Review: X-EIGHT 808 Bass VST Plugin

The bass sounds of the legendary 808 drum machine from Roland have become indispensable in many styles of music today. Sub-bass is often additionally distorted so that it can also be heard on small loudspeakers. In Trap music, this technique has developed into its sound signature. So if you make Trap music, sooner or later you will need distorted sub-bass sounds, because you can hear them in every song of the genre at the moment.

X-Eight by Thenatan is actually a sub-bass 808 virtual instrument and is therefore particularly interesting for Trap producers. The more than 1000 presets, many of which can be used well in making beats and other productions, sound really good and mostly pretty brutal. With some presets, there is not much sub-bass left due to the distortion.

The GUI is clear, not too many functions, and focused on instant results. Visually, everything is reminiscent of old military equipment and thus also of the computer games in the Fallout series. A nice change from the often sterile-looking GUIs of other plugins.

At the top you select the preset, the bank is set a little further down, under expansion. There are ten categories: Aggressive, Bangerz, Bloodgem, Deepflow, Distorted, Kicker, Legendary, Noiza, Smoke, and Wierd. That’s how you get over 1000 presets, which is quite official for a plugin that can only do distorted bass sounds.

Below that, the amp section allows for treble and bass boosts, while next to it is an LFO section with rate and depth controls. The Mod Wheel, Aftertouch, or Velocity can be selected as the source. There are also five waveforms available: Triangle, Sine, Saw, Square, and Exponent.

The next section deals with the envelope: Attack, Decay, Sustain and Release. This is especially important with hip-hop beats. On the one hand, the bass can start with a slight delay and thus make room for the kick, on the other hand, its decay can be perfectly coordinated with the following snare. If the release trigger decay function is activated, the sound is only played when the key is released.

At the bottom of the display, there is a small keyboard with a total of four octaves for playing sounds if you don’t have a keyboard or controller at hand. That’s quite practical, I see trap producers who limit themselves to their work on their laptop and the FL studio again and again. There are also two controls, one for glide (poly, mono, legato) and one for tuning. The sound can be detuned in both directions by up to 200 percent.