MIXING & EFFECTS

Levels and Mixing

Setting Output Mix Levels

This section describes how to accurately set the levels of your final mix.

Overview

1. Main volume fader.
2. Master Mixer track fader (14 bottom of page), see the 'Mixer reference diagram' below.

How to adjust levels of the final mix

FL studio has a Main volume, in the menu bar AND a Master Track Volume (14). To ensure the Master mixer track level is an accurate reflection of the final output:

1. Make sure the Main volume is at the default level (right-click and select 'Reset'). It's probably a good idea to get out of the habit of even touching this volume slider, its main purpose is to make sure a master volume control is always available (when the mixer is hidden) and some audio emergency crops up.
2. Adjust Mixer Track Faders and/or Channel volume knobs to obtain the relative instrument levels you desire in the mix.
3. Use the Master Track fader (left most track in the Mixer, 14) to adjust the final level. Consider also, placing Fruity Limiter in the last FX bank of the master track. Limiting is a form of automatic peak volume control.

Using FL Studio Peak Meters

Generally it is important to get the loudest parts of the mix close to the maximum possible level (0 dB) while avoiding clipping (over 0 dB). Clipping happens when a sound wave carried inside audio equipment (analog or digital) becomes louder than the maximum volume that can be reproduced. When audio is clipped its waveform looks like the tips of the peaks have been 'clipped' off, as shown in the picture of the Main peak meter below (left). While occasional transient clipping incidents are not usually a problem, if clipping is pushed too far your audio will distort and crackle. Once an audio track is badly clipped, there is no way to recover the original sound, the track is ruined.

The 0 dB reference level represents the loudest sound a digital audio file rendered from FL Studio can represent or the audio interface D/A converter can make, before clipping occurs. All peak meters in FL Studio turn orange or red to attract your attention when the signal exceeds 0 dB (see above). However, not all red peak meters (over 0 dB incidents) are bad.

Inside FL Studio, the audio is digital, and so, is a series of 32-bit floating point numbers. The Mixer is adding and subtracting numbers so that as the signal amplitude gets bigger, the numbers get bigger. The volume carried in tracks 1 to 99 (3) can be added to make any arbitrarily large number without clipping (there is nothing to clip). On the other hand, when the mix is sent to the outputs of your soundcard, or is rendered to a fixed bit-depth (e.g. 16 or 24-Bit), then clipping can happen.

As the Master mixer track (1) is the usual output to the 'physical world', you should not allow it to peak over 0 dB. The rest of the meters are merely guides to the relative volume in each track. Of course, if you have routed any Input Mixer tracks (7) directly to your soundcard outputs OR you are rendering mixer tracks to disk, then these too become 'real world' meters and must not exceed 0 dB.

dB Metering scales

If you have been wondering why the maximum level is marked as 0 dB and values below it in negative dB then read on. Unfortunately the dB scale can't be explained in a single sentence, so if you feel your interest waning in the 'Calculating dB' section, feel free to skip straight to 'Some dB meter values to remember'. It is worth repeating that going over 0 dB on a peak meter is only a problem if this happens on the Master mixer track (see 'Understanding Peaking Meters', above for an explanation), or on a Insert track routed directly to a soundcard output.

Calculating dB

The peak meters in FL Studio are displayed in and against a dB scale. The Hint bar also shows these levels in dB and percent (%) as faders/knobs are moved or when the mouse cursor is placed over the scale. dB stands for deci (or tenth) of a Bel (unit of sound or electrical pressure named after Mr A.G. Bell). If you start reading around about dB it will become apparent that the dB scale has been used for many different physical measures - dB (SPL), dB(u), dB(v), dB(V), dB(m), dB(VU), dB(FS) and more! Probably not a great idea as this has lead to a lot of confusion and a number of different formula for calculating dB.

