How to mix and master vocals in fl studio for beginners | 2023 update

[00:00] hey there I want to show you how to

[00:01] quickly get a decent vocal mix for your

[00:03] song covers and your demo tracks even if

[00:05] you've never missed a song before this

[00:06] process is almost foolproof I will be

[00:08] using the stock plugins that comes with

[00:10] your Daw that is music making software

[00:12] in this case I'll be using FL Studio now

[00:15] it's important to follow this process

[00:16] I'll be showing you step by step so you

[00:18] can arrive at similar results okay so

[00:20] right here we have Beats and Vocal Track

[00:23] and first thing we'll do is we'll link

[00:26] both to the mixer so I can have

[00:28] individual control

[00:30] so in FL Studio just double click it and

[00:34] then come here Ctrl l or command LF is

[00:36] the mic in fuel studio just make sure

[00:38] it's linked to the mixer all right

[00:39] another link to the mix we're going to

[00:41] apply some effects and process into the

[00:43] lead vocal now the way you apply this

[00:45] effects is called a vocal chain okay

[00:47] that is where you add the different

[00:49] processing so the first thing we need is

[00:51] pitch correction most times for popular

[00:53] song genres you typically want a little

[00:55] bit of pitch correction in the artist

[00:57] vocal custom artists may not hit the

[01:00] notes perfectly all the time okay so we

[01:03] use auto tune to come to low mail and we

[01:05] will look for the key of the song now if

[01:08] you do not have auto key from Antares

[01:10] it's an easy way to find the key of any

[01:12] song We'll be using a website called

[01:14] tune bats so what this does is simply

[01:17] drag the song in here when you drag this

[01:20] one in here it tells you the tempo and

[01:22] the key but while interested in the key

[01:24] for now okay so I'll simply be dragging

[01:26] the beats

[01:28] and it analyzes it

[01:30] so C major okay

[01:33] and 102 BPM which is also shown in

[01:35] example because C major and a minor

[01:37] relative scales okay so we'll go with C

[01:40] major here C it's already in Key C okay

[01:44] now the return speed is how much of the

[01:47] tuning effect you want all right now the

[01:49] highest is the more of the auto tuned

[01:51] classic effects you hear okay and if you

[01:54] don't want to hear too much of the

[01:55] effect you can reduce it so that it's

[01:56] just snap the note correctly okay if you

[01:58] want to hear much of it but I think I'm

[02:00] going to have this at nine okay because

[02:01] the lower the number the more of the

[02:03] effects you hear and you had the number

[02:05] the less of the effects you hear all

[02:07] right so let's say I have this here for

[02:09] now I'll adjust this later if need be

[02:11] all right next thing I need to adjust

[02:13] the flex tune this Flex tune allows for

[02:16] more pitch deviation makes it sound a

[02:18] little bit more realistic okay less

[02:19] robotic as well I'm going to enhance

[02:21] this let's just increase it a little bit

[02:23] okay and most importantly the human eyes

[02:25] if you are singing or you're wrapping

[02:27] and you notice you hold notes like the

[02:29] notes things a lot of the time you want

[02:32] to adjust the human eyes as well so this

[02:34] will help prevent you from sounding like

[02:37] a robot when you're holding notes or

[02:39] trying to pitch high notes okay

[02:41] so I'm going to have this here so our

[02:43] listing and I'll make adjustments so I'm

[02:45] going to turn off the auto tune and see

[02:47] how it sounds without the auto tune

[02:50] [Music]

[02:52] for your signs and tricks so baby I mean

[02:55] it

[02:57] I'm scared to be left alone again baby I

[02:59] mean

[03:01] falling for your signs and tricks so

[03:03] baby I mean it yeah now I'm going to

[03:07] listen to you with auto tune

[03:09] turned on

[03:11] it

[03:13] [Music]

[03:17] I'm scared to be left alone again baby I

[03:21] mean

[03:22] [Music]

