How To Master A Song In FL Studio

28/04/2011 by Petri Suhonen

M
astering is the final step in music production. Its a process of improving the sound quality of your
song (if possible and/or needed) with the aid of such tools as equalizer, compressor, limiter,
stereo enhancer, etc. Its also preparing a song for the proper medium. After mastering, your
song should be ready to go public.
Keep in mind that mastering goes hand-in-hand with mixing. The truth is, if your song is not
mixed properly, amateur level mastering isnt going to do any good for it in fact, it propably
makes it even worse. Mastering isnt a way to fix major mixing issues and also it isnt magic to
turn a badly unbalanced mix into a polished, commercial song. You need to achieve the
commercialism already in the mixing stage. So, before considering to experiment with
mastering, its essential to learn to mix first. Your song needs to sound as good and balanced as
possible before going to the mastering stage. At this point, I recommend checking outTarekiths
Mixdown for Beginners for some really good mixing tips. Also, I have wrote some mixing
guidelines for electronic music on my own as well and even though Im not a professional, they
might help you.
Right kind of listening environment and good set of monitors are also essential in mastering so
that you can properly hear what needs to be improved.
Lot of producers and professionals say that mastering should be left to mastering engineers and
that you shouldnt master your songs by yourself if you dont know what youre doing. I kind of
agree, because mastering engineers have the skills, professional equipment, proper listening
environment, trained ears and usually a years of experience so they pretty much know what can
be done (if any) to enhance the quality of your mix (check the bottom of this article for links to
good quality and affordable online-mastering/mastering services).
(As I mentioned already, Im NOT a professional Im just an average hobbyist so what Im
writing here may NOT be the best practice. If you are serious about mastering your song, I
STRONGLY advice you to contact a professional mastering engineer. And for some really good,
professional advice on mastering, check out this article by Ian Shepherd or Tarekiths Guide to
Mastering Your Own Music.)
HOWEVER, (and I hope you didnt got scared!) the aforementioned shouldnt stop you to TRY to
experiment with different plugins and settings to see if theres anything you can do by yourself to
make your mixdowns sound better/polished. There are lot of bedroom producers who make
outstanding DIY masters of their songs and many of them are self-taught. So lets move on!
Mastering Tools
There are a wide range of VST plugins that can be used for mastering: brickwall limiters, single
band compressors, multiband compressors, equalizers, stereo enhancers etc and theres even a
bunch of presets to get you started. I have to say though, that while presets can be a great
starting point, there really isnt an effect chain or preset that fits for every mix -shortcut in
mastering. Each mix is different and thats why the mastering tools needs to be chosen and
tweaked according the situation everything depends on the audio material you have and what

you want to achieve with the mastering. That defines the tools and settings you need to use.
Sometimes, you may just need a little help of a limiter in the master channel to do the job for you
and if you can make your mix sound good with it, then its ok. The thing is, you just need to learn
to use your ears and pick your tools based on that.
That being said, I am now going to introduce to you a one possible method and set of plugins in
FL Studio that can be used to master a song. The settings and plugins Im using here is tweaked
to work with my example song, so the exact same settings (or plugins) wont work straight away
with your mix so you just need to adjust them.
At the end of this tutorial Im also sharing the FL Studio Mixer State file where Ive set the plugin
chain and parameters as shown in this tutorial so you can start to play with it right away.
Remember though: do not use the plugins/settings as is on your songs as they will most likely
make your mix sound weird. Tweak the settings.
I should also emphasize that this is NOT a definitive guide for mastering as there is a lot more to
it than just throwing a bunch of plugins to the master channel. Instead, try to see this like a
starting point and introduction to a method and set of tools that CAN be used for this final
processing just to get you going. It might come useful to you as you start to experiment and
learn what the different plugins and settings do to your sound to get the results you are after for.
Okay, lets begin!
Preparing The Song For Mastering And Getting Down To Business
Theres actually two ways to master your songs in FL Studio (or any DAW in that matter): 1) You
can master the song while youre mixing it or 2) you can export the song to a WAV file, create a
new empty project and import it back to FL Studio and then master it. I personally like to keep
mixing and mastering as a separate processes so Im using the method 2. and this tutorial will
focus on it.
So heres the step-by-step process:
1. Export your mix to WAV.
Before you export your mix to WAV (do the mixdown), you need to make sure that its not
clipping. I recommend dropping the master mixer track volume level to around -6.0 dB or lower.
This is to leave some headroom (air) between the highest peaks and the 0.0 dB level thus
avoiding the appearance of clipping (read more about this from my mixing guidelines).
However, if youre using 32 bit floating point format, you dont need to worry so much about the
clipping (check out mixing tip on using 32 bit floating point format), but even so, its still a good
practice to avoid clipping by dropping the master volume fader
Also, do not to use any compressor or limiter in the master mixer track when you are exporting.
Use the highest possibly quality for rendering. Heres the settings Im usually using:

