Mastering · FL Studio
Loud, but clean.
Why is your track quieter than the pros? Here you get to know every mastering plugin in FL Studio – with pictures, comparisons and demos you can play with. No prior knowledge needed.
Why is my track quiet?
Inside the computer there is a ceiling at 0 dB. The kick hits it first with its peaks, while the rest of the track stays far below. Mastering makes the peaks smaller. Then everything else can move closer to the ceiling – and the track sounds louder.
In detail
Your ear hears the average, not the peaks. Two tracks that both reach exactly 0 dB can therefore sound very different in loudness.
In Hardtekk the kick has the highest peaks. As long as it hits the ceiling, nothing else can get louder. Mastering cuts and pushes those peaks down (clipper and limiter) so the average can rise.
Perceived loudness is measured in LUFS (see Metering). Professional Hardtekk sits at roughly −7 to −4 LUFS.
A real example: the track “Kraftakt” measured −13 LUFS unmastered and still went over the ceiling (+0.6 dBTP). A reference track measured −4.6 LUFS. After EQ, clipper and limiter: −6.9 LUFS.
The switch in the demo sends the bar with +6 dB into a mix of clipper and limiter, ceiling at −0.3 dB.
Headroom
Leave room at the top of your mix. The loudest peaks on the master sit at about −6 to −3 dBFS, and the master fader stays at 0. Like a suitcase you don't stuff to the brim: otherwise nothing fits in when you master.
3–6 dB
On the left the suitcase is empty, on the right is the ceiling at 0 dB. The free part is the room the clipper and limiter will need later.
In detail
Why −6 to −3? The clipper and limiter need room to work. If the mix already reaches 0 dB or more, the suitcase is full before mastering even starts.
Master fader at 0. In the FL mixer the fader sits after the effect slots. If the mix is too loud, pull the individual tracks down – not the master fader.
Quieter sounds weaker – that is a trick of the ear. At low volume the ear hears bass and treble less (the Fletcher-Munson curves). If you want to hear it louder, turn up your speakers or headphones, not the master.
Headroom costs nothing: FL calculates internally with so much precision that a few dB below 0 lose no quality.
The toolbox
Mastering uses five tools. To start with, two are enough: limiter and meter. Remember the pictures: the clipper is a pair of scissors, the limiter a fast hand on the volume fader, the compressor a slow hand.
EQ
Turns single ranges – bass, mids, highs – up or down. On the master only for corrections.To the EQ →Compressor
Gently turns loud moments down a little. Glues the mix together. Optional on a Hardtekk master.To the compressor →Limiter
Catches every peak before the ceiling. The last plugin that changes the sound.To the limiter →Meter
Shows how loud the track really is (LUFS) and whether it goes over the ceiling.To metering →In detail
EQ, compressor, clipper and limiter come with FL Studio as Fruity plugins. The Youlean Loudness Meter is free from its maker, Youlean; you install it once as a plugin.
Other plugins work the same way. The knobs may have different names, the idea stays the same.
The order matters. Which plugin goes where is shown in The chain.
EQ
An EQ is a row of tone controls for single ranges: bass, mids, highs. On the master you only correct, in small steps. The most common case in Hardtekk: take a little mud out at 200–500 Hz.
The controls
- Points
- Each numbered point in the display is a band. Drag up and down = louder and quieter, left and right = a different range.
- FREQ
- Which range: left is low (bass), right is high (treble).
- GAIN
- How much louder or quieter. On the master rarely more than ±2 dB.
- BW
- Bandwidth: how wide the range is. Narrow for a problem spot, wide for a gentle change of colour.
- Type
- Shape of the band: bell (peaking), shelf or low/high cut. For corrections usually the bell.
- Analyzer
- The spectrum in the background shows where there is a lot of energy. Good for searching – your ears decide.
In detail
On the master every control acts on everything at once. +2 dB at 90 Hz doesn't just make the kick louder, but also the bass and everything else in that range.
