How To Master ANY Song To Sound LOUD & Professional (Stock Plugins) | FL Studio Mastering Tutorial

[00:00] Cuz I' been in my head and I don't want

[00:02] to run. Been through this before my

[00:04] heart in the underground.

[00:07] [Music]

[00:08] I don't want to run out of love. If

[00:11] you've ever wondered how your favorite

[00:12] songs sound louder, clearer, and just

[00:14] more professional than yours, chances

[00:16] are the problem's been your master. So,

[00:18] to make this easy, I simplify mastering

[00:19] into three core steps. And I only use

[00:21] stock plugins so anybody can follow

[00:23] along at home. You guys have been

[00:24] asking, so I finally delivered. And if

[00:26] you guys want to see the full mix for

[00:28] this as well, also using stock plugins,

[00:30] just let me know down below. All right,

[00:31] let's get into the master. We're going

[00:32] to be mixing an alternate version of

[00:34] Deéja Vu by Geom Mafia. It's an old

[00:35] unreleased song. And normally with

[00:37] traditional mastering, you're not using

[00:38] stems. This is not stem mastering. This

[00:40] is mastering. Play the most loud part of

[00:42] your track. That's going to be the hook

[00:43] for me right here where the uh drop is.

[00:45] So,

[00:48] first thing you're going to want to

[00:49] start with is a parametric EQ. We're

[00:51] going to use this to shape the tonal

[00:52] balance of the entire track. Let me

[00:54] explain. So, generally audio is made up

[00:56] of your lows down here, your mids right

[00:58] here, and then your highs up here. Tonal

[01:00] balance just means having the right

[01:02] amount of each. Think of it as adjusting

[01:03] the shadows and the highlights like with

[01:05] your uh photo app editor. Right before

[01:07] that, the first thing we're going to do

[01:08] is we're going to add a low cut. Come up

[01:10] to this purple band right here, drag

[01:12] until it looks just like that. And then

[01:14] this right here, you're going to pull

[01:15] that down until you see four squares.

[01:17] That's as sharp as it's going to get.

[01:18] And then you're going to come over here,

[01:19] last step, use your scroll wheel, and go

[01:21] one notch down. Play your track. in my

[01:24] head and I don't want to run alone. Been

[01:26] through this before my heart in the

[01:28] underground.

[01:32] We're going to cut off up to about 25

[01:33] hertz right here. You can do up to 30

[01:35] because then you're going to cut out the

[01:36] actual sub itself. This keeps your sub

[01:38] clean. Sometimes when you do this on

[01:40] trap beats like this, it does have some

[01:42] weird artifacts just because of the way

[01:44] the parametric EQ works. Use a wide bell

[01:46] right here and we're going to pull down

[01:47] just a little bit and correct any weird

[01:49] volume changes at the low end.

[01:52] want to run. Been through this before my

[01:54] heart.

[01:56] You can see how much you're reducing by

[01:58] looking up in the top leftand corner.

[01:59] We're going to move it down like I don't

[02:00] know maybe a dB and a half. All right.

[02:02] Next, let's move on to the mid-range. If

[02:03] your track sounds unclear or muddy, it's

[02:05] living in this range right here from

[02:08] about right here all the way to about

[02:10] right here. So, just to enhance this

[02:11] clarity, we'll take band number four and

[02:13] we're going to do a couple dB reduction

[02:14] there as well. Make sure to use really

[02:16] wide bells, some nice broad reduction.

[02:18] If you boost it, you can kind of hear

[02:19] what you're reducing. my head and I

[02:22] don't want to run. So that's that boxy,

[02:24] you know, muddy sound that I was talking

[02:26] about earlier.

[02:27] I don't want to run.

[02:30] My heart.

[02:35] Next, we're going to grab band number

[02:36] five. Ultimately, the end goal with

[02:38] mastering is you want to be able to turn

[02:39] it up really loud and it shouldn't hurt

[02:41] your ears. If it does hurt your ears,

[02:42] probably because you have some really

[02:44] harsh top end and generally that's going

[02:46] to live right around here in the high

[02:47] mid to the present section. This track

[02:49] does have a lot of that.

[02:52] [Music]

[02:59] And then let's bring down those high

[03:00] highs just a bit just to clean up the

[03:02] top end some so it's not too hissy.

[03:05] [Music]

[03:07] Remember these changes are going to be

[03:08] very minimal and they're going to add up

[03:09] a lot over time. And you'll see how

[03:11] drastic of a change it's going to be as

[03:13] we finish up. Next thing we're going to

[03:14] need to do here is add a surgical EQ.

