A phat 808 bass can make or break a song. Therefore, it’s extremely important for EVERY beatmaker to have a decent selection of quality bass one-shots.. but what are good 808 samples in the first place? Well, obviously they should sound good, but they should also be tuned and key-labeled so you can drag them right into your project file, without the need to find out the right key. Most of the 808 sample packs below match all of these criteria. Let’s go!
Spinz Inspired 808s (Free)
As most of the time, I’m starting this list with a freebie, because I know that it can be super annoying searching for some great tools to have more fun and better results in the studio, but everyone just wants to cash in. Our “Spinnin’ 808 One-Shots” pack is filled with 20 bass shots, inspired by the infamous DJ Spinz 808. They’ve all been rendered in C and are 100% royalty-free + free to download. Pretty sure you’ll love this one!
Deception 808 Essentials
Next up is our premium 808 sample pack “Deception”. While producing this one we tried to put every 808 sound you could possibly need into a single sample pack. You’ll get a total of 201 tuned-to-C 808s, which are divided into the 3 main categories: clean, hard, and long. Each category is filled with dozens of high-quality samples, covering a wide range of different sound characteristics. If there’s only one 808 pack you should get, it’s definitely this one.
808 VIP – Serum Presets
If you don’t like just picking samples out of a sample pack and would rather prefer to shape your own sounds, you might be interested in 808 VIP. Creating this pack, we started off by importing over a hundred different 808s as Serum tables. This way, you get the exact harmonic structure of any 808, but have full control over things like pitch envelope, attack, decay, sustain, release, etc. Needless to say, you’ll also receive plenty of bonus content, including 60 Serum presets, multi-sampled one-shots, kicks, loops, and MIDIs.
Reticence Phonk Drum Kit
Looking for something nasty? Something you won’t find in “normal” sample packs? Well, the Reticence Phonk drum kit is filled with 500 heavily distorted samples, including drum shots, cowbells, melodies, MIDIs, and most importantly: 808s. Yes, it isn’t a “pure” 808 pack, but if you’re going for that really strange, noisy Phonk aesthetic, you might wanna check this out.
Bangin’ 808s
Bangin’ 808s was our first paid 808 pack and made during a time where hardly distorted 808s weren’t as popular as they are today. The pack isn’t dated by any means and still contains over a hundred hard-knocking one-shots. However, they’re rather low and boomy, compared to the bright sounds you’ll often hear in Trap beats today. If this is the style you’re going for you won’t find any better pack. In addition to the 110 one-shots, you’ll also get 30 audio and 30 MIDI loops.
Other 808 Kits (Free)
As you might already know we’re releasing free Trap drum kits on a quite regular basis, and as is common for decent Trap drum kits they all contain a few 808s. We just switched to rendering all 808s in C a few months ago, so some of the “older” trap sample packs still contain 808s in different keys. However, they’re all key-labeled, so this shouldn’t be a big problem at all. Anyways, I’d say the kits with the coolest 808s are our Lex Luger drum kit, the Butterfly Hip Hop Drum Kit (inspired by Murda Beatz), and this Ronny J / MGK style kit.
However, if you’d like to check our full catalog and stuff by other sound design labels as well, go take a closer look at this post here: https://bvker.com/free-drum-kits/
808 Warfare by Producers Choice*
To be honest, it would be kind of weird making a post about the best 808 sample packs, without talking about stuff NOT made by BVKER. In contrast to the previously mentioned products, 808 Warfare by The Producers Choice is a Kontakt library filled with 41 Kontakt patches, which consist of 169 samples, which “rattle the walls”. Just like Bangin’ 808s, this one is rather suitable for the old-schoolers among us. Definitely worth taking a look at.
808 Trill by Production Master*
Talking about third-party packs, the next one is called 808 Trill and it has been made by the incredible guys from Production Master. Although they say that it’s inspired by the likes of Travis Scott, Kendrick Lamar, and Juice WRLD, I’d say it’s rather suitable for EDM Trap than Hip Hop, but if this is the style you’re going for you’ll love it. No question. It comes with 101 handcrafted Serum Presets, plus 30 Serum wavetables, currently priced at $33.00.
808 Earthquake by BigFishAudio*
The 808 Earthquake sample pack by BigFishAudio is actually the only one in here, which mainly focuses on 808 loops instead of one-shots. To be more precise: 990 Apple Loops, 974 WAV, and 596 REX Files, which is needless to say a massive download. Unfortunately, this massive download also has a price of over 100 dollars, so this probably won’t be a great fit for most of our budgets.. but who knows, it might be exactly what you’re looking for.
808 Bass Samples by Apollo Sound*
Last, but not least comes the 808 Bass Sample library by Apollo Sound. It contains a total of 400 files in different formats, including one-shots, MIDI loops, Serum presets, and Kontakt synths. Fortunately, all loops and samples are key + BPM labeled, which is always a huge time saver and a must for every sound design label to do if you ask me. Just like most packs on Loopmasters you can purchase each format individually. The entire pack costs $27.74.
Additional Resources
Yes, it’s important for every producer to have a decent selection of great-sounding samples and presets. However, buying or downloading free sample packs alone doesn’t make you a better producer. In the end, it’s up to your skills. You should know how to shape your 808s and how to come up with great MIDI patterns. Therefore, we also wrote these additional resources you shouldn’t sleep on: