The Virtual Slide is a laptop instrument designed to simulate playing a lap steel slide guitar. The focus of this project is more on the sliding, crying quality imparted to the sound through the actual way it is played, than the timbre of the base sound itself.

Players use the trackpad on a standard laptop to control the 'slide' position down the neck of the guitar, and pluck strings using 6 keys on the standard qwerty keyboard. Sensitivity of the trackpad can be adjusted to suit the players style, and multiple tunings can be selected.

The best sound is achieved by running the laptop output through a guitar cab and volume pedal, similar to how a real slide is played.