Hmm, that's interesting, Bit.  I'm going to have to try that, thanks for sharing.  I don't use reverb for much of anything at all.  Never really liked it.  Ha ha.  

DanBailiff
...things are coming back around again to where pop music is embracing synths as a genuine instrument that isn't trying to be something else. I think it's awesome. We have a lot to be grateful for in this revival.

So now we have other related things like gated reverb making a comeback because they were a huge part of that retro sound. I'm not going to complain about it, it is what it is.

I also like that synths are coming back.  I don't mind the return of gated reverb (yet).  What I don't like is the return of mickey mouse sampling.
 
 

Yeah, it's because everyone is getting into Retro-Futurism, that basically is reviving the 80's scifi dystopia culture.  The fascination is with how we in the 80's viewed the future of 2020 or even further.  But that means all of the music is coming back and also being busted into 100 sub-genres.  CyberPunk, VaporWave, SynthWave... I can't even think of any more than that.  I mean... I can't lie.  I like it, having grown up in the 80's.

Is the 808 is the reason the reason for the neighbor kid's car trunk lid rattling so much when he drives by?
 
Hey bit - on the notion of envelopes - did you ever try the trick loading up a long impulse into a convolution verb and dinking with the envelope there? It might be a new twist on an old hack. I think some convo verbs allow for dynamics to alter the envelopes (not recalling which ones ATM)
 

The good old Perfect Space is perfect for tweaking IRs. Plus there are gobs of off-the-wall IRs out there, e.g. unusual spaces such as the inside of a wastebasket. And, of course, there are gated reverb IRs. I'd be surprised if someone hasn't sampled the classic SSL talkback gate that started the whole gated-reverb phenomenon in the first place.

Just to be argumentative, the 808's circuit was designed the way it was because it fit the technology of the time and kept it cheap. It's nothing more than a damped resonant filter, something that in another context might be considered just a really bad oscillator. A very similar circuit is also used for the faux-toms. The clever part was how they got the attack, using a technique not far removed from the trick used in Hammonds to generate even-harmonic percussion.
 
The cymbal effect was indeed clever, though. And the handclap sound still stands up today. Not because it sounds like hands clapping, of course, but because it's a satisfying percussive sound. It can, however, be blended with actual clap samples (or snare) to nice effect.
 
Here's the actual 808 bass drum schematic, for the hopeless nerds in the audience...the meat of the circuit is op-amp U12.
 

 
I found the above image here, which also includes a pretty good overview of how it works, as well as how to emulate it in software.

Ah, yes, my mistake. The 808 had only one resonant filter (and with pitch decay).
It was the TR-606 that had a second one for the beater part of the sound.