How To Master Your Music in FL Studio 20 (Stock Plugins)

This tutorial teaches mastering techniques using only FL Studio stock plugins and two free tools: a frequency analyzer and a loudness meter, designed for beginners learning the fundamentals of mastering.

• Having a clear aim for the mastering session • Conducting a final check of the mix • Adjusting tonal balance with EQ • Limiting the track to achieve proper loudness • Adding sweetening effects for enhancement

This is not a professional mastering guide but rather a beginner-friendly introduction to help listeners understand the basic concepts and get going in the right direction.

The tutorial uses a song called 'Right Here' with a reference track for comparison and demonstrates the full mastering workflow in a dedicated mastering session.

• Ensure the track is ready for online streaming on platforms like Spotify and YouTube • Make the mix sound good across all playback systems: phones, headphones, large speakers, and car audio • Identify and eliminate any clicks, pops, or resonances before release

Mastering is a creative and musical process that requires getting into the right mindset—being inspired, motivated, and relaxed to approach the work effectively.

The goal is to ensure nothing problematic gets past the mastering engineer, maintaining a focus on creating a professional-sounding final product suitable for distribution.

The track will be posted on Spotify and YouTube, so loudness levels and audio quality must meet the standards expected by these streaming services.

Use automation on the master fader to create gentle fade-ins at the start and fade-outs at the end of the track, preventing clicks and volume jumps when the song begins or ends playback.

• Listen to the entire track multiple times from start to finish without making any changes • Use both speakers at decent volume and headphones for different perspectives • Listen with eyes closed to focus entirely on the audio without visual distractions

Listen carefully for clicks, pops, half-cut breaths in vocals, or any unnatural jumps in sound that indicate problems in the mix requiring correction before mastering.

You must be satisfied with how the mix sounds from start to finish; mastering cannot fix major mixing problems like vocals that are too quiet in the chorus, which require returning to the original mix.

Use the Fruity Parametric EQ2 by boosting a frequency slightly and narrowing the filter, then sweeping across the mix to identify any problematic resonances or clicks that stand out.

The guitar in this track had a noticeable resonance around 300 Hz that was identified through boosting, requiring a return to the original mix to reduce that frequency.

This technique helps catch issues that might not be immediately obvious during casual listening but become apparent when frequencies are isolated and highlighted.

Problems identified during this stage should be fixed in the original mix session by adjusting levels or applying corrections, then re-exporting the audio for the mastering session.

Compare the mix to a professionally mastered reference track of similar style, listening at matched volume levels to identify differences in frequency distribution and overall tonal character.

• Use broad EQ strokes rather than narrow cuts to gently reduce excessive bass • Apply a shelf filter or slight peaking filter to reduce frequencies below 120 Hz by about 2.5 dB • Use a high-pass filter to cut everything below 25 Hz, removing inaudible rumble that wastes headroom

Boost the high-frequency band slightly to add excitement and brightness to the hi-hats, reverbs, and upper frequencies, making the mix feel more open and spacious.

Avoid making dramatic cuts and boosts; instead make subtle adjustments based on comparison with reference tracks, as too many precise cuts often reflect room acoustics rather than actual mix problems.

Set SPAN to high-resolution mode, increase average time to around 2000, use a large block size, and enable half-octave smoothing to visualize the frequency distribution curve of the mix.

Play the mastered track and reference track simultaneously to see how their frequency curves differ, helping identify bass-heavy frequencies or other imbalances that need adjustment.

The graph clearly shows the rumbling sub-bass frequencies that are being removed by the high-pass filter, confirming that the EQ adjustments are working as intended.

A balanced tonal curve ensures the mix sounds consistent across different playback systems: laptop speakers, earbuds, headphones, and car stereos, providing the best first impression.

Streaming platforms like iTunes, Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube use LUFS (Loudness Units relative to Full Scale) to measure loudness, targeting an integrated loudness of around -14 LUFS for proper normalization.

Unlike the loudness war era where tracks were pushed extremely loud, today's streaming normalization means overloud tracks are turned down and often sound worse than properly mastered tracks at appropriate levels.

This free plugin displays real-time loudness measurements, showing both short-term and integrated loudness values to help set the track to appropriate streaming standards.

Louder-sounding versions of the same track can trick listeners into thinking they sound better, but when leveled to match, the heavily limited versions often sound worse with reduced punch and clarity.

• Set the limiting point to -1.5 dB to ensure headroom for streaming platforms' processing • Keep the 45-degree line relationship between input and output • Focus only on the master band, not individual frequency bands

Gradually push the pre-gain into Maximus until gentle limiting appears, watching the peak reduction meter and loudness readings to find the right balance for online streaming requirements.

Reduce the attack parameter to ensure Maximus responds immediately to peaks, preventing them from exceeding the -1.5 dB threshold that would cause distortion or artifacts.

The objective is to raise loudness without noticeably altering the mix character, preserving punch, width, and dynamics while achieving streaming-standard loudness levels.

• Medium limiting version at approximately -14 LUFS integrated loudness • Loud version pushed 3-4 dB further with more aggressive limiting • Super loud version severely squashed to around -5 to -6 LUFS short-term

Playing progressively louder versions creates an illusion of improvement because louder always sounds more impressive, but this is a perception trick caused by volume differences, not actual quality improvement.

The heavily limited versions lose significant punch, definition, and clarity, with audible compression and limiting artifacts like pumping effects that degrade the overall sound quality.

The medium limiting version maintains the mix's character while achieving streaming requirements; when leveled to match the original mix, it still sounds good with minimal perceived loss of quality.

Sweetening involves adding optional enhancement effects like stereo imaging, saturation, or mix bus compression to add extra polish and excitement to the final master.

• Stereo imaging using Maximus' stereo control to widen the overall mix or individual frequency bands • Saturation plugins for added warmth and character • Mix bus compression for cohesion and glue

Try effects by pushing them to extremes first to hear their full impact, then dial back to subtle levels, and honestly evaluate whether they enhance or degrade the mix before committing.

Always check the mastered mix in mono, especially after applying stereo widening, to ensure it still sounds acceptable on mono playback systems like phones and laptops.

Select the region from the start fade to the end fade by right-clicking and dragging, ensuring all effects are enabled and other tracks are muted for a clean export.

• Choose WAV file format for the highest quality lossless export • Select 24-bit WAV depth for professional quality • Enable 'Insert Effects' and 'Master Effects' to include all processing in the export

Enable 'Cut remainder' to ensure the export stops exactly at the fade-out point without trailing silence, creating a clean final file.

Click start to export the mastered song, which is now ready for distribution on streaming platforms with proper loudness, tonal balance, and professional quality.

The complete mastering workflow covers setting aims, performing final checks, adjusting tonal balance, limiting for proper loudness, and adding sweetening effects using accessible FL Studio tools.

These five steps provide a solid foundation for getting started with mastering, establishing core concepts and techniques that beginners can build upon as they develop their skills.

• Explore advanced mastering topics like mix bus compression • Learn more about stereo imaging and saturation techniques • Study additional mastering approaches in related tutorials

Don't be afraid to experiment with different plugins and techniques; practice and honest self-evaluation will help develop mastering skills over time.