The peak meters in FL Studio use the following formula:

20 * log(X/Y) where:

• Y (reference level) - Assuming you haven't been fiddling with the Main volume fader, the 0 dB (almost top) scale represents 100%, or a level of 1. At this level we have used up all the bits of the D/A converter on our soundcard or in the case of rendering audio to a file, all the bits of the save format. Go over this level (on the Master track) and we start to clip the signal, as described above. If Y = 1 (100%) then all level values are a ratio relative to this 100% level. The digital numbers representing level are a measure of power (remember that as we need it for later).
• X (signal level) - The signal level carried by the mixer track. This can vary between 0 (no signal) to more than 1. In this case the value represents the fraction (percentage) of the maximum signal level that your digital output format can carry. For example 0 (no signal), 0.5 (50% maximum level), 1.1 (110%, over the maximum level).
• Log (X/Y) - The purpose of taking the log (base 10 in this case), is to compact the number range. For example, X/Y may = 0.0123456789, however log(0.0123456789) = -1.9, much simpler to work with. Type 'log 10' into www.google.com, or any of the values you see here, and the Google calculator will spring into action. Compacting the range is useful as the X value can be very small. A nice property of log fractions is they come out negative, while logs of numbers greater than 1 positive. The dB's sign therefore shows whether the value is lower or higher than the reference. This is why the scale dB's are mostly negative. Given that 0 dB (log 1) is used to represent the maximum volume that can be rendered, all dB values on the scale are relative to this max level (most being fractions less than 1) and so calculate as negative dB values.
• 20 * (20 times) - Since the result of the log(X/Y) calculation gives 'tenths of Bels', for example, log(0.5) = 0.3. That would be 3 tenths of a Bell, the conversion into 1/10th units is achieved when 0.3 is multiplied by 10. But that's 10, not 20? Remember that our original measures are in power units, we are really concerned with air pressure (volume) or electrical pressure (voltage), to get this we square the result since (and you will just have to trust me on this, pressure happens over an area and areas are measured in square units) Pressure = Power squared. It turns out that to square a log value you simply need to multiply it by 2. i.e. 2 log(X) = (X)squared. But wait, that makes 10 times the log(X/Y) to convert into 1/10th units AND 2 times the log(X/Y) to convert to power units, or together 10*2 = 20 times the log(X/Y). So...
• 20 * log(X/Y), the difference (in dB) between any two sound pressures (loudness) or voltage measurements (signals) X and Y. For example, in the case of a 50% signal:
  • dB =
  • 2(squared to convert to sound pressure) * 10(to convert into 1/10th Bel units) * log(signal level/reference level) =
  • 2 * 10 * log(0.5/1)
  • 20 * log(0.5/1) =
  • 20 * log(0.5) =
  • 20 * -0.3 =
  • -6 dB. So -6 dB is a drop in amplitude by 50% (or half).

In this case the reference level was 1, however it could be any other level that you are comparing the signal to (say 0.1/0.25). Try entering some of the following into Google, 20*log(0.5), 20*log(1) and 20*log(2) (see below).

Some 'dB change' values to remember

These are a list of dB values that are good (and easy) to remember that represent the difference in dB between two levels using the formula [20 * log(X/Y)].

• + 12 dB = about four times as loud (400%).
• + 6dB = about twice as loud (200%).
• + 1 dB = about 10% louder. This is very close to the JND (Just Noticeable Difference), that is the smallest increase in volume you can notice.
• 0 dB - No change. Note this is not 0 dB on the scale, but the difference between two dB levels.
• - 1 dB = about 10% quieter. This is very close to the JND (Just Noticeable Difference), that is the smallest decrease in volume you can notice.
• - 6 dB = about half as loud (50%).
• - 12 dB = about one quarter as loud (25%).

So now you know if an audio engineer says, "that snare is about 6 dB louder than the kick", it means the snare is about two times louder than the kick.

Mixer reference diagram

1. Mixer menu - Contains view, recording, Track linking, renaming and coloring options, click here to learn more about the options.
2. Mixer Track Scroll Bar - This will slide the visible range tracks within the mixer window.
3. Mixer Insert Tracks - The output of all audio instruments in FL Studio is routed to one of the 99 available insert tracks. In the default Mixer setup, once the audio signal is processed with the integrated effects (equalizer, volume and panning - 9) it is then sent to the master mixer track (10). It is also possible to route the audio of a mixer track to any ASIO output (7 - for users with ASIO enabled sound cards) or even another insert track (18). This internal re-routing is a very powerful feature allowing you to create advanced mixer setups with groups and subgroups of insert tracks.

   The labels can be right-clicked (or press F2) to rename the track or recolor it. Quick linking of channel/s: From the Channel window use the Channel selector to select the channel/s you want to route to the mixer track, then select the desired destination mixer track and click Ctrl+L. There is also an option to sequentially link Channels to tracks starting from the selected track. Shift+Ctrl+L.

