In this tutorial, I am going to go over “mastering” using FL Studio and its basic components, step by step.
First, in order to master your own projects successfully, you need to have an idea of what mastering a track means. In all actuality, mastering a track can be many different things.
Making sure the track and all its components are in tune is probably the most important part of mastering. If something is out of tune in your song, it will cause “Beats” which are basically sound waves that clash with each other causing unwanted “wha whas”, or even distorting the sounds samples. Increasing the volume of an “out of tune” track will definitely hurt your ears, and what would normally be crisp, clear, vibrant sounds will sound cluttered and muddy. If your not sure how, or even IF your track is in tune STOP NOW! And learn how to do that first. This “tut” will not help you.
The levels of all instruments, percussion, and vocals should be individually and meticulously tweeked to near perfection before using equalization or compression on the master channel. This doesn’t mean “make it real loud” just have the levels nice and even using your ears as you guide.
A very big part of mastering is space. Each instrument needs space. Sure they can be right on top of one another, but it will sound very mediocre. When you make a song think of your speakers as a room, and the whole room needs to be filled with sound. The ceiling from side to side the floor, and maybe even some sounds that bounce around the room. Doing this will greatly improve the quality of your music.
Always remember if you are making an instrumental for some one to sing, or rap on, keep in mind that the vocals that haven’t been laid down on the track and they need room too. One of the best ways to keep this from happening; make thin beats with few instruments and melodies, once the vocals are recorded and are on the track as well. Then go through, and finish the track of with some extra melodies and what not, working around the vocals.
Equalization is not only important when mastering, but also if you need to modify a certain sound you are using, like a snare, or hi hat. Equalizers can be used for many different purposes, they can be used to adjust levels of a song, or accent a certain frequency range to change the tone of the song. An equalizer can also cut certain frequencies out for mastering purposes. Like: checking decibel levels of frequency ranges, cutting off a certain frequency completely, or a small frequency range, like a filter.
Compression when used correctly adds to the dynamics of the song, kind of like a long pulse with use of an envelope, “attack” “release” etc. Also, sets a “Limit” for the dB level on output.
Mastering has to do with little things as well, such as just having the song “fade in” in the beginning, and “fade out” in the end.
Now that you have a little background on the subject, let’s get started.
I am going to use an old project of mine and we are going to start with the raw version and master it Step by Step. It’s best if you master your track with a 5.1 set up and at least a 12in sub, even better if you have a monitor as well.
All of the levels are where I want them, I do this during the course of making the track, and my track is in tune from the time I start it. This way I don’t have to worry about it later.
Here is what we are starting with:
First, I start with spatial separation. The two synths will be my main focus right now. We are going to use the Fruity Stereo Enhancer to do this. Pay attention because this little bugger isn’t that easy to use. There is more to it than you may think.
Above is a diagram of the space you will be using with the Fruity Stereo Enhancer.
The “stereo sep” knob has a (+) side and a (-) side. This correlates to the diagram above.
Next we have “Pre” and “Post” buttons. These buttons refer to the “Phase Offset” knob which controls where the note phases to in milliseconds, the left speaker or the right speaker. “Pan” and “Vol” are pretty self explanatory.
If the “Sep” knob is turned all the way to the negative side…
The sound will be, going up and down on the diagram. From the ceiling to the floor. (black paint) and the “wall to wall” or left and right sound will be very thinned.
If the “Sep” knob is turned all the way to the positive side, and you invert the phase from “none” to either “left” or “right”…
The sound will be wall to wall, instead of ceiling to floor. (red paint) and the “ceiling to floor” sound will be very thinned
When the “sep” knob is turned all the way to the POSITIVE side and there is NO invert; the sound will be “wall to wall” instead of “ceiling to floor”, but the “ceiling to floor” sound will be thickened instead of thinned.
When you invert the phase in this setting the sound is then from “ceiling to floor” instead of “wall to wall”, and again the “wall to wall” sound will be slightly thickened instead of thinned.
To spread the sound around, basically like there was a big circle right in the middle of the X , simply use the “Phase Offset” knob adjusting it to the left or right in moderation.
To get a doubled sound like two mono inputs one in the left speaker and one in the right speaker, simply adjust the “Sep” knob to the positive side, and adjust the phase offset knob somewhere around 35 and 45 milliseconds left or right.
To do this with the “Sep” at a negative value; simply “invert” the phase from “none” to “left” or “right”
For the first synth I used negative separation and “inverted” the phase to thin it down and widen it.
For the second synth I used negative separation, and I lightly adjusted the “Phase Offset” to fill out the ceiling of the room (no invert). I also added some light reverb to add depth and character to the synth.
Now I will do the same thing with the drums, I am actually going to do the snare and hihat separately.
