How to Slide 808s in FL Studio

In this FL Studio tutorial, you will learn how to slide 808s in FL Studio (also known as gliding an 808).

Different Ways to Slide an 808 in FL Studio

There’s two main ways to slide an 808 in FL Studio.. that is:

• Slide Notes (the triangle note)
• Using the Slide Knob (Under Channel Settings -> Miscellaneous functions -> “Polyphony tab”)

Note, the “Slide Knob” approach does not work for third-party VSTs like think I suggested in the beginner 808 tutorial.

In order to slide notes in third-party VSTs, look for their own built in “portamento knob”. You will want to enable “mono” if dealing with bass instruments.

Slide Notes in the Piano Roll

In order to use a slide note, you must play a real note, then layer a slide note over top! If you try to play a slide note by itself, you will not hear sound!

PRO-TIP.. The higher up/down you go with a note, the more aggressive the slide.. (also, the LENGTH of the note can be adjusted for more/less slide sound.. AND.. you can also adjust velocity on the slide note for more/less slide, too!).

To access a slide note, simply open up the Piano roll and click the “Slide”:

Here’s a clearer picture of a slide note over top of a regular note:

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Slide Knob Approach

YOU DO NOT USE SLIDE NOTES when using the “Slide Knob”.. you just use regular notes which overlap!

The Slide Knob is located under Channel Settings -> Miscellaneous tab -> Polyphony:

Simply select either Porta or Mono to enable the slide knob.

Now this Polyphony area is a really tricky tab to understand.

Polyphony means how many notes you’re allowed to play at once (a common technique to reduce the amount of CPU usage by reducing the amount of notes played at once).

You can set MAX to 1 to only allow one note to play, and enable “Porta” which will enable slide between notes, but it’s not that same 808 glide you are looking for. This will trigger a brand-new note each key press, which allows for a HARD note slide.

Most often, the slide we are looking for is by enabling the Mono option (do not have both porta and mono enabled, as mono will take precedence I believe!).

With Mono enabled, you can now adjust the slide knob, hold down a note.. and with that same note held down, press another note. You will hear the slide happen.

However, you will notice you may not have much time to fit in a slide note because a one-shot sound is so quick (as it follows the ADSR Volume Envelope).

A little work around is to send the sound to Edison, create your own loop points, and drag it back into the Channel Rack to use. (If you do this, make sure your loop points are not in-between points, otherwise you’ll hear a nasty click.. sometimes that can be powerful for your high-end melodies, though 🙂)

When you drag the sound back into the Channel rack, you’ll have to enable “Use loop points”.. this allows you to have a sound with an endless sustain length! You can then enable your Volume Envelope to adjust ADSR and fine-tune your new sound!

How to Slide 808s (Glide with Portamento/Mono)

To recap..

When using an 808, you want to enable “cut itself” if you are using a sample-based 808 (not a Virtual Instrument) for the cleanest sound.

The easiest way to slide 808s is to use a slide note in the Piano roll.

This slide note only works for one-shot sounds, or certain FL Studio native plugins!

To slide notes in a third-party plugin, look for “mono, portamento, or legato”, as well as a slide knob that you use in conjunction with those options.

There is also the slide knob option.. to understand this is a little tricky.. you use Mono if you are working with bass (to not have the bass overlap, but still get that slide sound). You will also want to disable cut itself to take advantage of mono and the slide knob.

If you use Porta (portamento), it will trigger a fresh sound, and “slide into the new key press”, but still trigger a new hit hard, which isn’t the same as sliding an 808 with mono.

At the end of the day, using a slide note is the easiest approach for one-shot sounds and native FL Studio plugins 🙂