FL Studio 808 Chain: The Stock Plugins, in Order, With Settings (Tune, Saturate, Sidechain, Clip)

The short answer: an FL Studio 808 chain is four stock plugins on the 808's mixer track, in this order: Fruity Parametric EQ 2 to clear the rumble below the note and any boxiness above it, Fruity Fast Dist (or Fruity Blood Overdrive) for the harmonics that make an 808 audible on phones, Fruity Limiter in COMP mode sidechained from the kick so the kick punches through, and Fruity Soft Clipper last to round off the peaks. Before any of it, tune the 808 to the song's key with FL's Tuner (Bass switched on), and keep the track mono by turning its stereo separation knob fully clockwise. Image-Line lists every one of these in every FL Studio edition. 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 FL Studio chain that carries them out. Ableton and Logic users: the Ableton 808 chain and the Logic Pro 808 chain build the same stages from stock devices. There's no FL Studio build of my mastering chain, but one runs inside FL, disclosed at the end.

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 in the 808's first effect slot and switch on Bass. Image-Line says Bass adds an octave to the lower detection range to improve accuracy below 40 Hz, at the cost of a slower reading (around 100 ms).
2. Play one long 808 note and read the note name and the offset. If the sample glides, read the sustained part of the tail, not the attack.
3. Set the sampler's root note to match. Open the 808 channel's settings, go to the Miscellaneous tab (the wrench), and right-click the key that matches the detected note. FL's default root key for the Sampler is C5, which is why an untouched 808 often plays out of tune in the piano roll.
4. Write the 808 in the song's key, then remove or bypass the Tuner. It's a meter, not part of the sound.

If you prefer an analyzer, the free Voxengo SPAN shows the nearest note and cents when you hover over the fundamental.

These are the fundamentals in the octave most 808s live in (A at 440 Hz tuning). Octave numbering differs between apps, FL included, so go by the frequency.

The chain, in order (settings chart)

Why this order: the EQ cleans up before the distortion, so the distortion doesn't amplify rumble. Distortion goes before the sidechain, because distortion after the duck would flatten it back out. The clipper goes last so it sees the final peaks. If your 808 notes jump in level from one note to the next, a Fruity Limiter or Fruity Compressor at around 4:1 with 2 to 3 dB of reduction before the distortion evens them out; on most 808s, the distortion and the clipper do that job already.

Warmer instead of grittier: swap Fast Dist for Fruity Blood Overdrive. Keep Pre Amp low, use Post Gain to bring the level back down (Image-Line says the boosted signal can reach 300% of the input), and use Post Filter to tame fizz. Use the plugin's own MIX or gain controls for blending, not the mixer slot's mix knob: Image-Line advises leaving slot mix knobs at 100%, because blending a plugin with latency against the dry signal can cause phasing, and in the low end that's power you lose.

Control labels can differ between FL versions, so treat the plugin window and Image-Line's manual as the authority.

How to set it up

1. Give the 808 and the kick their own mixer tracks. Route each channel in the Channel Rack to its own insert, so the kick can drive the sidechain and the 808 can carry its own chain.
2. Tune it with the steps above, then load Fruity Parametric EQ 2. Right-click a band's token and use its Key option to center the band on a note's fundamental, which is handy if one note booms louder than the rest.
3. Add the distortion and check it on a phone. Bounce eight bars or play through your phone or laptop speakers. If the 808 disappears, add drive or MIX; if it fizzes, back off or switch to Blood Overdrive.
4. Route the kick as a sidechain. Select the kick's mixer track, right-click the send switch at the bottom of the 808's mixer track, and choose Sidechain to this track. Then, in Fruity Limiter's COMP tab, right-click the SIDECHAIN control and choose the kick's track. The kick isn't heard on the 808 track; it only feeds the compressor.
5. Set the duck. Lower THRESH and raise RATIO until each kick takes 3 to 6 dB off the 808, then set REL 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.
6. Add Fruity Soft Clipper last and match its POST to the bypassed level, so you judge the shape and not the volume.
7. Turn the 808 track's stereo separation knob fully clockwise. If the sample is already mono it changes nothing, which is fine: it's insurance against stereo samples and layers.
8. Save the chain. Right-click the mixer track and use File > Save mixer track state as, 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 wideners and chorus. A wide 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.
• Distortion at 100% 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 Master to make the 808 hit. It hides the balance problem instead of fixing it. The FL Studio mix bus chain explains why the default template's limiter comes off while you mix.

How Fruity Soft Clipper compares with other clippers is in the best clipper plugins, and the free alternatives to Fast Dist are in the best free saturation plugins.

Then the master

The 808 chain stays on the 808 track when you bounce the mix; it's part of the sound. What comes off is anything on the Master: if you're sending the song to a mastering engineer, bounce with the master bus processing bypassed (my own stereo mastering intake asks for exactly that). If you're mastering it yourself, the FL Studio mastering chain covers every stage with stock plugins.

There's no FL Studio stock build of my own mastering chain. The Ultimate Master Chain for Waves runs in FL through Waves StudioRack, and two of its 8 macros 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 StudioRack and the seven Waves plugins listed on its page. The Ultimate Master Chain for Ozone also loads in FL wherever Ozone does. 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 FL Studio? On the 808's mixer track: Fruity Parametric EQ 2 with a 20 to 30 Hz low cut, Fruity Fast Dist blended in for harmonics, Fruity Limiter in COMP mode sidechained from the kick for 3 to 6 dB of ducking, and Fruity Soft Clipper last. Tune the 808 first and keep the track mono.

How do I make my 808 louder in FL Studio? Make it more audible, not just louder: add distortion so phones can hear its harmonics, clip the peaks with Fruity Soft Clipper, 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 FL Studio? Select the kick's mixer track, right-click the send switch on the 808's track and choose Sidechain to this track. Then load Fruity Limiter on the 808, switch to the COMP tab, set SIDECHAIN to the kick's track, and lower THRESH for 3 to 6 dB of ducking with a fast attack and a short release.

How do I find the key of my 808 in FL Studio? Load the stock Tuner on the 808's track with Bass switched on, play a long note, and read the note name. Then right-click that key in the channel's Miscellaneous settings to set the root note, so the piano roll plays it in tune.