How to Master in FL Studio
Published · updated · by Loopin
You can master competently with what ships in FL Studio. Here is the chain, in order, and the two things about FL specifically that catch people out.
Gotcha one: render, do not master on the live mix
Mastering while the whole project is playing means every mix change moves the master, and the CPU load makes accurate monitoring harder. Render the mix to a stereo WAV, start a new project, and load that file.
This also forces the honest version of the mix: whatever you print is what the mastering stage receives, so anything you were going to fix "later on the master" has to be fixed now.
Gotcha two: check your mixer track is not clipping into the chain
FL's master track shows a peak meter but the chain sits after your inserts. If the rendered file peaks near 0 and you add gain early in the chain, later plugins receive a clipped signal and you will hear it as harshness you cannot EQ away.
Print the mix peaking around −6 dBFS. That single number prevents most of the problems people attribute to plugin quality.
The chain, in order
Fruity Parametric EQ 2 for corrective cuts. Fruity Compressor or Maximus in single-band mode for 1–2 dB of glue. Parametric EQ again for tonal shaping. Fruity Soft Clipper very gently if you want density. Then Maximus or Fruity Limiter last.
Corrective before glue, tonal after. Putting broad tonal EQ before the compressor means the compressor reacts to changes you made rather than to the music.
Settings that work
Compressor: ratio 2:1, attack 30 ms or slower, release 150 ms or auto, threshold set for 1–2 dB reduction on the loudest sections only. Limiter: ceiling −1.0 dB, and use Fruity Limiter's CEIL rather than gain to set it.
Do not use Maximus presets named after loudness. They are aggressive by design and will take you well past any sensible target without telling you.
Reading loudness, and checking your work
FL's Wave Candy in meter mode shows LUFS. Aim for your genre target — most material between −9 and −14 integrated — and watch that the limiter is doing 3 dB of reduction or less.
Then level-match against a reference in the same genre. If yours sounds smaller at matched level, the answer is almost never more limiting. Compare against a straightforward master of the same file to see how far your chain has drifted.
Frequently asked questions
What order should mastering plugins go in FL Studio?
Corrective EQ, compressor for 1-2 dB of glue, tonal EQ, optional soft clipping, limiter last. Corrective before glue, tonal after — otherwise the compressor reacts to changes you made rather than to the music.
What limiter settings for mastering in FL Studio?
Ceiling -1.0 dB using Fruity Limiter's CEIL control, with 3 dB of gain reduction or less. Avoid Maximus presets named after loudness — they are aggressive by design.
Should I master in the same FL project as my mix?
No. Render the mix to a stereo WAV peaking around -6 dBFS and open it in a new project. Otherwise every mix change moves the master and monitoring is less accurate.