[03:25] it yeah you can see it sounds almost

[03:28] natural right but while I have a little

[03:30] bit of that auto-tune effect okay also

[03:33] we need to set our Tempo because we're

[03:34] going to be applying some effects later

[03:36] that require is to sync with the project

[03:39] sample okay so we're going to come down

[03:41] to 102 BPM which is the tempo of the

[03:44] track is written here and it's also

[03:46] shown on tunebat earlier so now I don't

[03:49] tune in to workout the next thing I'm

[03:50] going to do is use a compressor oil

[03:52] compressor does that keeps the vocal

[03:54] balanced it fix any inconsistency in

[03:56] your loudness level so like when it

[03:58] sounds more balanced and predictable on

[04:00] the beat you don't have a part where the

[04:02] vest or a part of the verse is so quiet

[04:04] then the next part is very loud you want

[04:06] it to sound a lot more consistent all

[04:08] right so

[04:10] going to and if you even look at let me

[04:12] make this bigger If You observe the

[04:14] audio file you can see some notes look

[04:15] small while some look big you can see

[04:17] this region right here

[04:18] you can see some notes right here looks

[04:20] more white some look big

[04:22] this looks small

[04:26] this looks this nose looks small white

[04:27] this look big so I want to fix that okay

[04:29] so that it sounds more consistent the

[04:32] loudness level so I'm going to come

[04:33] right here add a FL Studio stock

[04:35] compressor okay so now there are so many

[04:38] ways you can use the compressor to

[04:39] achieve this result I'm going to be

[04:41] sharing with you a typical preset I use

[04:44] for compressing vocals all right so the

[04:46] first thing I'd like to adjust my

[04:48] threshold to around -20 DB okay then I

[04:52] like to adjust my ratio to around 4.1

[04:57] somewhere around there 4.0 4.1 okay then

[05:00] I like to leave my attack at 10

[05:01] milliseconds so that attacks pretty fast

[05:04] it's not working pretty fast then I like

[05:06] to leave my release here so I quickly

[05:08] release the vocal as well okay so also

[05:12] if you notice that it's squashing your

[05:14] vocals too much you may need to relax

[05:17] the threshold okay but if you notice

[05:19] that there's still some inconsistency in

[05:20] the vocal then you need to

[05:23] um raise up the thresholders you need to

[05:25] bring it down to about minus 30 DB also

[05:28] okay so just basically adjust this if

[05:30] you notice that your vocal still has

[05:31] inconsistency issue okay what if it's

[05:34] something squashed relax it okay so now

[05:36] I'm going to listen to see how it sounds

[05:40] [Music]

[05:45] so I think I over squashed it so I'm

[05:48] going to maybe have it around minus 20.

[05:51] oh baby

[05:54] [Music]

[05:57] it sounds more consistent but if You

[05:59] observe there's a new problem now the

[06:01] vocal sounds like has been reducing the

[06:04] volume and this happened a lot of the

[06:05] times when you compress any element at

[06:07] all okay so that's why most compressors

[06:09] do have again compensation that you can

[06:12] use to adjust for changes in volume so I

[06:15] can simply increase it right here

[06:17] [Music]

[06:22] so baby I mean it

[06:26] was scared to be left alone again the

[06:28] behind me

[06:30] falling for your signs and tricks so

[06:33] baby I mean it yeah

[06:35] [Music]

[06:39] if I turn off the compressor here it

[06:41] sounds

[06:47] [Music]

[06:49] I see how inconsistent it sounds without

[06:51] the compressor when I turn it back on

[06:58] foreign

[06:59] [Music]

[07:09] so we're trying to fix that

[07:11] inconsistency and this is what a

[07:13] compressor does fix that problem easily

[07:16] okay so now that I don't compress we're

[07:18] going to use an equalizer to remove

[07:19] unwanted frequency from the vocal so the

[07:22] vocal sits better into the mix all right

[07:24] The Wanted frequency can be the modular

[07:26] end of the vocal nasal frequencies right

[07:29] and if your vocal does have harsh high

[07:32] end also need to take that out as well

[07:34] right and this is pretty easy to do so

[07:37] I'm going to come right here this low

[07:39] end Rumble right click come to type High

[07:42] Pass right click again order step eight

[07:45] and this will help sweep the

[07:48] um low end frequency okay now for most

[07:50] vocals depending on the mic you use and

[07:53] the style of or the type of artists work

[07:55] I recommend you stick within about 100

[07:57] to 150 heads when sweeping you don't

[08:00] want to take out too much body and

[08:02] information on the low end of the vocal

[08:04] okay so let's say I sweep this like um

[08:07] about 120 for now

[08:10] let's see about 120 somewhere around

[08:12] there okay I'll listen

[08:17] [Music]

[08:19] I think it's only a bit too tiny so I'll

[08:20] bring it back

[08:27] [Music]

[08:38] so just around 110 or 111 heads sounds

[08:42] great okay so you you typically adjust

[08:45] this depending on the style of workout

[08:46] you get custom artists do have more

[08:48] busier voice some have tiny voices right

[08:51] while some record too close to the mic

[08:54] some record with mics that have more

[08:55] presence so there's so many reasons why

[08:57] you want to you know adjust this to fit

[08:59] your own project so remember typically

[09:01] multiple cars within 100s 150 heads is

[09:03] where the cutoff should be when it has

[09:05] sound a little thin simply back off a

[09:08] little bit all right

[09:10] so next we'll do is take out nasal

[09:12] frequencies okay these are resonance

[09:13] frequencies around the mid range that's

[09:15] from the low mid to the high means okay

[09:17] so the easiest to hear it is typically

[09:20] starting from the high mids which is

[09:21] around this region right here so I'm

[09:23] going to do it so here on how to do that

[09:25] we simply use our Mouse wheel to pinch

[09:28] it up

[09:29] okay if maybe you don't have a mouse

[09:31] wheel on your mouse you can just come to

[09:32] the corresponding knob right here you

[09:35] see you can adjust

[09:37] so you simply reduce it okay so you can

[09:40] have this then we sweep across the we

[09:42] hear a sort of ring like it's talking

[09:45] through in snow something like something

[09:46] like that it's like it's still keep

[09:48] throwing nose Okay so take that out yeah

[09:54] [Music]

[10:02] [Music]

[10:04] figure out a place that sounds the most

[10:06] consistent okay so it may sound a little

[10:08] bit more in in particular frequency than

[10:10] in some okay so don't just test it for

[10:12] the first one here so sweep across and

[10:14] listing which frequency does it exactly

[10:16] sound the most consistent

[10:21] so we just take this down a little bit

[10:24] not too much please just a little bit

[10:26] okay

[10:27] maybe like um one to two or tops three

[10:30] DB down okay just a little bit

[10:34] so baby I mean it yeah I'll also do that

[10:38] right here

[10:41] [Music]

[10:53] let me try another frequency range

[10:55] so baby I mean

[10:58] [Music]

[11:04] you baby

[11:07] that's the point so take it down there

[11:09] as well

[11:12] come to this other one yeah

[11:20] [Music]

[11:26] [Music]

[11:28] so baby I mean it yeah

[11:31] yeah do that as well okay

[11:34] let's see this region

[11:37] so baby I mean

[11:42] it yeah

[11:45] yeah

[11:47] do that as well

[11:50] [Music]

[11:54] foreign

[11:55] all right so it sounds a lot cleaner now

[11:58] so energy worker is quite sharp so I'm

[12:00] going to take out a little bit of high

[12:02] end from the vocal okay because the mic

[12:04] I think the mic drops used to record

[12:05] this vocal was a bit too bright so I'm

[12:07] going to just dampen it a little bit

[12:11] now because when damping frequencies

[12:13] okay don't just do a huge cut like this

[12:15] okay it's usually just soft to cut about

[12:17] plus or minus one to three DB okay

[12:23] [Music]

[12:24] stuff like this please okay we don't

[12:27] want that kind of massive change just a

[12:29] little bit

[12:31] so baby

[12:36] baby

[12:38] [Music]

[12:49] so when I turn up the EQ the size sounds

[12:58] [Music]

[13:05] [Music]

[13:11] trust me may not sound like there's a

[13:13] lot going on right now but you've saved

[13:15] yourself a lot of problems further down

[13:17] the mixing chain okay by taking out

[13:19] unwanted frequencies that may build up

[13:21] later into causing problems so now it's

[13:24] time for us to use Reverb And Delay okay

[13:26] so when is the rear band delay we're

[13:28] going to create sense okay I'm saying

[13:30] this is really easy to do all right

[13:32] depending on yourself it may be

[13:33] different to your software but NFL is

[13:35] pretty easy and straightforward all you

[13:36] have to do is just come to your audio

[13:37] track that's your vocal your lead

[13:39] workout track okay then just simply send

[13:42] it so if you want to send it maybe to an

[13:44] empty insert 4 okay just click the

[13:46] button okay then you can rename it right

[13:49] click rename

[13:51] to give you a little bit more control

[13:54] than applying the Reverb directly on

[13:56] your lead vocal okay so I'm going to

[13:58] come here using FL Studio stock Reverb

[14:00] plugin and now please don't just start

[14:03] going crazy by adjusting the knobs

[14:05] that's an easy way for it to use by

[14:07] using a free Reverb calculator you can

[14:10] get online you can simply just search on

[14:11] Google

[14:12] um Reverb calculator

[14:16] and typically the first website to see

[14:18] is a free web calculator okay then you

[14:21] click that and then you simply insert

[14:23] your project Tempo which is 102 in our

[14:26] case and I recommend most times you

[14:28] stick to the large room and presets okay

[14:31] for most Parts all right so I'm going to

[14:33] use for the pre-delay 36.7 so if I press

[14:36] make it to the nearest um 10 to the

[14:38] nearest number which is 37 and then this

[14:41] is um

[14:44] 2316.18 milliseconds so most Decay times

[14:47] for some plugins is in seconds so

[14:49] dividing this by 1000 is about 2.3

[14:52] seconds okay so 37 milliseconds and 2.3

[14:57] seconds so simply come right here this

[14:59] is our pre-delay and we'll just adjust

[15:01] this if you look at the top left corner

[15:04] of FL Studio you see the number

[15:05] adjusting so making this 37

[15:09] so now if you can get the exact number

[15:11] you can pick the nearest number you can

[15:13] get your hands to okay and then we can

[15:15] then adjust the Decay to

[15:18] to I think was 2.3 so now we're going to

[15:20] increase the size once the reverbs are

[15:22] spread out

[15:23] okay further okay and then we're also

[15:26] going to reduce the dryer take out the

[15:27] dryer completely then increase the

[15:29] weight a little bit maybe it's like 60

[15:31] percent just a little bit all right and

[15:34] then take out the base we don't want

[15:36] bass we want to Bright Reverb so now

[15:38] when we play this High sounds

[15:42] in it yeah

[15:45] well it sounds too much how do you fix

[15:47] this pretty easy just come right here

[15:49] and adjust the amount you want if you

[15:51] want a lot to increase it if you want

[15:52] Little you reduce it so I'm going to

[15:54] reduce this accordingly so it sounds

[15:56] good to us

[15:59] [Music]

[16:04] [Music]

[16:18] so if I turn on the reverbs

[16:21] [Music]

[16:31] [Music]

[16:37] so next is the delay so we're going to

[16:40] also come right here don't understand

[16:42] again all right and then we're going to

[16:45] rename this to delay so when we do this

[16:49] we're going to add a delay plugin

[16:54] this is the stock delay plugin FL Studio

[16:56] all right so most times I recommend you

[16:59] stick to when you come to the time

[17:01] adjust it to four okay if you look at

[17:03] the top left corner of your screen you

[17:04] see it's at 4.0 okay but if your Tempo

[17:07] is like let's say 130 BPM and higher

[17:09] that's your tempo right here maybe you

[17:11] can consider eight or two you can try

[17:14] the other options out or try to avoid um

[17:17] thirds and sixth for the most times

[17:19] because the bounce will sound weird

[17:21] unless if it's a creative decision

[17:22] you're trying to make all right but if

[17:24] you're trying to just get a good mix

[17:25] typically two four and eight are good

[17:28] options to stick to all right so I'm

[17:31] going to stick to four in this case and

[17:33] then I'm going this is where if you want

[17:36] a lot of Bounce in the river for example

[17:37] if I

[17:39] um leave this

[17:44] you can hear a lot of bounds where if I

[17:46] reduce it

[17:50] is a lot less right so this is if you

[17:52] want a lot less Bounce from the delay

[17:54] this is what you use and if you want the

[17:57] loudness of the um delay to be quiet you

[18:01] can reduce it from the input volume

[18:06] [Music]

[18:08] you can see it's a lot more quiet now

[18:11] and if I increase it probably foreign

[18:24] but there's an issue it keeps running

[18:26] into the lead vocals okay so we're going

[18:30] to use a side chain

[18:31] which is easy trust me it's easy to do

[18:33] so we're going to just use the fruity

[18:35] limits are still a stock plug in FL

[18:37] Studio come to comp come to side chain

[18:40] you right click it and then you come to

[18:43] this right and just a few steps left

[18:46] just reduce this to the lowest you can

[18:48] adjust just a little bit just a little

[18:50] bit okay and then only place it sounds

[18:53] like this yeah

[18:57] [Music]