[03:15] Now, this is where you get to go crazy.

[03:17] We're going to be doing exactly what we

[03:19] just did except with tighter notches and

[03:21] a lot more of them. So, you want to do

[03:22] the bulk work and then finetune. I'll

[03:24] put a massive cheat sheet on the screen

[03:25] that has pretty much every single

[03:26] frequency range defined as a term, but

[03:28] the main things I'm hearing here are

[03:30] just a little bit of boxiness and some

[03:32] harshness up in the top end. So, my

[03:34] strategy here, take a really narrow band

[03:36] with your scroll wheel and boost it. Any

[03:38] frequencies that are really loud in

[03:39] volume, turn it down a little bit. Don't

[03:40] go too crazy with this because you might

[03:42] actually turn down a frequency that's

[03:43] helping the track. If you can try to

[03:45] hear out which frequencies you like and

[03:47] which ones you don't like. Just go with

[03:48] your gut.

[03:50] [Music]

[03:52] All right. You hear that? 650. I hate

[03:54] that frequency so much. So, what I'm

[03:56] going to do is notch that and turn it

[03:57] down some.

[03:59] [Music]

[04:01] All right. Let's do it again.

[04:09] I generally don't like that frequency,

[04:10] too. There's a bunch of them here that

[04:11] are just kind of right next to each

[04:12] other. Uh 650 8,000 1100 1250

[04:17] [Music]

[04:22] to the shut it down. I don't want to run

[04:24] out of love and so long.

[04:32] All right, perfect. Find some low mids

[04:33] now.

[04:35] [Music]

[04:46] All right, last one. Let's do one more

[04:48] up here in the top end.

[04:50] [Music]

[04:57] Yeah, there's a whistle right there. So,

[04:59] let's turn that down some. Uh, I'm not

[05:00] going to do too much. Just like I said,

[05:02] maybe a dB reduction max. This is all

[05:04] going to be amplified as we move on

[05:05] here, but try not to do anything crazy.

[05:08] Maybe 4 dB max over here if you're in

[05:10] really bad shape. But generally, if

[05:11] you're having to do stuff like this

[05:12] right here, you're going to want to go

[05:13] back and reevaluate your mix. Is it

[05:15] really ready for mastering or do you

[05:16] need to work on it some more? All right.

[05:17] Now, the final step of the cleanup

[05:19] process, midside EQ. In general, this is

[05:21] what a midside EQ is. Editor, flash it

[05:23] up on screen for me, man, cuz I'm too

[05:25] lazy to explain it. But yeah, we're

[05:26] going to use this to add a little bit of

[05:27] width, clean up some muddiness, or, you

[05:29] know, make everything clearer. Open up

[05:30] patcher. I love patcher so much, dude.

[05:33] There's so much stuff you could do with

[05:34] this plugin, man. I swear to God. I

[05:35] really advise everybody check out the

[05:37] presets in here. I mean, you're going to

[05:38] find some really awesome [ __ ] We're

[05:39] going to head straight over to the

[05:40] filter section and click midside EQ.

[05:42] It's going to open up two EQs right

[05:44] here. One of them is the side and one of

[05:46] them is mid. Close those out for now.

[05:47] Grab onto this little yellow dot and

[05:49] unlink the side. So this way we're only

[05:52] hearing the mid frequencies for now. Get

[05:54] rid of a little bit more of that

[05:55] harshness that I was telling you guys

[05:56] about earlier. It's going to live right

[05:58] up here.

[06:00] [Music]

[06:04] All right. And then we're going to do

[06:05] the same thing we did earlier and scan

[06:06] for boxy frequencies.

[06:09] I don't want to.

[06:12] [Music]

[06:15] All right. Once I found two like that,

[06:17] another trick I like to do is just take

[06:18] another band on top of it and do like a

[06:20] wide sweep just to kind of reduce both

[06:22] of those. Like there two little teeth

[06:23] sticking out.

[06:26] [Music]

[06:28] Okay. So, let's relink the side. And

[06:30] then we're going to unlink the mid.

[06:33] A good trick to add width to your track

[06:35] is to add some shimmer to the side. And

[06:38] then we're going to knock all those

[06:39] lows. Use your scroll wheel to make a

[06:40] less harsh slope there. We're just going

[06:42] to roll them off.

[06:46] All right, relink it.

[06:48] [Music]

[06:52] Nice. Okay, now before we move on to the

[06:54] next step, it's always a good idea to

[06:56] reference. Now, what's a reference in

[06:58] the most simple terms possible? It's

[07:00] basically a track that you're comparing

[07:01] to your own when mastering or mixing.

