I have been trying to recreate the 808 and 909 rimshots on the AR2 and no matter how much I try I can’t get the same woody “cluck” as the originals or even the Behringer clones. I’m not sure why this is but does anyone have any suggestions on how to duplicate the sounds exactly, not using samples, obviously.
I don’t have an AR but in general you have to use a triangle wave and a short envelope and then distort/clip the hell out of it. You only need one oscillator
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Try the fm snare. I never tried to get exactly that rim shot sound, but fm snare would be my go to. Maybe also try SD Classic, short decay obviously and then tweak the pitch and detune to get the right sound.
I’ll see if I can get 808/909 rimshots out of it later.
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An old, but still great resource is the Synth Secrets series from Sound on Sound.
The essence of 808/909 is simplicity rather than multiple wave forms or filters.
https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/synthesizing-cowbells-claves
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I got a somewhat 909 ish rim shot, maybe you can fine tune it a bit more…
SD FM
TUN -1
FM Tune +5
FM Decay 40
Decay 6
FM Amount 55
Noise Decay 0
Noise Level 0
Overdrive 17
Play with Overdrive, tuning and fm tuning, I’m sure it’s possible to get it closer to the 909 rim shot.
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Thanks, I tried your settings and it’s almost there but it’s still lacking that cluck, not easy to explain exactly what I mean. I have just been using the Rytm rimshot machines. Here are a couple of samples of the sounds I’m trying to replicate.
You’d think it would be an easy one to replicate but it’s very subtle and still eluding me.
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I know what you mean, I couldn’t really get that clonky wood sound. Turning up the overdrive seemed to get it more into that direction, but at some point it seemed to lack in other ways…
Maybe needs more experimentation, maybe it’s not possible. Maybe we have to layer it with a second voice that does the “clunk” part.
But even on the oscilloscope, it’s already very similar to the 909, but only 95%…
I’ll try the 808 later.
The 909 rim consisted of three oscillators; the AR rim machine consisted of two oscillators, so an additional filter self-oscillator sound was used to simulate the three oscillator sound.
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Thanks, if the 909 rim consisted of 3 oscillators that would explain a lot. The 808 rimshot seems to have at least 2 components, the main body of the sound and a higher woody knock but I read somewhere that it was just a single oscillator. Did you sample the self oscillation and add it as another layer?
As a third oscillator, the self-oscillating sound of a high-pass filter or peak filter is used.
The corresponding frequencies are not exact, but they are roughly like this.
- rim-osc1 -1000hz
- rim-osc2 -700hz
- High-pass filter- 300hz
AR Patches are included in the bandcamp bonus item, so download it!
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Use a sample?
Missing the point.
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You could use a sample of a sine wave for the third osc and just pitch it to what ever frequency .
Thanks, that’s very interesting.
How?
The point is to use the machines in the Rytm to exactly replicate the rimshot sounds of the 808 and 909. Obviously you can get the sound using a sample but that’s not the point.
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Ah sorry I re-read your original post and you did say without samples.
I tried to reproduce the sound of an 808 rim shot. There were two peaks in the sound, so perhaps two oscillators were used.
Rim Shot Classic
OSC2 is responsible for the attack part of the 808’s Rim feature.
I modulated the balance parameter with the LFO so that OSC2 could be heard for a moment.
RIM3 808-ISH.arsnd (543 Bytes)
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This is the closest I’ve gotten so far but I still don’t think it’s got the cluck.
FM OVER.arsnd (520 Bytes)
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