a cool site I've frequented for many years that got me thinking about music production

if you're a big fan of video game music and music production - visit here and maybe contribute to the library of your favorite games.  they always review and judge new submissions to be added and there is a catalog of some really good stuff up there

I notice in a lot of KRNE tracks, and in songs by other artists like Goldwater who are really mobile with their 808s, some releases of the 808 are short, while some are long.  They have a bounce to them - could anyone explain to me how to effectively use the ADSR to make my 808s not sound so flat?  So maybe some have long release, some don't, maybe play around with the sustain for expression?

My abilities in this realm are really limited and I'm sick of avoiding it.  What's the easiest way to approach this, specifically in Ableton?  A sampler and automating ADSR, or using audio samples and just using volume automation to "mimic" playing with the ADSR?  I use the Hip Hop sub bass preset in Ableton for Operator which is awesome, but I'm thinking maybe it's time to learn how to automate the parameters effectively.

So lost here lol