Ableton 808 Chain: The Stock Devices, in Order, With Settings (Tune, Saturate, Sidechain, Clip)

The short answer: an Ableton 808 chain is five stock devices after Simpler on the 808's track, in this order: Utility on Mono so everything after it works on a mono 808, EQ Eight to clear the rumble below the note and any boxiness above it, Saturator (the Bass Shaper curve in Live 12.1 or later) for the harmonics that make an 808 audible on phones, Compressor sidechained from the kick so the kick punches through, and a soft clip stage last to round off the peaks: a second Saturator, or Limiter in Soft Clip mode on Live 12.1 or later. Before any of it, tune the 808 to the song's key with Live's Tuner. Tuner, Utility, Saturator, Compressor and Limiter ship in every Live edition; EQ Eight needs Standard or Suite. The chain controls the 808; it can't fix an 808 in the wrong key or programmed on top of every kick.

I've mixed low end for my own releases (Sony, Universal, Ultra, Dim Mak, 50M+ streams). How to mix 808 and kick covers the decisions in any DAW; this is the stock Ableton chain that carries them out. FL Studio users get the same stages in the FL Studio 808 chain, and Logic users in the Logic Pro 808 chain. I sell an Ableton mastering chain, disclosed at the end; it's the stage after this one.

Before the chain: find the note

An out-of-tune 808 sounds wrong no matter what you put after it, so tuning comes first.

1. Load Tuner after Simpler on the 808's track. Hold C3 so Simpler plays one long note at the sample's original pitch, and read the note name. Flip the Hertz/Cents switch to see the frequency instead of the cents offset. If the sample glides, switch to Histogram View: it draws the pitch over time, so you can read the sustained part of the tail instead of the attack.
2. Line Simpler up with the piano roll. Ableton's manual says Simpler plays a sample at its original pitch when it receives C3. So if the Tuner reads F while you hold C3, set Simpler's Transpose to -5 st (F down to C), then use Detune (up to 50 cents either way) until the Tuner reads 0 cents. Now C3 plays a C, and every note in the piano roll plays what it says.
3. Write the 808 in the song's key, then delete or switch off the Tuner. It's a meter, not part of the sound.

If you prefer an analyzer, Live's Spectrum device (Standard and Suite) shows the frequency and note name under the pointer when you hover over the fundamental, and the free Voxengo SPAN shows the nearest note and cents in any edition.

These are the fundamentals in the octave most 808s live in (A at 440 Hz tuning). Octave numbering differs between apps, and Live calls middle C "C3", so go by the frequency.

The chain, in order (settings chart)

Why this order: Utility goes first so nothing downstream ever sees a stereo low end. The EQ cleans up before the saturation, so the saturation doesn't amplify rumble. Saturation goes before the sidechain, because saturation after the duck would flatten it back out. The clip stage goes last so it sees the final peaks. If your 808 notes jump in level from one note to the next, a Compressor at around 4:1 with 2 to 3 dB of reduction before the Saturator evens them out; on most 808s, the saturation and the clip stage do that job already.

The Limiter as the clip stage (Live 12.1 or later): switch its Ceiling Mode to Soft Clip and raise Input Gain until the loudest hits show 1 to 2 dB on the gain reduction meter. Use a Lookahead of 3 or 6 ms; Ableton's manual notes that shorter lookahead times can increase distortion, especially on bass.

Grittier, or more punch: swap the first Saturator for Drum Buss (Standard and Suite). Use the Soft or Medium drive type (Hard adds a bass boost you rarely want on an 808), add Crunch for distortion on the mid-high harmonics, use Damp to tame fizz, and blend with Dry/Wet. Leave Boom at 0 unless the 808 sits on one note: Boom adds a resonance at a single frequency (Force To Note snaps it to the nearest note), and one frequency can't follow a bassline that moves. Leave Comp off too; the sidechain stage handles the dynamics.

Deeper, on Live 12 Suite: Roar gives you a choice of shaper curves, filters and routing modes, with its own Compress, Output and Dry/Wet controls. Start in Single routing with one gentle curve, keep Compress low, and blend with Dry/Wet in the same 20 to 50% range.

The Glue Compressor as the duck (Standard and Suite) has the same sidechain section, but its release steps start at 0.1 s, so 100 ms is as short as it goes. That's the slow end of the range; the Compressor's continuous Release is easier to time to the beat.

Tuner, Utility, Saturator, Compressor, Limiter and Simpler ship in every Live edition. EQ Eight, Spectrum, Drum Buss and the Glue Compressor need Standard or Suite, and Roar needs Live 12 Suite. On Intro, skip the low cut rather than reach for Channel EQ's HP 80 Hz switch: 80 Hz sits above most 808 fundamentals and would thin the note itself. Control names can differ between Live versions, so treat the device and Ableton's manual as the authority.

