations of this sub patch. Massive is a great synth to use for this kind of sound design because you can do it all so fast. And if you happen to be using Maschine, also from Native Instruments, you can quickly add drum sounds that you’ve made in Massive and used them as they are or tweak them live right from Maschine. It’s a brilliant partnership, really. Let’s see how to make this sound.

It begins with loading a Sine-Triangle wavetable into OSC1, with the Wt-position set so that it is a pure Sine wave. A default Square-Saw I wavetable is then loaded into OSC2, set to run a square wave. This oscillator’s volume and intensity is brought down so it only makes up a small part of the total sound. Both oscillators’ pitch value is dropped one octave. An envelope is then set up and assigned to modulate the pitch value of OSC1 up two octaves. This provides a nice click at the initial delivery of this NI Massive 808 kick drum.

The main amp envelope also needs some attention. With a very short attack time, a lower decay volume and a longer release, you begin to hear the classic 808 signature sound. A Lowpass4 filter is also added to the mix to finishing shaping the sound. You can add a boost to the low end frequencies in either the EQ in NI Massive or in your DAW. This is a personal preference thing, though an EQ in your DAW will probably provide you with a lot more control. That wraps up this NI Massive 808 kick drum sound!

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OhmLab