Mud eats loudness. Too much at 200–500 Hz fills the suitcase without sounding loud. A small dip of 1–2 dB often makes room for kick and crunch.
Example “Kraftakt”: +2.5 dB at 90 Hz, −2 dB at 300 Hz, −1 dB at 550 Hz. The button in the demo sets the first two.
A big problem in a single track (a booming bass, for example)? Then fix it in that track, not on the master.
Compressor
Picture a hand on the volume fader that turns loud moments down a little – with a short delay. That glues the mix together. On a Hardtekk master it is optional and works 1–2 dB at most. If the hand is too fast, it eats the hit of the kick.
The controls
- THRES
- Threshold: the level at which the hand reaches in. Lower = it reaches in more often.
- RATIO
- How hard it pushes. 2:1 means: what goes 2 dB over the threshold comes out only 1 dB over it. On the master 1.5:1 to 2:1.
- ATT
- Attack: how fast it reaches in. Below about 3 ms it grabs the hit of the kick. On the master rather 10–30 ms.
- REL
- Release: how fast it lets go again. Too long and the track pumps. About 50–150 ms, by ear.
- KNEE
- How softly the hand comes in. Soft is less noticeable.
- GAIN
- Brings back the volume the compressor took away.
In the Fruity Limiter, switch to COMP at the top. In the Fruity Compressor the controls are called Threshold, Ratio, Attack, Release and Gain.
In detail
The transfer curve (left) shows: below the threshold everything passes unchanged, above it the line gets flatter. The red dot is the moment where the timeline on the right currently is.
Gain reduction (GR) is how much the hand is turning down right now. Almost every compressor shows it.
Try it: pull ATT all the way left (0.1 ms). The “Hit” value grows: the hand now pushes the hit itself down, and the kick loses its punch. At 20–30 ms the hit slips through almost untouched, and only then does the hand reach in.
Why optional? Hardtekk is already very dense. The loudness comes from the clipper and limiter. A compressor on the master is glue rather than a loudness maker. If you hear no difference at 1 dB of GR, leave it out.
Clipper
A clipper is a pair of scissors: whatever sticks out above the ceiling gets cut off. The kick peaks are very short, so you hardly hear it. Afterwards the track has much more room up to the ceiling. In Hardtekk the clipper brings the most loudness.
The controls
- Threshold
- Where the scissors start to bend the peaks round. Lower = more gets bent.
- Post Gain
- Level after the clipper. Brings back what got quieter through the cutting.
- Rule of thumb
- Threshold down a few dB, Post Gain up by the same amount. That works roughly like sending that much more into it – like the Drive control in the demo.
- How much?
- About 2–3 dB per clipper. Always followed by a limiter.
In detail
Soft or hard? A soft clipper bends the peaks round, a hard clipper cuts them straight off. Soft sounds warmer, hard stays snappier but gets harsh sooner with a lot of drive. The Fruity Soft Clipper is – as the name says – soft.
Two places: first a clipper on the kick track, because the kick has the highest peaks. Then one on the master, before the limiter.
Clipping is distortion. On short peaks you hardly hear it, on long notes like bass or leads you do. That is why you clip the kick first.
Example “Kraftakt”: the master clipper brought almost all of the loudness: from −12.4 to −7.1 LUFS. It ran at +6 dB there – that worked, but it is twice the rule of thumb. Listen closely to whether the kick still snaps.
Some clippers offer oversampling. It keeps fine distortion in the highs cleaner. If your clipper has it, switch it on.
Limiter
The limiter is a lightning-fast hand on the volume fader. When a peak wants to go over the ceiling, it turns the track down for a moment. That way you can turn everything up without anything going over 0 dB. It is the last plugin that changes the sound.
The controls
- GAIN
- How much louder you send the track in. Turn it up slowly, in 1 dB steps.
- CEIL
- Ceiling. Set it to −0.3 dB, for MP3 and streaming to −1 dB.
