> Technique

808 note lengths

Paying attention to the length of your 808 bass drum notes can help give your tracks more punch and impact. For example, if you’ve used a quick succession of low notes, you might find that the first note doesn’t end completely before the second one, leading to a fuzzy and undefined sound as tails blur into each other. To get around this, leave a small gap between each note so that there’s time for the previous one to end before the next one plays.

It’s also worth experimenting with note lengths to accent other parts of your arrangement – for example, try shorter notes for a verse with longer ones on the chorus, or make the first note in a phrase longer than the others to accent the start of that phrase.