The best FL Studio compressor to start with is Fruity Limiter in COMP mode, because its display shows what gets turned down; Fruity Compressor does the same job without one. Turn the ceiling all the way up, click COMP, set the ratio to 2:1-4:1, lower the threshold until only the loudest peaks turn purple, then raise Gain to match the volume.
Finding the right FL Studio compressor is confusing at first, because there’s more than one way to compress a sound and they all seem to do the same job. So you pick one, turn a few knobs and hope the vocal sounds better, without really knowing what changed.
Below is what every knob does, when to pick each plugin, when a limiter is the better tool, and the settings the video uses on vocals, a piano, a drum loop and a melody. Compression is the third step of the Holy Quad, Mix Elite’s four-step formula for mixing a song.
Table of Contents
What does a compressor do?
A compressor is an automatic volume knob. When a sound gets louder than a level you set, it turns that part down. Max, the founder of Mix Elite, calls it “a magic volume control that automatically works for you” in Mix Elite’s free 4.5-hour FL Studio course. It makes the loud parts quieter, and with a little extra gain, the quiet parts louder.
The gap between the loudest and quietest parts of a sound is called its dynamic range, and a compressor makes that gap smaller. The video above calls the compressor one of the “holy trinity” of mixing tools, together with EQ and reverb, because a smaller gap makes a sound fuller and tighter, keeps every word of a vocal easy to hear, and lets you push a sound forward or tuck it into the background.
Why does that work on us? Our ears prefer consistency. A voice that keeps jumping between quiet and loud makes you work to follow it. Even out the jumps and the listener can relax into the song.
Which FL Studio compressor should you use?
FL Studio comes with two compressors that beginners run into first. They do the same job, so the real difference is what you can see while you work.
- Fruity Limiter (COMP mode): you see a live display, with the turned-down parts in purple. Its main knobs are THRES, RATIO, KNEE, GAIN, ATT and REL, and it can sidechain with the SIDECHAIN box. It’s best for learning, and any time you want to see the result.
- Fruity Compressor: you see six knobs and their values, with no display. Its main knobs are Threshold, Ratio, Gain, Attack, Release and Type, and recent versions can sidechain too. It’s best for quick, light compression once you know the settings.
In the free course, Max deletes Fruity Compressor and loads Fruity Limiter instead. “We don’t have any visual feedback to what’s happening, and since compression is so hard to hear, right, we would like something different,” he explains. This guide follows the same path. Learn on Fruity Limiter, where you can see every change, and switch to Fruity Compressor later if you like it better.
Image-Line, the company that makes FL Studio, suggests Fruity Compressor for vocals, single drum sounds and bass. For mastering, its manual points to Maximus or Fruity Multiband Compressor instead. The settings in this guide work in both plugins, because both are built on the same two knobs.
What other compressors come with FL Studio?
Besides Fruity Limiter and Fruity Compressor, FL Studio has Fruity Multiband Compressor and Maximus for compressing a whole mix, and Soundgoodizer, a one-knob shortcut built on Maximus. Fruity Soft Clipper isn’t a compressor, but it tames peaks too.
- Fruity Multiband Compressor: splits the sound into low, mid and high bands and compresses each one on its own. Image-Line made it for the master track, not for single sounds.
- Maximus: a multiband maximizer with three bands plus a master band. It compresses, limits and pushes loudness, and it comes with FL Studio Producer Edition and up.
- Soundgoodizer: a one-knob plugin built on the Maximus engine, with four presets from A to D. The big knob sets how much of the effect you hear.
- Fruity Soft Clipper: a light soft clipper that rounds off peaks above its threshold instead of chopping them. Push it hard and it adds warmth, then distortion.
One more reason to start on Fruity Limiter: Image-Line’s own manual now lists Fruity Compressor as a legacy plugin and points to Fruity Limiter instead. Fruity Compressor still works fine, so the settings in this guide carry over.
How to use the compressor in Fruity Limiter
Open the Mixer with F9 and click the mixer track of the sound you want to compress. Click an empty effect slot and choose Fruity Limiter from the list. It opens as a limiter, so there’s one quick step before you start.
