FL Studio user.. Using a different DAW to export?

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Sin_Beatz

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Hey FP!

Im a producer and i make beats and post them online. The website which i use to upload my music only excepts MP3s.. but one thing i keep noticing is that my beat sounds worse as an mp3 than it does in the project inside FL Studio.. I loose sound quality and certain things (for example a snare).. may sound lower when exported and then something like (most times my percussions) seem louder?! I understand that mp3 is a crap quality and you loose alot of quality by using that format, but i have to due to the website i post my music on only accepting mp3 (otherwise i would export as WAV).. Now i love FL Studio, its been my main program for years, but i unfortunately hate its sound engine lol.. I've heard that Pro Tools has a great sound engine and will export better quality mp3s, so i was thinking, as i have pro tools m-powered (the disc is somewhere in my room as i got it with my m audio soundcard) .. would it be worth installing that, bouncing my tracks down to WAV.. dragging that into pro tools, and then export from that as an mp3? Would i hear a difference or is mp3 just a crap format and will sound bad, even exported from pro tools?.. its just i hear other peoples music, all in mp3, and it sounds fine?

PS- My export settings on FL are all high (320kps & 512 sinc)
 
Sin_Beatz said:
Hey FP!

Im a producer and i make beats and post them online. The website which i use to upload my music only excepts MP3s.. but one thing i keep noticing is that my beat sounds worse as an mp3 than it does in the project inside FL Studio.. I loose sound quality and certain things (for example a snare).. may sound lower when exported and then something like (most times my percussions) seem louder?! I understand that mp3 is a crap quality and you loose alot of quality by using that format, but i have to due to the website i post my music on only accepting mp3 (otherwise i would export as WAV).. Now i love FL Studio, its been my main program for years, but i unfortunately hate its sound engine lol.. I've heard that Pro Tools has a great sound engine and will export better quality mp3s, so i was thinking, as i have pro tools m-powered (the disc is somewhere in my room as i got it with my m audio soundcard) .. would it be worth installing that, bouncing my tracks down to WAV.. dragging that into pro tools, and then export from that as an mp3? Would i hear a difference or is mp3 just a crap format and will sound bad, even exported from pro tools?.. its just i hear other peoples music, all in mp3, and it sounds fine?

PS- My export settings on FL are all high (320kps & 512 sinc)
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Whats up homie its def going to sound better in FL studio once you bounce anything out from anywhere and its exported to mp3 its always going to down the quality regardless BUT exporting the wav files to another DAW like Pro Tools AND MIXING them in Pro Tools that will be huge as far as your sound. I do submixes in FL Studio but Pro Tools is so much more powerful when it comes to the sound. Your able to process more on Pro Tools with plugins/FXs ect. So yea Thats the best way to go. If you export to wav into Pro Tools and leave it as is like on FL Studio I highly doubt there will be a big difference so as long as you mix it in PRO TOOLS then you will notice the difference. Hope that helps!
 
EddyBlazeMusic said:
Whats up homie its def going to sound better in FL studio once you bounce anything out from anywhere and its exported to mp3 its always going to down the quality regardless BUT exporting the wav files to another DAW like Pro Tools AND MIXING them in Pro Tools that will be huge as far as your sound. I do submixes in FL Studio but Pro Tools is so much more powerful when it comes to the sound. Your able to process more on Pro Tools with plugins/FXs ect. So yea Thats the best way to go. If you export to wav into Pro Tools and leave it as is like on FL Studio I highly doubt there will be a big difference so as long as you mix it in PRO TOOLS then you will notice the difference. Hope that helps!
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Thanks for the reply bro! .. ive never thought of mixing in another DAW due to me using Waves plugins to mix my beats .. so surely, if i was to use pro tools, and use the same plug ins, in the same way, the mix would come out the same right? Why would you recommend Pro Tools for mixing over FL?
 
Pro Tools uses all those same plugins (waves,blue,ssl). Difference with FL Studio is the processing which is much lower than Pro Tools. Pro Tools within itself has a better internal design ( algorithms or whatever it is ) just sounds better in Pro Tools. Mind you my mixes on FL Studio sound good but I know when Im using Pro Tools I can do so much more because the processing is better within that DAW. If your mixes come out the same in pro tools than in FL studio then your using the same presets and/or not mixing the track the right way.
 
not to hi-jack but how do you export each track separately in fl studio and not have to do it by hand.
 
You shouldn't be experiencing extreme results like that though with just FL Studio vs. another DAW. Do some research on this topic... i think FL's settings are usually screwed up when this happens. Perhaps it's a dithering setting issue? I know I've read about this before somewhere on these boards... do a search.

If not... just export as wav and then grab a free wav to mp3 converter to do the conversion for you instead of FL.
 
Keno- said:
not to hi-jack but how do you export each track separately in fl studio and not have to do it by hand.
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right before you export theres an option says " seperate wav files" make sure everything is in the mixer first.

---------- Post added at 11:29 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:26 PM ----------
CPhoenix said:
You shouldn't be experiencing extreme results like that though with just FL Studio vs. another DAW. Do some research on this topic... i think FL's settings are usually screwed up when this happens. Perhaps it's a dithering setting issue? I know I've read about this before somewhere on these boards... do a search.

If not... just export as wav and then grab a free wav to mp3 converter to do the conversion for you instead of FL.
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yea Fl exporting sucks and anything going to mp3 is already an automatic downgrade good point on the dithering maybe he could set it higher when hes exporting to mp3 but I recommended mixing in Pro Tools regardless. Digidesign has better basic plugins to work with than fruity filter/parametric eqs ect. Pro Tools is a beast stick with that as far as mixing.
 
It could potentially be your rendering settings. You should post a screenshot of your export settings and we might be able to analyze further. Are using 320kbps for bit rate? Do you have HQ for all plugins enabled? Do you have re-sampling set to Atleast 64 point sync? Also the fruity limiter can sometimes have a negative effect on the sound. You might want to disable it or make some adjustments to it as well.
 
flbeattutorials said:
It could potentially be your rendering settings. You should post a screenshot of your export settings and we might be able to analyze further. Are using 320kbps for bit rate? Do you have HQ for all plugins enabled? Do you have re-sampling set to Atleast 64 point sync? Also the fruity limiter can sometimes have a negative effect on the sound. You might want to disable it or make some adjustments to it as well.
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^^ this


The fact people still spread half-a$$ed myths such as "Protoonz sounds better than FL" or similar reveals a huge gap in education about the different kinds of tools and how they achieve their work. Nowadays, every app able to play back audio is called a DAW. There where times where people knew the difference between a hard-disk recorder (such as protools, cubase and logic), a sequencer (such a protools or cubase's MIDI section or FL's pattern sequencer) and a sampler (such as standalone sampler, but also FL's integrated sampler or live's intelligent loop sampler).

It isn't helpful to compare the performance of the typical hard-disk recording workflow in PT and the performance of a heavily pitched, stretched and processed sampler (such a typical FL projects). As flbeastutorial mentioned above, an obvious sound difference will be easily perceptible depending on the sampler's interpolation algorithm. The truth is that a linear-interpolated time-stretched sample in Protools will sound as weak as a linear-interpolated time-stretched sample in FL. Zero difference. They key is to compare apples with apples. :)
 
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point blank dont mix in FL Studio. Your best bet would be to do your sequencing then throw the wav files in Pro Tools especially if in the long run your going to deal with vocals anyways.
 
All this crap I read about Pro Tools having a superior sound engine is absolute ballbags.

The point is, regardless of the DAW you export your file, exporting to a MP3 format always applies extra compression to the mix (this explains why your snare sound squashed). Try experimenting with your project whereby you export your mix to .wav normally, but then create a clone of your project and reduce the compression/limiting you have applied yourself. When the file is exported as an MP3 to be used on your site, the compression/limiting you reduced in your mix will reapplied by the MP3 file.

I'm not saying the above is correct or will work, but the whole point theory of 'practise makes perfect' never grows old. Experiment with different settings to see what the outcome in, instead of presuming Pro Tools can sprinkle some fairy dust over your mix.
 
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EddyBlazeMusic said:
point blank dont mix in FL Studio. Your best bet would be to do your sequencing then throw the wav files in Pro Tools especially if in the long run your going to deal with vocals anyways.
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No the real point blank is each DAW has the same sound. It's all 0s and 1s. So if your 0s and 1s are coming out f'ed up, then it's a settings issue somewhere. There's enough people getting great mixes in FL Studio alone to prove that FL is not the problem.. it's the user's understanding of FL's workflow that's the real problem... point blank.


Even if you argue some DAW's have slightly different algorithms for playback that perhaps give slight bumps or scoops at frequencies on purpose... it's still not enough difference to account for the problems the OP is encountering.

If someone's going to learn an entire new DAW just to mix... it should be b/c of the workflow of the program (how easy it is to go from point A to point B) or for collaboration purposes. There are many good reasons to use Pro Tools to mix... but this particular issue is not really a reason. it's just masking the real problem, which is understanding what the F you're doing as a mixing engineer and how to use your software to achieve your goal. That's the real problem to be honest, not FL.
 
flbeattutorials said:
It could potentially be your rendering settings. You should post a screenshot of your export settings and we might be able to analyze further. Are using 320kbps for bit rate? Do you have HQ for all plugins enabled? Do you have re-sampling set to Atleast 64 point sync? Also the fruity limiter can sometimes have a negative effect on the sound. You might want to disable it or make some adjustments to it as well.
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My Settings:

Bitrate: 320kbps
Sampler interpolation: 512 point sinc
HQ for all plugins is checked

.. now im sure thats all in the highest possible? Thats why i dont understand why im having these problems.. Its like, quality drops & the highs seem to boost (hi-hats etc).. very weird.
 
I sorta deep down despise threads like this because there'll be a few experts giving sound technical pointers and then there's a few confused folk stating rather unfounded things.

The only thing that might be considered "lower quality" about FL studio is the fact you're stuck with only 32 bits instead of 64 like on a few programs like PT or Reaper. Other than that, it simply depends on your export settings. Mp3 just isn't the same in any case compared to lossless.

Believe it or not, there are some things that FL excels at compared to other DAWS. Edison's SRC is actually really good compared to most other DAWs' native SRCs.


When I started producing, I used to blame my DAW when my mix wasn't right ;)
 
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FL Studio is great if you know what you're doing, so is Pro Tools. Both suck if you have no clue what you're doing, pretty simple concept lol.
 
I can understand people just thinking its my mix.. but it generally sounds good in FL .. everythings crisp, clear and full of life. But when exported to .mp3 .. the lows becomes a tad muddier.. Highs seem to boost and clash with the bass, causing very minor distortion .. i mean, the difference isnt majorly noticable.. but i can defo hear a difference
 
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