2.
Create a new empty FL Studio project, and open your exported mix in Edison. Cut the
unnecessary silence at the end or beginning of the song (if any). Check the pic below:

3.
Create a very short fade out at the end of the song (if needed). Thats just to avoid the song
to be cut abruptly as there might be a tail of reverb or delay effect still playing after the actual
song has ended. Check below:

4.
Normalize the WAV file. EDIT: normalizing is NOT necessary here, so skip to step 5 (sorry for
my amateurism!).
Normalizing increases the amplitude of the waveform so that the loudest peak is at 100%
maximum possible level (near the 0.0dB). This maximizes the volume without clipping. Save the
changes to a WAV file.

5.
Create another empty FL Studio project and import the WAV to a Playlist.

6.
Load the mastering plugins.
Remember, even though Im showcasing a mastering plugin chain, the set of plugins you pick
really depends on your mix and what kind of treatment you think it needs. The following plugin
chain may very well not suit for your needs (you could do just as fine only with an eq and limiter),
but here goes:
Open the Mixer and add these plugins in a following order to the Master mixer tracks FX slots:

Fruity Parametric EQ 2 for cutting unwanted frequencies.

Fruity Compressor to make sure that the dynamic range of the whole mix is balanced
so that there isnt too big gaps between the loudest and quietest parts.

Fruity Multiband Compressor for fine tuning the volume level in areas that are still too
loud or quiet in the mix (if any).
Fruity Parametric EQ 2 for boosting frequencies.
Fruity Limiter for maximizing the volume of the whole mix without clipping it.

Now, few words about the order of the plugins in the FX chain: notice that the eq used for cutting
comes before the compression and eq for boosting, after the compression. Why? Because the
eq settings affects how the compression behaves. For example, if you boost some low
fequencies before the compression, you raise their peak level and compressor will react to these
peaks by trying to attenuate them.
However, like always in audio production, there shouldnt be too much dos and donts: in some
situations the aforementioned can be exactly what you need, but in a normal mastering situation,
cutting frequencies might be best to be done before and boosting after the compression..
Below is a pic of the mastering fx chain:

N
ow, to the settings of the first eq.
7. Fruity Parametric EQ 2 for CUTTING.
This is the eq unit that comes BEFORE the compressors. You may want to cut the very low
frequencies from around 20-30Hz using high pass filter with steep filter slope and the high
frequencies near 20kHz with low pass filter. Those are frequencies that cant be heard through
most of the normal speaker systems, but they might add unnecessary energy to your mix and
may make it sound louder (not in a good way) than it really is. In case like this, its like leftover
noise that needs to be cleaned.
However, if youre making electronic music especially for clubs, you might want to consider
whether you cut the lows at all. This is because if the song is played through large PA systems,
you might loose too much of the low end response. And even though human ear cant hear
frequencies of 20Hz and below, they still cant be FELT in the club.
On the other hand, and correct me if Im wrong, not nearly all of the large PA systems are able to
go down to 20Hz. Ive heard that most will actually roll off the 30-40Hz (?), so if your mix has a lot
of energy in the 20-30Hz region, it will just uselessly waste the headroom of your mix. With that
in mind, setting the cut to 30Hz might be something worth to test.
Also, remember this: if the PA system has been setup poorly, theres always a risk that sub-bass
heavy tracks may blow up the system.

Cutting the 30Hz range, when its not needed, removes the unnecessary frequencies and may
clear up your mix nicely and gives a bit more headroom to raise the overall level of your whole
mix.
But its really up to you and what youre planning to do with your song. You may actually end up
to not use the cutting eq at all.
Note about the high frequency cut: if you feel like it, you may also try to start rolling off the high
frequencies already from 16kHz to reduce the occurance of ear aching high end on large PA
systems.