How to set it up

1. Give the 808 and the kick their own tracks. Put the 808 in Simpler on its own MIDI track, and the kick on its own track or in a Drum Rack, so the kick can drive the sidechain and the 808 can carry its own chain.
2. Tune it with the steps above, then load Utility (Mono on) and EQ Eight. In EQ Eight, turn on Audition with the headphone icon and click and hold a band's dot to hear only that filter while you hunt for the boxy spot.
3. Add Saturator and check it on a phone. Export eight bars or play through your phone or laptop speakers. If the 808 disappears, add Drive or Dry/Wet; if it fizzes, back off. Hi-Quality in Saturator's context menu reduces aliasing for a little more CPU.
4. Route the kick as a sidechain. Load Compressor, open its sidechain section with the toggle in the title bar, and turn on Sidechain. In the first Audio From chooser pick the kick's track, and in the second pick Post FX. If the kick lives in a Drum Rack, pick the rack's track first and the kick's chain in the second chooser. The kick isn't heard on the 808 track; it only triggers the compressor, and the headphones button lets you hear exactly what's triggering it.
5. Set the duck. Lower Threshold until each kick takes 3 to 6 dB off the 808, then set Release so the 808 is back before the next hit. Short releases tied to the tempo work well; the tempo calculator gives you note lengths in ms, and sidechain compression explained covers the theory.
6. Add the clip stage last and match its output to the bypassed level, so you judge the shape and not the volume. Saturator's Shaper Curve display shows the signal against the curve in real time, so you can see when only the loudest hits reach the bend.
7. Check mono. If the sample is already mono, Utility's Mono changes nothing, which is fine: it's insurance against stereo samples, layers and Spread.
8. Save the chain. Select the effect devices, group them into an Audio Effect Rack (Cmd/Ctrl+G) and save it to your User Library, so every beat starts from the same 808 chain.
9. Balance it against the kick and a reference. Mute test, phone test, then a commercial track in your genre at matched loudness; how to use reference tracks covers the matching.

What not to put on the 808

• Stereo width and chorus. Utility's Width above 100% or a chorus device on the 808 loses power in mono and fights everything else in the low end. What stereo imaging is explains why the sub stays in the center.
• Big sub boosts. Boosting 40 Hz to make the 808 "bigger" eats headroom you'll need at mastering, and phones still can't play it. Harmonics are how an 808 gets bigger on small speakers.
• Saturation at 100% Dry/Wet with no blend. The grit replaces the sub instead of riding on it, and the 808 gets louder on phones and weaker on a system.
• Reverb. Long tails on an 808 turn the low end to mud. If you want space, put it on the top layer, not the sub.
• A Limiter on the Main track to make the 808 hit. It hides the balance problem instead of fixing it. The Ableton mix bus chain explains why the Limiter stays off the Main track while you mix.

How Saturator's soft clip and the Limiter's Soft Clip mode compare with other clippers is in the best clipper plugins, and the free alternatives to Saturator are in the best free saturation plugins.

Then the master

The 808 chain stays on the 808 track when you export; it's part of the sound. What comes off is anything on the Main track (called the Master track before Live 12): if you're sending the song to a mastering engineer, export with the Main track's devices switched off (my own stereo mastering intake asks for exactly that). If you're mastering it yourself, the Ableton mastering chain covers every stage with stock devices.

The Ultimate Master Chain for Ableton is my own version of that stage, built entirely from Ableton stock devices as one rack with 8 macros. Two of them are the ones 808-heavy records lean on: LOWS (harder hits or a cleaner sit for the bass) and MONO-MKR (which frequencies stay mono). It needs Live 10 or newer, Standard or Suite. I'm biased; get the 808 tuned, saturated and ducked first, and any mastering chain has an easier job.

Quick answers

What is a good 808 chain in Ableton? After Simpler on the 808's track: Utility on Mono, EQ Eight with a 20 to 30 Hz low cut, Saturator on the Bass Shaper curve blended in for harmonics, Compressor sidechained from the kick for 3 to 6 dB of ducking, and a soft clip stage last. Tune the 808 first with Live's Tuner.

How do I make my 808 louder in Ableton? Make it more audible, not just louder: saturate it so phones can hear its harmonics, clip the peaks with Saturator's soft clip or the Limiter's Soft Clip mode, keep it mono, and duck it under the kick so the two stop fighting. Turning up the sub alone eats headroom.

How do I sidechain an 808 to a kick in Ableton? Load Compressor on the 808, open its sidechain section from the title bar, turn on Sidechain and choose the kick's track in Audio From. Then set a ratio of 4:1 or higher, a fast attack, a 30 to 100 ms release, and lower Threshold for 3 to 6 dB of ducking on each kick.

How do I tune an 808 in Ableton? Load Tuner after Simpler, hold C3 and read the note. Simpler plays the sample at its original pitch on C3, so set its Transpose, then its Detune, until C3 plays a C at 0 cents. From then on, the piano roll plays every note in tune.