- REL
- Release: how fast the hand lets go again. Too long and the pads pump. Too short and it can get harsh. Set it by ear.
- ATT, SAT
- Attack and saturation. Leave them alone to start with.
- Display
- The gain reduction shows how much the limiter is taking away right now. More than 3–4 dB all the time is too much.
In detail
Difference from the clipper: the scissors cut only the peak, the rest stays just as loud. The limiter's hand turns everything down for a moment – bass and pads too. Too much of that is heard as pumping.
Try it: GAIN to 12 dB and REL all the way right. The gain reduction no longer recovers between the kicks, and the pads get pushed down all the time.
Why −0.3 and not 0? Between the individual samples the real signal can be slightly higher than the samples themselves (true peak). So the limiter's ceiling is only half the truth – always check on the meter.
Example “Kraftakt”: the limiter (+6 dB) mainly lifted the breaks. The quiet parts got louder, the drop hardly. That made the difference between break and drop smaller – more on that under Mistakes.
Metering
Your ears get used to loudness, a meter doesn't. The free Youlean Loudness Meter shows how loud the track really is (LUFS) and whether it goes over the ceiling (true peak). It goes into the very last slot of the master.
The readings
- Integrated
- Loudness of the whole track, averaged from the start until now. This is the number for your target: −7 to −4 LUFS.
- Short-term
- Loudness of the last 3 seconds. Shows how loud the drop or break is right now.
- Momentary
- The last 0.4 seconds. Jumps around a lot, not much use for reading off.
- True Peak
- The real highest peak, including between the samples. Below −0.3 dBTP (MP3 and streaming: −1).
- LRA
- Loudness range: how far quiet and loud parts lie apart. Mastered Hardtekk often sits at about 4–6 LU.
- Reset
- Reset before every measurement, then play the whole track.
In detail
LUFS is like dB, only adapted to the ear: the very deep bass counts a little less, presence and treble a little more. −6 LUFS is louder than −9 LUFS.
The demo shows example values modelled on “Kraftakt”: unmastered −13 LUFS with a true peak of +0.6 dBTP, mastered −6.9 LUFS. Watch the LRA too: once mastered, breaks and drops sit closer together.
Spotify, YouTube and co. turn loud tracks down to roughly −14 LUFS. For clubs, DJ sets and downloads, though, the real loudness counts – that is why Hardtekk is mastered louder.
Measuring does not replace listening. If the track sounds broken, −5 LUFS is no success.
The chain
The order matters. First make room, then get louder step by step: clip the kick, clip the master, the limiter last. After that you only measure. Dashed stations are optional.
+2–3 dB
+2–3 dB
+2–3 dB
Each stage carries a small share. No stage does more than about 3 dB.
In detail
Gain budget means: how much louder do you want to get in total – and who takes which share? Every stage sounds clean as long as it does little work. Only when one does too much do you hear it: harshness from the clipper, pumping from the limiter.
In the FL mixer: the kick clipper goes into an effect slot of the kick track. Everything else goes into the master's slots, in this order from top to bottom. FL processes the slots from top to bottom.
Example “Kraftakt”: there the clipper and limiter each ran at +6 dB. That worked, but it is twice the rule of thumb per stage. To start with, spread it out.
Click a station to jump to its plugin.
Recipe with 2 plugins
All you need is the Fruity Limiter and the Youlean Loudness Meter. With those you already get cleanly to club loudness. The clipper and EQ come in once this feels safe.
Check the headroom
FL mixer · master trackPlay the loudest part, usually the drop. The peaks on the master should sit at about −6 to −3 dB. Too loud? Pull the tracks down, not the master.
Insert the limiter
Fruity Limiter · master slotLoad the Fruity Limiter into a slot of the master track (in many FL templates it is already there). Set CEIL to −0.3 dB. Leave GAIN at 0 for now.