Step 1: Turn the ceiling all the way up
Fruity Limiter’s limiter and compressor run one after the other, so first take the limiter out of the way. In LIMIT mode, turn the CEIL (ceiling) knob (1) all the way up, to +12 dB. Mix Elite’s free course does this before compressing the drums, and Image-Line’s manual gives the same advice. Then click COMP (2).
Step 2: Set the threshold and ratio
In COMP mode you get the two knobs that matter most: THRES (2) and RATIO (3). As the video points out, every compressor you’ll ever see has at least these two.
The threshold is the level where the compressor steps in. Max explains it with a TV: “Imagine you are watching TV, and if the sounds get louder than this threshold, your mom steps in and says, turn that down.” The ratio is how much she tells you to turn it down.
At 2:1, every 2 dB that goes over the threshold comes out as only 1 dB. At 4:1, 4 dB comes out as 1. At 20:1 almost nothing gets through, which is close to limiting. Usually, 2:1 is already a good amount of compression. Set the ratio between 2 and 4, then pull the threshold down until purple shows up only on the loudest parts.
Step 3: Win back the volume with Gain
A compressed sound is quieter, and louder almost always sounds better to our ears. So a fair test needs equal volume. Turn the GAIN knob (4) up by about as much as the compressor took off. In the video’s clap example, the compressor took off about 5 dB, so the gain went back up by about 4 dB.
In COMP mode, GAIN works after the compressor, so it never changes how hard the compressor works. That makes it the right knob for an honest test. Switch the plugin on and off and listen at the same volume.
Attack and release: how fast it grabs and lets go
Attack (1) sets how fast the compressor grabs a sound once it crosses the threshold. Release (2) sets how fast it lets go. The white line (3) shows the volume change: it drops when a hit comes in and climbs back as the compressor lets go. Here the release is turned way up, so it climbs back slowly.
A slow attack, like the 100 ms (milliseconds) in the video, lets the first click of a drum slip through before the compressor clamps down. The hit keeps its snap. If you raise the attack, lower the threshold a little to keep the same amount of compression. A fast attack grabs that first click and softens it.
Release gets one hard rule in the video: keep it at 30 ms or more. Very short times, like 3 or 5 ms, can cause clicks and other glitches. Beyond that, you rarely need to touch it. The knee, which sets how gently the compressor starts working, gets the same treatment. “Most of the time I never really touch the knee,” the video says.
Why do my drums sound squashed after compression?
The attack is too fast. It grabs the first click of each hit, and that click is the punch. Slow the attack until the click slips through (the video uses 100 ms), keep the release at 30 ms or more, and compress gently: about 2:1 for 3 to 4 dB of reduction.
If you raise the attack, lower the threshold a little to keep the same amount of compression. Then set the release by ear. The compressor should let go just before the next hit, so every drum starts at full volume. Too short a release can click or pump, and too long a release keeps the next hit squashed.
Want more weight without losing the snap? Use parallel compression on the drum bus. Mix Elite’s hard-hitting drums guide squashes the drums hard (threshold about -30 dB, a 10 ms attack and a 20 to 30 ms release), matches the volume, then turns the effect’s mix knob down to about 30 to 40%. The untouched drums keep their punch, and the squashed copy adds body underneath.
FL Studio compressor settings for vocals, piano, drums and melodies
These are the starting points from the video. Use them as a first move, then adjust by ear with the whole song playing. They work the same in Fruity Compressor.
| Sound | Ratio | Threshold | Goal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vocals | About 4:1 | Where the quieter words sit | Every word equally clear |
| Piano | About 3:1 | Low enough to catch each chord’s start | Sits back in the mix |
| Drum loop | About 1.6:1 | About -22 dB | Fuller and louder, with about 8 dB of gain added back |
| Melody | Limiter (infinite ratio) | Ceiling at the lowest peak | Every note at the same level |
Vocals: about 4:1
For a vocal, the video aims the threshold at the level of the quieter words and uses a medium ratio of about 4:1. It calls 6:1 to 8:1 pretty harsh already, and 20:1 practically limiting. The display shows the result: only the loudest peaks turn purple (1), while the quieter words (2) pass through untouched.
Don’t expect a big change in solo. The point is that the strange jumps in volume are now under control, so every word comes through. Mix Elite’s free FL Studio course uses the same 4:1 on vocals and sets the threshold so every word is equally audible. The rest of the vocal chain is in our guide on how to mix vocals.
Piano: soft compression, judged in the mix
The video’s piano sounds fine on its own. With the full track playing, it buries everything else. The fix is soft compression: lower the threshold (1) a little and raise the ratio (2) to about 3:1. Now only the jump at the start of each chord gets turned down, and the piano sits in the background where it belongs.
That’s the big lesson about compression. A sound can be perfect in solo and still wrong in the song, so judge it against the instruments it competes with. A good habit is to play two sounds that fight each other, like a piano and a vocal, while you set the threshold.
Drum loop: a gentle ratio and more gain
On a drum loop, every kick and clap pokes out a little louder than everything else. The video sets the threshold (1) to about -22 dB and the ratio (2) to about 1.6:1, even gentler than 2:1. That takes off around 8 dB, so the gain (3) goes back up by about the same amount.
The result is a loop that plays louder overall with a lower peak level. You can suddenly hear the quiet room sound in the drums, too. On a full drum kit, Mix Elite’s free course uses 2:1 for 3 to 4 dB of reduction and +3 dB of gain. Our guide to hard-hitting drums in FL Studio adds parallel compression on top.
Melody: use the limiter, but watch the Gain knob
A melody that jumps around in volume can be pinned down by the limiter itself. A limiter is a compressor with an infinite ratio, so nothing gets past its ceiling. Click LIMIT (1) and turn CEIL (2) down until it catches even the lowest peaks. Every note now comes out at the same level.
The video warns about one catch with the limiter’s GAIN knob (3).
In LIMIT mode, GAIN is input gain, so turning it up pushes the melody harder into the limiter instead of just making it louder. In COMP mode it works after the compressor, as Image-Line’s manual confirms. To bring the level back after limiting, use the mixer fader.
Go easy on the limiter, though. Limiting is harsh, and it can make an instrument sound very unnatural. For how limiting and clipping compare, see compression vs clipping vs limiting.
Compressor or limiter: which one should you use on an instrument?
Use a compressor on almost every instrument. It turns loud parts down by a ratio like 2:1 or 4:1, so the sound stays natural. A limiter lets nothing past its ceiling, which sounds harsh on most parts. Save it for a part whose peaks jump all over the place, like a melody or an uncontrolled arp.
A quick way to choose: if you want a sound fuller, tighter or steadier, reach for the compressor. If one part has to hit the same level on every note, like the melody above, use the limiter, and use it lightly. Mix Elite’s free course rarely limits single instruments. It adds a little limiting to an arp whose peaks come and go, though, because a part that’s loud one moment and quiet the next can confuse the listener.
Should you use a compressor or a limiter on the master to make it louder?
Use a maximizer, the loudness version of a limiter, or a soft clipper as the last plugin on the master. Set its ceiling to -0.3 dB, raise the gain until you hear distortion, then back off by about 0.5 to 1 dB. In FL Studio, Maximus does this. A compressor can’t stop clipping, and a plain limiter pushed hard makes the mix sound strange.
A compressor only turns peaks down part of the way, so loud peaks still reach the master’s ceiling. That ceiling is 0 dB, and anything past it clips: the sound breaks up. A plain limiter, like Fruity Limiter on the master, is built only to stop the sound going over its threshold. Push a whole song into it and it acts like an automatic volume knob. Some sounds jump up, others drop, and the mix starts to feel off.
That’s why Mix Elite’s free course doesn’t keep FL Studio’s default template, which loads a limiter on the master. Push the kick up while you mix, and the limiter quietly turns the song down around it. Mix with an empty master and save the loudness for the end.
For the final push, the course uses the soft clipper inside Maximus, its soft saturation on the master band. Turn THRES only a hair to the left, set the ceiling to -0.3 dB, switch on linear phase and raise the post gain until the song distorts. Then pull it back by about 0.5 to 1 dB. Our guide to compression vs clipping vs limiting shows the full master chain with free plugins.