[07:03] This could be a Spotify song you

[07:04] downloaded. This could be one of your

[07:05] own tracks that you already love to mix

[07:07] on. Drag it into your DAW and you uh

[07:09] swap back and forth until the one you're

[07:11] working on sounds as good as the one

[07:12] that you're reference. And now that AI

[07:14] is becoming really sophisticated,

[07:15] there's a platform called Master Channel

[07:17] that I've been using that has two great

[07:18] AI powered engines. AI mastering used to

[07:20] be horrible, man. It's gotten so good so

[07:22] I actually use it as a reference point

[07:24] to see if what I've done or what I'm

[07:26] doing was actually good. Let me show you

[07:28] exactly how I do this. We're going to go

[07:29] to master channel.ai. And you can see

[07:31] I've already uh run a master on it right

[07:32] here. But we have the AI mastering and

[07:34] the Wes Clark AI. The Wes Clark AI is

[07:37] exactly what it sounds like. It's

[07:38] modeled after the famous engineer Wes

[07:40] Clark. And then you have the AI

[07:41] mastering over here, which is obviously

[07:42] the original mastering engine. So, we're

[07:43] going to do both. Grab our mix file. And

[07:45] as soon as you upload this thing, it'll

[07:46] give you a finished sounding master in

[07:48] under a minute. So, if there's any

[07:50] blaring issues that I'm not hearing,

[07:51] this will expose that for me. So, let's

[07:53] also upload to Wes Clark just to have

[07:55] that processing in the background as

[07:56] well. All right, they've both finished.

[07:58] So, click play and then go to Wes Clark.

[08:00] Click play. And here's a standard engine

[08:02] master

[08:11] [Music]

[08:12] and I can't seem to find no luck. I

[08:14] can't seem to get no [ __ ] And then

[08:16] let's take a listen to the Wes Clark AI.

[08:21] [Music]

[08:26] [Music]

[08:30] Personally, the Wes Clark AI is the

[08:32] best. So, I recommend that model the

[08:33] most. Download that one. Drag it in.

[08:35] Turn the gain down just a bit. And we're

[08:37] going to listen to what we have here and

[08:38] compare it to our master just to see if

[08:40] there's anything that sticks out that I

[08:41] missed.

[08:44] run. I've been through this before. My

[08:46] heart in the underground. I run to the

[08:49] stop and shut it down. I don't want to

[08:51] run out of

[08:53] Okay, so there's definitely a little bit

[08:54] more body in here. So, what we can do is

[08:56] go back to our patcher and we'll go to

[08:58] the mid section and we're going to boost

[09:00] some of the low mids just to add a

[09:01] little bit more body back into this

[09:02] vocal.

[09:05] [Music]

[09:09] run to the shut it down.

[09:16] Awesome. Yeah, that is perfect. And hey,

[09:18] if I already got your track sounding

[09:19] better than it was, it always helps to

[09:20] push the video if you subscribe and

[09:22] leave a comment down below, especially

[09:24] if it's a question you have to ask me.

[09:25] I'm always very happy to answer those.

[09:26] Appreciate it, man. All right, now on to

[09:28] the cool stuff. Next up is peak control.

[09:29] To briefly explain, peaks are these

[09:31] things right here. You see how it's a

[09:33] bit higher? Right here, right here,

[09:34] right here, how there's a spike right

[09:36] there in the waveform. And if you have

[09:37] anything sticking out like that, it's

[09:39] going to stop the track from getting as

[09:40] loud as it can be. Mostly your 808s,

[09:42] your kicks, and just your bass in

[09:43] general. And the goal here is to tame

[09:45] those and push those down just a little

[09:47] bit, right? And let's break out Fruity

[09:48] Limiter. I'm so serious. Fruity Limiter

[09:50] is the goat if you know how to use it.

[09:51] Let me very quickly explain this. You

[09:52] have the attack, release, and sustain.

[09:55] Here's what those do just so I don't

[09:56] have to explain them anymore. So, let's

[09:57] start by setting the attack to between

[09:59] 10 and 20 milliseconds. You can see how

[10:00] many milliseconds you're at by looking

[10:02] at the top left corner over here. I'm

[10:03] going to do probably about 10

[10:04] milliseconds just to start out with. The

[10:06] release time should be between 100 and

[10:08] 200 milliseconds. So, let's move that to

[10:09] about 150 right in the middle. No need

[10:11] to really mess with the sustain for now.

[10:13] And then we're going to use a

[10:14] compression ratio of 3 to one. Okay.