This is the drum pattern and synths together spaced how I want them
Ok we are going to go ahead and put the FL “Parametric EQ 2” and the FL “Multiband Compressor” into the FX Board on the master channel. The parametric EQ should be first on the board followed by the compressor as shown below.
I like to use the parametric eq2 because as you move the different points it tells you percentage and what frequency you are manipulating.
The parametric has to be first in the master FX channel or the compressor will be overridden by the EQ.
Adjust the parametric EQ until it sounds crisp and clean. This is not to maximize loudness just to accentuate the frequencies that need to “shine” a little more, and maybe tone others down. You can always go back and adjust this more after you get the compressor set up.
Before we go further…
Compression is the process of automatically scaling the output volume so that the quiet parts are louder and the loud parts don’t clip. It’s like automatically adjusting a volume knob, keeping the volume level within a set min/max range. Compression is one of the most important effects in modern music. Importantly, it can make a mix sound much louder than it is. In particular, multiband compression is a highly useful tool for mastering applications since the complex sound (wide frequency range) of a complete track can have varying amounts and types of compression applied to different parts of the frequency spectrum.
Now, I am finally where I want to be for compression. What I am going to do is maximize the loudness and eliminate peaking. As well as separately adjust each “Band” (Low-Mid-High).
Simply click the limiter button so that it is highlighted, as shown above. This will allow you to raise the volume of low parts in your song, and eliminate peaking or clipping in the louder parts of your song. Note: When its active the “out” decibel level will not exceed 0 db.
I started by adjusting the “gain” knob (located right below the limiter button) to around +3 decibels. This should be loud enough for the time being.
The switch right above the limiter button adjusts the “filter type” used for compression. There are two different types “Butterworth IIR, 24dB”, and the “FIR” (Linear Phase) filter. “FIR” is recommended for mastering applications, but I am using the Butterworth IIR filter for this song.
Now we will focus on the three different bands. Each band is a compressor “low” “mid” and “high”. You can tell each band its individual frequency range by using the four knobs as shown above.
The orange knob controls the Lowpass upper limit
The TWO purple knobs control the Midband low and high limits.
The blue knob controls Highpass lower limit.
The frequencies defined by these cutoffs are then fed to the; low, mid, and high compressors.
I have defined the frequency ranges for each band. I am now ready to adjust each bands compression individually.
What the different knobs control
Threshold – Sets the dB level at which the compressor kicks in. This should be adjusted according to the input level and the type of material you are compressing. Once it hits the threshold dB level, compression will reduce the gain of the input signal according to the current Ratio, Knee, Attack and Release settings. This produces the output signal.
Ratio – Controls the amount of compression that will be applied to the signal once the threshold level is reached. Ratio defines the difference in dB between input and output levels; how much the signal ABOVE the “thresh” is compressed or expanded. For example, a ratio of 4:1 means when the input level increases by 4dB, the output level of the signal ABOVE the threshold will increase by 1dB.
Attack – Controls how long in “milliseconds” it takes to reach full compression once the threshold level has been exceeded. A fast attack means that compression will be instantaneous, while a slow attack means the compression is increased gradually. Attack should be adjusted according to the type of audio material you are using.
KNEE – Controls the rate in which the full amount of compression is applied. “Soft” (to the left) means there is a gradual increase from “No compression” to “Full compression” as the input volume increases. While “Hard” (to the right) means the transition from “No compression” to “Full compression” is instant once a predefined input level is exceeded.
Release – Controls the amount of time the compressor takes to stop once the level has fallen BELOW the threshold. A short release time will make the compression more flexible, but may cause fast changes in gain that may sound unpleasant. A long release time will produce a more even signal with less distortion, but make it harder to maximize the overall compression; because small variations in signal level will be ignored.
Gain – Controls the amount of gain to be added, or subtracted from the output signal. The gain should be adjusted to normalize volume, or to control the amount of limiting.
Above is the setup for compression in my track.
If I were going to put any finishing touches on the track now would be the time to do it. Some finishing touches that might be performed would be to have the track fade in and fade out. I like it how it is so there will be no need for that.
If you wanted to do this simply right click on the master volume and select “Create Automation Clip”
The volume envelope will automatically be placed into the playlist from beginning, to the end of the song.
Next for fading in you will need to create another point in the envelope simply by right clicking in the envelope. Then adjust the first point so that it is all the way at the bottom
Here is the raw version of this track we started with at the beginning of this tutorial.
And here is the master version of the same track.
This was a mastering tutorial using FL Studio and some of its basic components. I hope it has been helpful in getting that professional sound out of your own projects. Remember to have a game plan for mastering your songs, and be very meticulous. Mastering is not an easy or fast process. It takes time, knowledge, and LOTS of practice. Once you do get the master right, you will HEAR the difference.
Swag