[19:00] oh

[19:02] so let me show you so you can really

[19:04] hear what's going on

[19:06] telephone tricks so baby I mean it

[19:14] was if I turn off this foreign

[19:23] okay this is running to each other boy

[19:26] is turned on falling for your signs and

[19:28] cheeks so baby I mean it yeah

[19:34] this is a lot more controlled okay so if

[19:38] I just turn everything back on

[19:40] cheeks so baby I mean it yeah

[19:46] [Music]

[20:06] so you can see now it's sounding good

[20:08] all across all right so now I'm going to

[20:10] show you how to Just Master Your Song

[20:11] okay so when we export it as wave we're

[20:14] going to just name the track um call it

[20:16] this

[20:23] so you want to export your track as wave

[20:25] okay please exports your mixes as wave

[20:28] all right wave 32-bit float all right

[20:30] make sure the master effect inside

[20:32] effects and this is also turned on all

[20:35] right animation is in Stereo a measure

[20:38] is in full song all right then click

[20:40] Start so we drag it back into the

[20:42] project all right we can turn this ones

[20:44] off now we can Master our track

[20:49] so simply link it to the mixer an empty

[20:52] insert okay and then you can rename it

[20:55] so you can easily know dizzy

[20:58] um

[20:59] mastering

[21:01] session okay

[21:03] then you can

[21:05] first of all have your lufs meter so you

[21:08] can know the current loudness level

[21:10] because the thing will match things that

[21:11] simple thing is all about making it

[21:12] louder but that's always the case Okay

[21:14] so listening to see who wants to be

[21:17] within about minus eight to minus 10 or

[21:19] ufs all right

[21:22] [Music]

[21:27] all right so it's around minus 11 at the

[21:30] moment all right so just simply bring

[21:31] this down bring the lfs method to the

[21:33] bottom of your slot by using your mouse

[21:35] wheel to drag it down all right or when

[21:38] you click the drop down you can simply

[21:40] um I think you're able to move it down

[21:41] yeah you can move it down like that if

[21:45] you have a

[21:46] um Mouse wheel so now use a fruity limb

[21:48] with fruity limiter to make it a bit

[21:51] louder okay increase the ceiling a

[21:52] little bit then increase the gain

[21:58] [Music]

[22:01] now if you can hear there's a little bit

[22:03] of distortion going on

[22:09] foreign

[22:13] [Music]

[22:21] and then come right here the presets

[22:24] right click it

[22:25] and then we'll come to 20 heads and 18

[22:28] heads cuts and then we'll sweep across

[22:30] about 20 25 30 35 heads okay just take

[22:34] out some and sometimes you can even go

[22:35] as high as 40 heads okay

[22:41] [Music]

[22:49] right so now what we should do is

[22:51] increase the ceiling some more

[22:55] then reduce the game

[23:00] [Music]

[23:02] so baby I mean it yeah

[23:07] [Music]

[23:22] so it's when you listen across you can

[23:24] surround minus eight to about minus ten

[23:26] earlier first at the moment which is

[23:28] fine okay well if you notice you know

[23:30] clipping or distortion on your track you

[23:32] simply need to take out maybe more bass

[23:34] or you simply reduce the gain on the

[23:37] limiter okay so now this is by no means

[23:39] a professional Master this is just a

[23:41] quick way to mix and Master Your Song

[23:44] your covers your demo tracks and get it

[23:46] out there okay you know you're making

[23:48] content on YouTube and tick tock on IG

[23:51] you want to high quality Productions

[23:53] without always needing to pay a producer

[23:56] and a mixing engineer this will surely

[23:58] help you in getting good results so we

[24:01] can now export our Master also because I

[24:04] assume you're going to use this as

[24:05] either for streaming or to edit with

[24:07] your videos so please also export as

[24:10] wave okay avoid MP3 when you're trying

[24:12] to put it on streaming platforms or

[24:14] exporting to edit your videos okay so

[24:17] also going to export this as wave make

[24:19] sure it's still in wave then we simply

[24:21] click Mass um start and it exports

[24:25] voila here we have it it fully mixed and

[24:28] master track easy to do so if you find

[24:30] this helpful please hit the like button

[24:32] so other people can find it and learn

[24:33] more I mean so classy this is essi Suits

[24:36] cheers