Meter after it
Youlean · slot below the limiterLoad Youlean into the slot directly below the limiter and press reset.
Turn GAIN up slowly
Fruity Limiter → GAINIn 1 dB steps. After each step, reset Youlean and play the track. Target to start with: about −7 LUFS integrated over the whole track.
Listen
earsDoes it pump? Does the kick get dull or small? Then GAIN back by 1–2 dB. Quieter and clean beats loud and broken.
Compare fairly
limiter on/offLouder always sounds better at first. Compare mastered and unmastered at the same loudness: limiter off, turn the speakers up until both seem equally loud. Only then decide.
Export and measure again
File → Export → WAV24-bit WAV, no normalising. Measure the finished file once more in Youlean.
In detail: the next level
Once the recipe works, add the master clipper: Fruity Soft Clipper in the slot above the limiter, Threshold down a few dB, Post Gain up by the same amount. Then the limiter needs less GAIN.
After that the kick clipper on the kick track. Finally, if needed, a small EQ dip in the mud.
For every new stage: take the limiter's GAIN back by the same amount so you land at about −7 LUFS again – then compare which sounds better.
Targets
Guidelines, not laws. If your track sounds better at −7 LUFS than at −5, take −7.
| Value | Target | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Integrated | −6 to −4 LUFS | Loudness like professional Hardtekk. −7 LUFS often sounds more open. |
| True peak (WAV) | ≤ −0.3 dBTP | No overs on playback. |
| True peak (MP3/streaming) | ≤ −1 dBTP | Converting to MP3 or AAC creates new peaks. |
| Mix headroom | −6 to −3 dBFS | Room for the clipper and limiter. |
| LRA | about 4–6 LU | Dense, but breaks stay quieter than drops. |
| Bass below 120 Hz | mono | Sounds just as good on club systems and mono speakers. |
| Export | 24-bit WAV | Full quality. Normalising off, so the level stays as you mastered it. |
In detail
These values come from experience with current Hardtekk. A reference track (“ONE”), for example, measured −4.6 LUFS with an LRA of 4.4 LU.
The big streaming services also recommend −1 dBTP for MP3 and streaming.
Mono bass happens in the mix, not on the master: keep kick and bass mono, and use stereo effects only on the sounds above them.
If your export window or sample editor offers normalising: leave it off. It would push your −0.3 dB ceiling back up to 0 dB.
Common mistakes
Almost every mastering problem comes from doing too much at once – or from a mix problem that mastering is supposed to rescue.
Everything through the limiter
Limiter with +10 dB of GAIN: the track pumps, the kick goes dull. Better to spread it over kick clipper, master clipper and limiter.Mud in the low mids
Too much at 200–500 Hz fills the suitcase without sounding loud. The limiter then works against the mud instead of for the kick. Clean it up in the mix.Normalising on export
Normalising pushes the highest peak to 0 dB – above your −0.3 dB ceiling. Leave it off.Breaks get too loud
The limiter mainly lifts the quiet parts. If break and drop end up almost equally loud, the drop no longer hits. Keep an eye on the LRA.The kick's gap disappears
The short air between the kick's pressure phases gets smeared shut by too much compression or too long a release. Less GAIN, shorter REL.Mistaking louder for better
The louder version always wins a comparison. Compare mastered and unmastered at the same loudness.In detail
Breaks: in “Kraftakt” the limiter mainly lifted the breaks, the drop hardly got louder. Drop 3 got very dense: only 3.1 dB between peak and average (crest factor).
The gap: with normal mastering the kick's gap in “Kraftakt” stayed about 30 dB deep – that is good. With tonal kicks it is often only about 8 dB deep on purpose. How the gap is made is explained under Kicks.
You can spot a mix problem when you keep wanting to correct more and more on the master. Then go back to the mix.
Checklist
Tick off what is done. When everything is ticked, your master is finished.
In detail
The ticks are only stored in your browser. None of it leaves your computer.
For the next track, simply untick everything again.