[10:16] Now, let's pull the threshold knob down

[10:18] just enough to catch those peaks. And

[10:20] you'll see it start to work right here.

[10:26] [Music]

[10:32] And mostly the 808 there. Just make sure

[10:34] you have the envelope settings set up

[10:36] right. And we'll go over to imaging and

[10:37] stereo enhancements. The method we're

[10:38] going to go with here is just some

[10:39] simple stereo enhancement. Stereo width

[10:41] in this case is referring to how wide

[10:43] your tracks feel. You know how much it

[10:45] fills up your headset. So let's add

[10:47] stereo enhancer. It's the easiest way to

[10:49] do it. No more than about 25%. And 25%

[10:51] is a lot.

[10:58] [Music]

[11:00] Yeah. So right about 18% sounds the

[11:02] best. If you made it this far in the

[11:03] video, let's confuse everybody else in

[11:04] the comments by commenting the word

[11:06] llama. As mentioned earlier, it's also a

[11:07] funny way to help push the algorithm.

[11:09] So, yeah. Okay, now we've reached the

[11:10] final stage. At this point, the goal is

[11:12] to get the track as loud as humanly

[11:14] possible. First thing to do here is

[11:16] control a little bit more of this low

[11:17] end. This master reference right here.

[11:21] [Music]

[11:23] It has way less bass and low end than

[11:25] ours does. And there's a reason for

[11:26] that. This master is very, very loud.

[11:29] Usually when you're struggling to get

[11:30] your track loud enough, it's because

[11:31] there's too much low end. So what we're

[11:33] going to do is we're going to roll a lot

[11:34] of that off.

[11:40] [Music]

[11:43] I think that's perfect. Mine still does

[11:44] have a little bit more, but like I said,

[11:45] I want to hang on to some of that. Open

[11:46] up a Maximus. This is going to be the

[11:48] last plugin. We're going to want to

[11:49] navigate to the clean master preset

[11:51] right here. This is a lot to look at, I

[11:53] know, but the first thing you're going

[11:54] to want to do is click on the bands tab

[11:56] right here. And you can see your lows,

[11:57] your mids, and your highs are split into

[11:59] three different sections. And you can

[12:01] view them each individually right here.

[12:03] Don't even worry about all this other

[12:05] stuff. All right. It already does a

[12:06] relatively good job at dividing the low,

[12:08] mids, and highs. So, we won't even need

[12:09] to adjust any of this right here. Click

[12:11] on the low tab right here. And you're

[12:12] going to mess with this knob right here.

[12:14] This is our stereo separation knob. This

[12:16] works with the stereo field. Now, lows

[12:18] on a track should always generally be in

[12:20] the dead center, just so it sounds

[12:22] cleaner on all speaker systems. So to

[12:24] the right is going to be more center and

[12:26] to the left is going to be more wide.

[12:28] Make sure to click solo so you can just

[12:29] hear the lows.

[12:32] All right. Next we're going to spread

[12:33] the mids out a little bit.

[12:37] Generally no more than about 50% but do

[12:39] what sounds good to you. It's your

[12:41] master. And we're going to leave the

[12:42] highs as they are unless you want to

[12:44] spread that out a little bit too. But

[12:45] okay. Now the master. All you're going

[12:46] to want to do is click on that enables

[12:48] all this stuff right here. Only two

[12:50] knobs you're going to want to mess with

[12:51] are the attack. I would lower the attack

[12:53] just a little bit and then just raise

[12:54] this knob up as high as it can go before

[12:56] it starts sounding like

[12:59] [Music]

[13:05] it.

[13:08] All right, cool. It's normal to have

[13:10] just a little bit of pumping, but try

[13:12] not to overdo it. So, this is this is

[13:13] too much.

[13:16] It's just a little bit too compressed.

[13:17] And like I said, if you're not happy

[13:19] with how loud it got, reduce your lows

[13:21] until you can get it loud enough. And

[13:23] then, as always, you can always go back

[13:24] and cross reference this to this just to

[13:27] see if you're on the right path. If you

[13:28] see anything that sounds too off, make

[13:30] sure to go and uh correct it in your

[13:31] original mix as well. So, yeah, once

[13:32] you're happy with your master, just go

[13:34] to file, export as wave file. And make

[13:36] sure to copy these settings right here

[13:37] and start. So, yeah, there's a full

[13:39] in-depth mastering process, start to

[13:40] finish using only stock plugins. I think

[13:42] it turned out pretty good. Let me know

[13:43] what you think in the comments and let

[13:44] me know what you guys want next. So,

[13:46] yeah, till next time.