N
ow, to the compression.
8. Fruity Compressor.
Fruity Compressor is a single band compressor and single band compressor is useful in
mastering fx chain for leveling the dynamic-range variations in your mix. Compressor is great for
gluing different sounds in the mix together to tighten up the mix. Fruity Limiter works as good
(probably even better as you can SEE where the input signal is peaking so you can easily set a
right threshold value) when you activate the compressor mode in it.
Let me explain the idea of compressor a bit more:
Basically, compressor is nothing more than a automated volume controller. The idea is pretty
much the same like if you would try to manually tweak a volume controller in a response to the
changing volume levels of your audio by trying to keep the overall volume level of the audio
within a defined minimum and maximum range. With compressor, this all happens automatically:
you can make the quieter parts in your mix louder and also make sure that the louder parts wont
cause clipping as the compressor reduces the gain of the peaks and you can set the threshold
level where this is happening and how.
In a mastering situation, compression can be used to make your mix sound dynamically
balanced.
Heres the most common compressor controllers explained:

Threshold sets the signal level (in dBs) at where the compressor starts to kick in. When
you start to apply compression process, start with the threshold, because to be able to hear

the compression, you must lower the threshold level below the input peaks of your audio
signal.
Ratio sets the amount of compression that will be applied.
Attack controls the time how quickly the compression starts to affect.
Release sets how quickly the compression effect will stop after the signal drops below

the defined threshold level.

Knee sets at what rate the full amount of compression is applied. Decreasing the knee

value lets the full compression to be applied more rapidly as soon as the attack allows. This
is the harder knee. Increasing the value makes the knee softer letting the compression kick in
more gently.
Gain (make-up gain) is used to boost the compressed signal output level because the

compression process reduces the gain.

Couple of tips using single band compressor in a mastering situation: you might want to try to
use low ratio, long attack and release times for more transparent sounding results (transparent in
this context means avoiding that squashed and pumpy sound keeping the audio as
original/natural sounding as possible).
However, every mix is different so its IMPOSSIBLE to give any exact settings, but you can
START experimenting with these:

Threshold: -25dB (or wherever the input signal of your mix is peaking at)

Ratio: 1.5:1 2:1

Attack: 50ms

Release: 150ms

Gain: 2-4 dB or more (really depends on where you set the Threshold and Ratio)
If your mix starts to sound too squashed, try decreasing the Ratio. Experiment with different
Threshold/Ratio combinations.
As a rule of thumb, use the compressor sparingly in a mastering situation to avoid squashing.

9.
Fruity Multiband Compressor.
Multiband compressor is a great tool in mastering fx chain for fine tuning the volume levels in
different frequency areas.
Let me explain the multiband compressor a bit: normal single band compressor (like Fruity
Compressor and Fruity Limiter when the compressor mode is activated) affects to the WHOLE
frequency band, but multiband compressor lets you apply the compression to a SPECIFIC

frequency bands in this case, low, mid and high. For each band, you can set the filter cutoff
point. That means you can define what frequency areas the band compressors will affect.
Multiband compression is very handy tool in mastering because, if you want to compress
(control the volume behavior) of just the low frequency range, you can do that without affecting
too much to the the mids and highs and vice versa. For example, if you have loud peaks
somewhere in the low frequency area, you can attenuate these without reducing the gain of the
mids and/or highs.
Basically, you could do this with an eq as well, but using multiband compressor here will give you
a bit more different sounding results than eq more organic or whatever the proper term is.
Heres a quick introduction to different parameters in Fruity Multiband Compressor. Check the pic
below (click to see it bigger):

What settings do I recommend to use with Fruity Multiband Compressor? Again, its impossible to
give any recommendations as everything depends what kind of audio you are mastering. You
can START with these though, but be cautious: these may NOT work at all with your mix (I
actually feel a kind of dumb by recommending specific settings here)!

Limiter: 0ff

Filter: FIR
LOW BAND:

Threshold: -25.0dB

Ratio: 1.2:1

Knee: 0%

Attack: 3.3ms

Release: 62ms

Gain: -1.6dB
MID BAND:

Threshold: -9.0dB

Ratio: 1.8:1

Knee: 76%

Attack: 31ms

Release: 56ms

Gain: 1.6dB

HIGH BAND:

Threshold: -11.0dB

Ratio: 2.0:1

Knee: 76%

Attack: 3.6ms

Release: 48ms

Gain: 2.7dB
Seriously, you need to learn to use your ears and let them judge what settings to use.
Now, to the boosting eq.
10. Fruity Parametric EQ 2 for BOOSTING.
This is the eq unit that comes AFTER the compression. If you want to add a bit of brightness to
the whole mix, try boosting frequencies around 8-15 kHz using peaking filter with a semi-broad
bandwidth.
The boosting couldve been done with multiband compressor gain controls as well, but the eq is
here for even more precise control over the frequencies. Like I mentioned in the multiband
compression section above, it will give a slight different results than eq when dealing with the
frequency adjustements.

