How to Make a Drill Beat in FL Studio: Step-by-Step Guide

Drill sounds dark, raw and a little restless. That doesn't come from one magic plugin. It comes from a handful of building blocks: the tempo, where the snares land, shifting hi-hats and that gliding 808. In this guide you build a drill beat in FL Studio, from an empty project to a loop a rapper can actually write to.

What makes a beat a drill beat?

Play a few drill beats back to back and you'll hear the same ingredients again and again:

• A tempo around 140 BPM with a half-time feel, so the beat feels slower than the number suggests.
• Snares that don't always sit neatly on the beat. There's one fixed snare, and often a second one that's shifted. That's where the bounce comes from.
• Hi-hats with variation: straight 16ths mixed with triplets and short rolls.
• Gliding 808s that slide up or down between notes.
• Dark melodies in a minor key, often piano, strings or choirs.

Keep those five points in mind. Each step below works on one of them.

Step 1: set the tempo and key

Start with the tempo in FL Studio. A common starting point for drill is 140 BPM; most drill beats land somewhere between roughly 135 and 145 BPM. Want to know why tempo matters so much for a rapper's flow? Read what BPM means for a beat.

Working from a sample or a reference beat? Find its tempo and key first. You can do that for free with Beat Lab: drop in your file and you'll see the BPM and key. Now you know which key your 808 and melody need to be in.

Step 2: write a dark chord progression or melody

Drill leans on minor keys. Pick a minor key and keep it simple: two to four chords on repeat often work better than a complicated progression. The tension will come from the drums and the 808 later on.

Don't feel like building chords from scratch? With the free chord generator you pick the Dark or Sad mood, set your key and tempo, and download the MIDI. Drag it into FL Studio's Piano roll and play it with any instrument you like. For more ideas, check out dark trap chord progressions with free MIDI; those progressions work great for drill too.

Melody tips:

• Choose sounds with character: a piano with some space, strings, a choir or a bell-like synth.
• Leave room. A rapper needs to fit in there, so don't fill every beat.
• A short one or two bar melody on repeat sticks better than a long one.

Step 3: build the drums

Snare or clap

In a four-beat bar, place one snare on beat 3 first. That gives you the half-time feel. Then add a second snare that doesn't land exactly on a main beat, for example just before or after beat 4. Move it around until the groove starts to bounce. This is the moment your beat suddenly starts sounding like drill, so take your time here.

Hi-hats

Start with a basic 16th-note pattern, then break it up:

• Drop in a triplet here and there. In the Piano roll you can temporarily set the snap to a triplet value.
• Make some hits quieter by lowering their velocity. Hats that all hit equally hard quickly sound robotic.
• Don't make every bar the same. Let bars 1 and 2 run steady, for example, and put a roll or a gap in bars 3 and 4.

Kick and percussion

In drill the 808 often carries the low end. Use the kick sparingly and make sure it doesn't hit at exactly the same moment as a sliding 808, or your low end gets muddy fast. A few percussion hits, like a rimshot or a short perc, fill the gaps between the snares and hats.

Looking for drum sounds and 808s made for this? NAME Trap Oneshot Pack Vol. 1 includes 26 808s, 22 closed hats, 12 claps and 20 kicks, among other sounds, all royalty-free.

Step 4: make 808 slides in FL Studio

The gliding 808 is the most recognizable part of drill. In FL Studio you make it with slide notes in the Piano roll. Here's how it works according to Image-Line's manual:

1. Load your 808 into one of FL Studio's own instruments, for example as a sample in the Sampler. Slides and portamento only work with FL Studio's native instruments, not with third-party VST plugins.
2. Draw your normal 808 note in the Piano roll.
3. Turn on the Slide toggle in the Piano roll toolbar (the icon with the S). Notes you draw now are slide notes, marked with a small triangle at the start.
4. Draw the slide note at the pitch you want the 808 to glide to, and make it overlap your normal note. A slide note that doesn't overlap a regular note makes no sound.
5. The length of the slide note sets how fast the pitch changes. Short means a quick glide, long means a slow one.

There's also a Portamento toggle (the icon with the O). It gives you a short glide from one note to the next, which is handy when you want a few quick transitions without drawing separate slide notes.

Don't overdo it. A few slides every four bars stand out more than an 808 that's sliding all the time. Otherwise, let the 808 mostly follow the root note of your chord so everything stays in key.

Step 5: turn your loop into a beat

An eight-bar loop isn't a beat yet. Give it a structure a rapper can work with:

• Intro: just the melody, maybe filtered. Give the rapper a few bars to get in.
• Hook and verse: everything in, but switch it up. In the verse, for example, pull out a melody layer so the vocal has more room.
• Transitions: drop the drums or the 808 for a moment before a new section. That silence makes the comeback hit harder.

Common drill beat mistakes

• Everything on the grid. Drill lives on the shifted second snare and varied hats. Quantize it all tightly and it quickly sounds like regular trap.
• 808 and kick fighting. Two low sounds at once make your mix dull. Decide who owns the low end at each moment.
• 808 in the wrong key. Check the key of your melody and tune your 808 to match.
• Too busy. A rapper needs space. Fewer layers is often better.

Rather skip the production part?

If you're mainly a rapper and just want to write and record, browse the beats by NameOnTheBeat. And for more free helpers for your beats, check out the full list of free music tools.

Want to make trap instead? Read how to make a trap beat in FL Studio. Or into boom bap? Read how to make a boom bap beat in FL Studio. Into something darker? Read how to make a phonk beat in FL Studio.

FAQ

What BPM is a drill beat?

Usually around 140 BPM with a half-time feel. Many drill beats sit between roughly 135 and 145 BPM.

Why isn't my 808 slide working in FL Studio?

Check that the slide note overlaps a regular note and that your 808 is loaded in one of FL Studio's own instruments, like the Sampler. Slides don't work with third-party VST plugins.

What's the difference between drill and trap?

Both often sit around the same tempo and use 808s and fast hi-hats. Drill stands out mainly through its shifted snares, bouncy hi-hat patterns and gliding 808s.

Do I need expensive plugins for drill?

No. FL Studio's stock instruments, good drum samples and a solid 808 will get you a long way.