BOOM 808 Percussion Synth - Does it suck?

[K1TTENM1TTEN]

I guess I will make my question as blunt and to the point as possible - Does this RE suck? I know when it released people were not too impressed with it, but I saw that it is now at version 1.0.3 and was curious if anyone had any thought on it? It has a very low score in the shop as well, so I was curious why?

[joeyluck]

I wouldn't pay attention to the score. Folks might have been voting based on the price. Bitspeek has a score of 3.4, and I think that is a very well made RE—efficient, looks great (excellent job being made with SDK 1), sounds great, versatile... Yet people clearly voted based on whether it was worth it to them based on price.

I remember many folks feeling they have their 808's covered via sample libraries. However, this uses synthesis which makes it unique, but also opens itself up for criticism of how close it is to the real thing. I remember some saying that they appreciate the control, but would rather stick to their samples. I don't own it, but don't have any strong opinions one way or the other. But just wanted to chime in to say that the score probably is representative of it's value. Maybe having the sequencer built-in would have grabbed more people?

[Aquila]

Yeah Prop Shop's star rating doesn't really show the bigger picture of users' reviews. Build/Sound Quality, Ease Of Use and Value For Money are all rolled into one overall rating, which is far too vague to judge for yourself.

[WongoTheSane]

I have it and use it occasionally, I don't think it sucks at all. It does its job well. Lots of CV ins, and each sound has a separate audio out:

808.JPG (61.4 KiB) Viewed 4498 times

All voices can be tuned and most have a decay setting. That's pretty much it, I imagine the no-frills aspect of it is the reason why certain people didn't like it at the time. As joeyluck said, there's no sequencer, no effects, no nothing, just the 808 sounds. As I tend to use my own effects chains, it doesn't bother me.

[joeyluck]

I think some users also might have been miffed when suggesting a sequencer, only to see a separate device created in the shop? Dunno.

Oh reviews... We need reviews in the shop. Some say that it would bring out too much negativity; that's silly. Yes, please show us the one-star reviews backed by some words justifying it so the customer can likely dismiss it. I think reviews should be required when rating.

[K1TTENM1TTEN]

I think reviews should be required when rating.

I completely agree. But then again, I also think that reviews should be required when rating things period, high or low. I also completely believe that there should be a mechanism in place that shows how many votes have been casted as well. To me a device that has 4.2 stars after 100 reviews is worth looking at, as where a device that has 5 stars and only 4 reviews.

Back to the topic of BOOM 808 though, does it not really sound like a real 808? I would think it would be silly to name something after something so famous and not be able to attain "that sound."

[joeyluck]

Back to the topic of BOOM 808 though, does it not really sound like a real 808? I would think it would be silly to name something after something so famous and not be able to attain "that sound."

I didn't spend much time with it and wasn't one of the ones critiquing it's sound. And we don't have those responses to reference anymore...
It sounded close enough to me! The demos sound good!

[Skullture]

Get the free Phuturetone refill.. Contains a black box emulation http://www.phuturetone.com/

[Benedict]

I Tried and quite liked Boom 808. It probably isn't 100% spot on to the hardware but most sample sets are quite processed so that comparison is dangerous. I think people complained about lack of bass but IMO see my last point. While I never owned a real TR 808 I did have a TR 606 and it was pretty weedy by nature. Seems to me the desired 808 sound is the result of some heavy compression so if you did the same things with Boom 808 it should do a creditable job.

FWIW I didn't buy as I figured I could cover it using Kong's Tone/Noise modules or even raw Sine/Noise samples in NN-XT but that is me being DIY and Spartan.

[Dante]

I bought it to reproduce some tracks I already had from the 80's using it. It did the job very well so I don't know why anyone would complain about it being 100% the same as the real thing. Its close enough to be indistinguishable in a mix for all intents and purposes.

[K.Markov]

it's very ok. there's no identical original tr-808 either, afaik. bass? oh yes, it's booming

[Rice]

Get the free Phuturetone refill.. Contains a black box emulation http://www.phuturetone.com/

I ABSOLUTELY must concur about the Phuturetone refill...it's one of my favorite refills next JP's Kings of Kongs...aand hard to beat for FREE

[dvdrtldg]

Get the free Phuturetone refill.. Contains a black box emulation http://www.phuturetone.com/

Nice! thanks for that, glad I checked this thread

[Abstrax]

It seems to be pretty solid. I got it in the synth rig.

A question I do have though. The 'Analogify' knob doesn't seem to do anything. At least to the bass drum. Phase inverting an exact instance with analogify up while the other is at zero, results in silence. Did anyone else notice this?

