Welcome to Sage Audio. Today we’re talking about how to mix in FL Studio. To get the
most from your music, consider watching the entirety of each chapter because each chapter
builds from the previous to create a complete understanding of the topic.
If you have a mix that you need mastered, consider sending it
to us to receive a free mastered sample of it with the link in the description.
Import, Route, Rename
Since FL Studio isn’t designed with mixing in mind, it takes some routing to ensure you
can mix properly. First, we need to import all of our tracks into the playlist section - then
double click each track, and make the tracks ascending; track 1 is routed to track 1, etc.
Once we do this for all of our tracks or instruments,
click on the mixer tab to open up that window. Lastly, let’s rename all of our tracks from Insert
1, 2, etc, to a more recognizable name so we know what is what.
Let’s listen to the original unprocessed mix we’re working on.
Establish Levels and Pan
Now that we have everything organized, let’s get some levels for our tracks using the
channel faders to push certain instruments into the forefront and let others be more
of a support. For example, I’ll make the vocal a bit louder so that it cuts through.
Then I’ll use the pan pots
put some instrumentation close to the left or right to expand my stereo image
and clear some room in the middle for more driving instrumentation like the kick and bass.
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Using Soundgoodizer
FL Studio’s stock plugins make it easy to get a polished sound pretty quickly - soundgoodizer is
a good option for this. It’s just one dial with 4 different settings so you can quickly add some
saturation, brightening, dynamic control, and other timbre changes to an instrument.
For this mix, I used it on the vocal,
clap, and kick - so it works well at bringing important instruments forward.
Let’s listen to it on these instruments.
Maximus for Dynamics
When it comes to your dynamics, Maximus is a valuable plugin - mainly because it lets
you maximize or use low-level or upward compression to bring detail forward.
I used this on a few instruments, but let’s look at how it’s used on the bass.
Using the master section, I increased the
quieter aspects of the bass by sloping that part of the dynamics upward or expanding them.
From there I slightly reduced the release to make the expansion quicker.
Vocal Chain in FL Studio
For my vocal chain, I used 5 plugins - Soundgoodizer, fruity chorus, Maximus,
Fruity Reverb 2, and Fruity Multi-band Compression which I used for de-essing. Using Maximus
I shaped the frequency response, by using downward expansion on the lows, and upward on the highs.
For the reverb, I placed it on the mid image, used a medium size, and blended it in with
the wet/dry on the right. With the multiband compressor, I only affected the highs and liked
the aggressive sound of running my processing into this compressor. Additionally, I reduced
the strength of Maximus and my chorus using the parallel dials to the right of my inserts.
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Setting Reverb Times
I used reverb for different reasons on different instruments - for example,
I used a long and stylized reverb on my vocals but a short one on my drum loop. For the vocal,
the long reverb helped it stand out and give it an identity separate from the rest of the song.
For my drum loop, the short reflections thickened the
percussive nature of it and helped it sound more powerful in the mix.
Quick Shaping and Balancing
Now that we’ve added our processing to our tracks, let's rebalance our levels using the
channel faders and do some super quick frequency shaping using the convenient 3 band EQ located
on each channel strip. With it, I’ll add some highs or lows to various instruments.
It’s best not to use these too aggressively but just to gently reshape an instrument
in the context of the mix.
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Master Bus Settings
On the master bus, I’ll only use 2 processors - first I’ll use a parametric EQ
which will give me more control over the frequency response of my mix bus. I’ll enable high-quality
mode to ensure aliasing distortion doesn’t occur - then boost some highs to add air.
Then I’ll use a limiter to protect from clipping distortion
while boosting the gain to increase perceived loudness. I’ll make sure the saturation dial
is all the way up to avoid distorting my peaks and ensure I’m not using the limiter aggressively.
Let’s take a listen.
Best Export Settings
Whenever the mix is done and it’s time to export it, do so via File,
Export, and then choose a WAV file. Ensure the mode is set to ‘Full song’, the Tail is set to
‘Leave Remainder’, your bit depth is 24-bit, and you use 64-point sinc settings.
All of these settings will ensure that your mix is ready to be mastered.
Let’s listen to the original and then the finished mix.
If you have a mix that you need mastered, consider sending it to us to receive a free
mastered sample of it with the link in the description. Thank you so much for watching.