How to use Fruity Compressor
Fruity Compressor is FL Studio’s older, simpler compressor: six controls and no display. Load it in an empty mixer slot, set Ratio to about 2:1 to 4:1, lower Threshold until the loud parts get turned down, then raise Gain to match the volume. Type, its knee setting, can mostly stay where it is.
Fruity Compressor has the same controls, laid out as six boxes: Threshold (1), Ratio (2), Gain (3), Attack (4), Release (5) and Type (6). Load it from an empty mixer slot the same way and start from the settings above. The values in this screenshot are just where the plugin sat in the video, not a recipe.
Type is Fruity Compressor’s knee. The options run from Hard, which starts compressing the moment a sound crosses the threshold, through Medium and Vintage, to Soft, which eases in. The /R versions add TCR (Transient Controlled Release), which adjusts the release for you. Like the knee in Fruity Limiter, it’s a setting you can mostly leave alone.
Without a display, you have to trust your ears. The video’s advice fits even better here. “Make sure to close your eyes from time to time when you’re compressing to actually hear what’s happening and not just get guided by how the waveform looks,” as the video puts it.
Recent versions of FL Studio also let you sidechain Fruity Compressor, so a kick can duck a bass or a melody. Select the kick’s mixer track, right-click the routing arrow under the track that holds Fruity Compressor and choose Sidechain to this track. Then pick the kick in the plugin’s sidechain input. Our sidechain guide covers the full setup.
When should you use compression?
Compress a sound when it jumps between loud and quiet, needs to sound fuller or tighter, needs more punch, or should sit further back in the mix. If you’re not sure, compress it lightly at 2:1 to 4:1 and compare it on and off.
The video gives a quick test. Ask these questions about each sound:
- Does it need to sound fuller or tighter?
- Does it need more punch at the start of each hit?
- Does it sound natural, or do some parts jump out?
- Does the vocal sound confident, with the quiet words as clear as the loud ones?
- Does it need to sit further back so it stops poking through the mix?
If the answer is yes, compress it. If you can’t tell, compress it lightly anyway, at 2:1 to 4:1 with a gentle threshold, and A/B it, which means switching it on and off to compare. The video’s presenter says he uses compression “on a majority of the instruments, even very subtly,” because it shapes how each sound sits with the others.
Just don’t make everything loud and upfront. The video’s rule is to keep no more than two or three elements popping through the whole mix, and compression is how you push the rest back. If your mixes still sound off, our list of beginner mixing mistakes covers the most common reasons.
How do you hear compression?
This is the hard part, so don’t worry if you can’t hear it yet. The video says compression is harder to hear than reverb and can take months to master. In its words, “compression is about feeling and not necessarily audible difference,” which is why the display helps so much at the start.
Exaggerate a setting until you clearly hear it, then undo it with Ctrl + Z. The free course does exactly this: crank the ratio, drop the threshold and raise the gain until the tails of the sounds jump out, then step back.
Train your ears the slow, sure way. Listen to lots of songs in your style and focus on one part at a time: just the drums, then the vocal, then the 808. The video’s shortcut is that “compression is the easiest way to distinguish a professional mix from an amateur one,” so keep comparing your track with a well-mixed song you love.
Start with one sound this week, like a vocal or a drum loop. Set 2:1 to 4:1, find the threshold, match the volume with Gain and compare. Do that on enough sounds and you’ll start to hear it without looking.
DAY 4 OF THE 7-DAY MUSIC PRODUCER COURSE
Compression is one tool. Day 4 shows you the whole mix.
Knowing the knobs is step one. Day 4 of the 7-Day course is all about mixing: the simple Holy-Quad mixing formula, the “Mix Murdering” mistakes most beginners make, and the volume mistake people make in the first 5 minutes of every mix. You also get a mixing checklist and a mixing and production template. It’s taught in FL Studio (the free trial works), about 45 minutes a day, and on day 7 a pro gives you feedback on your finished track. It’s $27, and you get 60 days to decide if it was worth it.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best compressor in FL Studio?
For learning, