From the radio to parties, music is a key element to get people’s attention and get them moving: bass! I know that I love a song where I can feel it in my chest. Bass that hits hard makes people feel a certain type of way. If it’s too distorted it takes over the song, but if it’s too soft, it’s no good. There are ways to get any bass to hit harder if you’re into making music. In FL Studio, you can either get 808s, or basses, from a plugin, or in .wav/.mp3 files. I typically get mine from the internet in file form so I will be using those as examples.

1: Normalizing

When you load up a file into a sample channel, you can them open them up to get a screen with a bunch of crazy options. (See Below)

You want to make sure that you don’t have loop on and that the time is reset. If you do not do these things, it will continue to play after you play a note and it will be an odd length depending on what you’re going for. After making everything default, you want to click the button that says “Normalize”. This will boost the noise to make everything in the clip a similar volume. In this case, it made it louder and deeper, in turn making it shake my speakers. (See Below)

2: Equalizing

If you have tried normalizing or it just wasn’t enough for you, you can always try equalizing. Every DAW has an EQ and if you don’t like the that one, there are plenty of more out there on the internet, both paid and free. Once you load the file into a sampler, put it in a mixer track. It should already be in one when you load it. Once that it done, go to your mixer track an open an EQ. I use Fruity Panoramic EQ, when it is open. Simply raise the low end just enough so it doesn’t start clipping. Clipping is a form of waveform distortion that occurs when an amplifier is over-driven and attempts to deliver an output voltage or current beyond its maximum capability. (See below for a good example of an EQ)

In this case, it’s not too loud, but it’s not quiet.

There are plenty more ways to get 808s to hit harder, but these are the easiest ways for a FL Studio user.