[MDTerps2015]

I wouldn't pay attention to the score. Folks might have been voting based on the price. Bitspeek has a score of 3.4, and I think that is a very well made RE—efficient, looks great (excellent job being made with SDK 1), sounds great, versatile... Yet people clearly voted based on whether it was worth it to them based on price.

I remember many folks feeling they have their 808's covered via sample libraries. However, this uses synthesis which makes it unique, but also opens itself up for criticism of how close it is to the real thing. I remember some saying that they appreciate the control, but would rather stick to their samples. I don't own it, but don't have any strong opinions one way or the other. But just wanted to chime in to say that the score probably is representative of it's value. Maybe having the sequencer built-in would have grabbed more people?

So Joey what do you think of Papens Punch because im having a hard time using it. It just doesnt seem to fit into my projects quite right. Was wondering if anyone else had this problem but i do have all of Papen but geeetar synth.

[WongoTheSane]

It seems to be pretty solid. I got it in the synth rig.

A question I do have though. The 'Analogify' knob doesn't seem to do anything. At least to the bass drum. Phase inverting an exact instance with analogify up while the other is at zero, results in silence. Did anyone else notice this?

I wondered too. From the manual:

ANalogify adds analog variability, especially in volume. In the original TR-808, triggering the same instrument (ie the kick drum) repeatedly tended to increase the volume of subsequent hits. ANalogify at zero means sounds will be uniform from hit to hit, while at 10, there will be more variability for multiple quick hits, as well as in cymbal, open hat and closed hat sounds.

[joeyluck]

I wouldn't pay attention to the score. Folks might have been voting based on the price. Bitspeek has a score of 3.4, and I think that is a very well made RE—efficient, looks great (excellent job being made with SDK 1), sounds great, versatile... Yet people clearly voted based on whether it was worth it to them based on price.

I remember many folks feeling they have their 808's covered via sample libraries. However, this uses synthesis which makes it unique, but also opens itself up for criticism of how close it is to the real thing. I remember some saying that they appreciate the control, but would rather stick to their samples. I don't own it, but don't have any strong opinions one way or the other. But just wanted to chime in to say that the score probably is representative of it's value. Maybe having the sequencer built-in would have grabbed more people?

So Joey what do you think of Papens Punch because im having a hard time using it. It just doesnt seem to fit into my projects quite right. Was wondering if anyone else had this problem but i do have all of Papen but geeetar synth.

Well PunchBD is more of a complete kick drum synth. I'm not well-versed in it's use...

[dana]

Its good, these are the raw sounds you are getting not some wav kit.

To get the most out of the sounds you have to process them like you would with a hardware 808 - with saturation, compression etc. so bear that in mind.

[Davetheone]

I bought it hastily when it came out; after a couple of days of use I gave up.

I was a religious user of rebirth and this re doesn't come close to version 1.

D16 Nepheton and Drumazon rewired to ableton live with reason did the trick for me.

And now I can use them natively in reason 9.5; I'm coming back to reason; last version I owned before going to ableton and using it rewored to ableton was version 7 and then I stopped using it altogether.

[challism]

I have Boom 808. I got it as part of the synth rig. It's alright for what it does. I wish it had more tweakability, though. Just having pan, volume, decay and tuning on most of the drums is a bit underwhelming. But I do like how it has separate outs for each channel, and lots of cv inputs. That's nice. It's a good device to run with Lectric Panda's Propulsion.

That Phuturetone download link is broken. It says the file was moved or doesn't "live here anymore." Anybody have another link to the refill?

[calming]

Did you ever find a working link to these?

Thabk you!

[Re8et]

You get the Boom with the Synthetic rig 2 bundle, given you get Antidote as well as Viking, Predator, Glitch, 3xplex, Monopoly. It is a no brainer for start with.
I really like the boom in bass mode linked with the Lectric Panda PSQ sequencer and a good filter. It'd sat i'd sound better than modern Roland replicas hardware.

Maybe reasonexperts have the link.

[olive6741]

Did you ever find a working link to these?

Thabk you!

I downloaded it when it was available, I suppose it is no problem to share it as it was free.

[joeyluck]

Hey everybody, sharing files/ReFills (even if offered for free by the designer/developer) certainly goes against the terms for most all products. So we don't allow that here.

I appreciate those looking to help others.

But it amazes me that those who are looking for a certain ReFill would like to continue posting here with requests for others to share with them rather than contacting the designer/developer.

I removed the link from the post above.

Did you ever find a working link to these?

Thabk you!

I downloaded it when it was available, I suppose it is no problem to share it as it was free.

[olive6741]

Oh! Ok. I read the rules but wasn't clearly aware of this it seems. Won't happen again! Sorry for this.