4. Send Tracks & Selected Track - Send: There are 4 mixer tracks dedicated to send functions, although any track can serve as a send, (18). The send tracks can't be directly linked to instrument channels, but they can receive audio from other mixer tracks (1 to 99). Adjust the amount of signal sent by each Send track with the Send Level knobs (15). The purpose of send tracks is the ability to setup common effects (for ex. reverb and delay) once in a send track and then being able to route multiple insert tracks audio to it, as opposed to adding the same effect in each insert track, wasting CPU power. Selected: This is a special track that automatically receives the currently selected mixer track. Use this to host an instance of Edison for easy recording of any track OR the Wave Candy visualization tools.

5. Big Peak Meter - Can be hidden using the Mixer menu (1) > View > Options. Output is in dB. See Levels and Mixing to learn more about using peak meters in FL Studio.
6. External mixer input - ASIO hardware inputs and some VSTi inputs can be selected here. This also where external audio is selected for audio recording in FL Studio.
7. External mixer output - ASIO hardware outputs can be selected here. Typical uses include live-use where one channel is sent to headphones for monitoring previewed samples/mixes while the main mix goes to the PA OR to create a surround sound sub-mix by sending several mixer tracks to the relevant surround channels of your soundcard.
8. FX slots - Up to 8 independent FX may be added to each mixer track. To load an Effect: Left-click on pop-up menu arrow at the left end of the slot and use the 'select' option. If you need more than 8 Effects, use the 'Send' feature (18) to route the output of one mixer track to another. To open an Effect user interface: Left-click on the name of a loaded Effect, a loaded Effect is displayed in FX slot 7 above. To re-order effects in the stack: place your mouse cursor over the effect to be moved and scroll the mouse-wheel up/down (the mixer window must be selected for this to work, click anywhere on the mixer to select it).
9. Mixer Track Properties - For more detail click here. Parametric EQ, Stereo Separation , Pan , Swap Stereo Channels, Invert Phase . All these features can be automated. Panel (A) is the graph for the Parametric EQ, left-click to control center frequency (left-right)/amplitude(up/down) or right-click to control bandwidth (left-right)/amplitude(up/down). Panel (B) can be left or right clicked to gain simultaneous X/Y control over Pan and Volume. Panel (C) holds the controls for Plugin Delay Compensation.
10. Master Mixer Track - All audio output of FL Studio is routed through the master mixer track for final processing before the final output (unless an insert track is routed out of the mixer to an ASIO output - 7). In light of this, the Master track isn't a good place to record external ASIO inputs (6) as the external and internal audio will be mixed together and recorded to disk.
11. Small Peak Meter - See Levels and Mixing to learn more about using peak meters in FL Studio.
12. Mute Switch - left-click to mute/un-mute the individual track, right-click to solo/un-solo the individual track.
13. Pan Knob - this function is also duplicated in the Mixer Track Properties area.
14. Level Fader - Can be automated right-clicked and linked to controllers. This function is also duplicated in the Mixer Track Properties area.
15. Send Knobs - When the 'Send' switch is activated (18) this knob (on the destination track) controls the signal level received from the source track.
16. FX Enable/Disable Switch - When deselected, the FX switch disables all the FX in the associated mixer track (8). At least one effect must be added to the FX rack for the switch to be active. Right-clicking the FX switch will open/close the interfaces for all effects loaded in the associated mixer track.
17. Track Recording Switch - When selected (orange) the track is armed and any audio (internal or external (6)) will be recorded to disk.
18. Track Send / Sidechain Enable Switch - Left-click to enable audio to be passed from one track to another, turns orange. Right-click to route OR sidechain to a specific track, master routing disabled. Sidechaining works in conjunction with plugins that accept a sidechain feed (e.g. Fruity Limiter's compressor function or the Stereo Shaper). The direction of the sidechain signal will depend on the plugin, for example the Fruity Limiter receives a sidechain FROM another mixer track while the Stereo Shaper sends a sidechain TO a mixer track. Available Sidechain tracks are labeled by their track name when a plugins sidechain selector is right-clicked. Remember if the sidechain direction is incorrect for the plugin type then the sidechain option won't show when the plugins sidechain selector is right-clicked. NOTES: Multiple side-chain sources can be sent to any given mixer track.

NOTE: Most controls are automatable (right-click and select 'Create automation clip').