
Portamento square wave lead sound. You have probably heard this type of lead on many trance and/or house songs. Its one of the “bread and butter” -sounds in electronic music.
Listen the audio example to get a hang of what I’m talking about (with some vibration added):
Ok. This is how you re-create this sound using FL Studio’s 3xOsc:
1. Load 3xOsc and choose Square Wave as the shape for each three oscillators and set the Coarse Tune to 0 Semitones for each.

2. Go to the MISC -tab and under Polyphony click on Porta to enable Portamento mode and tweak the Slide -knob to 0:05 (with Slide -knob you set the slide length between the notes).

Now, to make it vibrate, set the LFO to modulate the pitch:
3. Go to the INS -tab and from there to PITCH -subtab. Under the LFO -section, turn the AMT -knob (LFO Amount) slightly left or right from its default position (center), SPD (LFO Speed) to radically left, ATT (Attack Time) to 2/6 from left and DEL (Predelay Time) all the way to left.

Here’s what the knobs do:
- AMT set the modulation amount. Delicate setting is the key for nice sounding vibrato, but of course you can use whatever setting you want.
- SPD set the speed of the modulation. Fast but not TOO fast sounds quite allright.
- ATT sets the attack length in the modulation i.e., how fast or slow the modulation is fully effective after a note starts.
- DEL adds a gap between the start of a note and when the modulation kicks in.
And finally, some ambience and echo with Reverb and Delay:
4. Assign the 3xOsc to a free Mixer track and drop Fruity Reeverb 2 and Fruity Delay 2 to its effect slot and set them like this. First Fruity Reeverb:

And Fruity Delay 2:

Also, if you think the lead sounds too sharp or “piercing”, drop Fruity Parametric EQ 2 to the effect slot and use High Shelf filter to reduce the higher frequencies:

And there you have it: portamento square wave lead sound with vibrato effect! 🙂
Watch the video below and download the FL Studio project file:
Download Portamento Square Wave Lead Sound FL Studio Project File.
16 Comments
Great Tutorial! I like this sound =D
Thanks! Kind of retro sound, eh? 8)
Yeah, its old scool, but it really a sweet lead sound.
https://soundcloud.com/ctrlknob/portamento-lead-htmem
works kind a nice with the beat 8)
I just went through this tutorial and the only sound I receive is a High Pitched screeching. I watched your tutorial twice and re-read it several times, also re-checked all my knobs and effects, with the same result. Is there something I am missing? Thanks.
Hey Denise,
That is strange.. have you tried the .flp file I provided? How does that sound?
The .flp file you provided is fine and sounds like it should.
I tried to make this sound on my workstation right now and sounds as it is supposed to… Probably you are forgetting something somewhere
Denise,
How does is sound when you load 3xOsc and choose square as the shape for each three oscillators and set the coarse tune to 0 semitones? Does it screech already at that stage?
Yes, it does. However, I used 3xOsc for another one of your tutorials and it works fine. Maybe if I just start over and re-create it, it will work.
thanks, will give it a try
BTW, im gonna try panning it Left to Right to see what i get, any thoughts or ideas?
Mine sounds like Lady GaGa _ Jus dance Lead.I like it.
Can you send me the notes, so I can paste them in piano roll?
The lead + 303-ish tutorial of yours, sounds like this when shuffled into funky thing! 🙂
https://clyp.it/ttxsio0o
Hey man that was actually quite nice tune! 😎