1
1. Fruity Limiter.
Limiter is what you use for maximizing the volume of the whole mix without distortion and Fruity
Limiter is pretty good for that. The purpose of a limiter in a mastering situation is to limit the
output level to a defined maximum level (usually near to 0.0dB) to avoid clipping when youre
increasing the gain.
Ill try to explain a bit how the limiter works:

Limiter is a close relative to compressor. It keeps the signal from going above a threshold value,
just like compressor. If the peaks are trying to go above the threshold value, a gain reduction will
occur.
However, in compressor, the gain reduction is applied in a more gentle way and it also affects to
the quieter parts of the signal by making them louder, whereas limiter (at least brick-wall limiter)
squashes the peaks that are trying to go above the threshold value and leave the quieter peaks
alone. Limiters gain reduction is absolut and more aprubt than compressors. Thats the main
difference.
In a limiter, you set the level above which the signal will be limited by using the output Ceiling.
Usually its set to -0.3dB. Now when you start to increase the volume by using input Gain, the
limiter will squash all the signal peaks that are trying to go above the -0.3dB. So the more you
are trying to maximize the volume of your mix, the more squashed it will sound. Try to be gentle
here by not destroying your mix
Some limiters like Fruity Limiter has the attack and release controls as well. Attack controls how
quickly the limiter responds to the signal peaks. The Release controls how quickly the signal will
recover from the limiting.
Heres some of the most important Fruity Limiter settings introduced:

Y
ou can start with these settings, but remember that everything depends on the audio material
youre mastering:

Ceiling: -0.3dB

Gain: 4.0dB-7.0dB

Saturation: 0.0dB

Attack: 4ms

Release: 250ms

Attack Curve: 3

Release Curve: 3
Ahead: 9ms

Experiment with the input gain, but be gentle with it to avoid squashing your mix. You know
youre putting too much gain when the song is starting to sound like stressed or like its in great
pressure. Try to find a balance between maximum possible loudness and not letting your mix to
sound overly squashed.
11. Export the song once again to WAV using highest quality settings, except set the WAV bit
depth to 16 bit as this is standard in mastering because you cant burn 24 bit files to CD.

T
hats it. Hopefully this tutorial gave you an idea what kind of tools you can use (and how to use
them) to master a song in FL Studio.
However, I cant stress enough that EVERYTHING starts from a good mix so its essential first to
make things sound right and polished already in the mixing stage and not trying to use mastering
to fix a clear mixing issues.
Also, mastering is not something you learn overnight. Personally, Im always kind of struggling
with it as well. It takes a lot of patience and trial and error, but experimenting is the best way to
learn.
Remember also this: using compression in mastering isnt necessity. If your song sounds good
without compression, then dont use it. Its not something that is required for making a mix sound
great. Its just there to fix the dynamic range. Actually, EVERYTHING be it eq, compressor or
limiter depends on the mix and what kind of sound youre after for. Ask yourself: what do I want
and start from there.
And finally, download the FL Studio Mixer State file here.
Heres how you load it to a mixer track.

H
eres an example song mastered with using this mixer state file. Its one of my own songs.
First, the unmastered version:
And heres the mastered version. It may be a slightly too much squashed, but anyway, compare
the difference:
Final tip: when you test this mixer state file of mine and youre experiencing an overly squashed
sound, firstly decrease the amount of input Gain in the Fruity Limiter as Ive set it to pretty high.
For more about mastering, I suggest reading some of these articles:
What Is Mastering?
The Difference Between Mixing And Mastering
How To Make Your Music Loud
Using Compression
Multi-band Workshop
Advanced Compression Techniques, Part 1
Advanced Compression Techniques, Part 2
InternetDJ Mastering Tutorial Thread
If youre really serious about mastering your song to a professional level, using a mastering
engineer is recommended. Check out some of these guys:
Ian Shepherds Mastering Media
Streaky Mastering
SAS online mastering
Pete Maher
Tom Waltz Mastering
Or Google for more.
Ok. Thats about it.
Credits to Mo Volans How To Master A Track In 15 Minutes Or Less -tutorial which I used as a
reference material to create this tutorial!
I hope this tutorial helped you to start mastering a song in FL Studio.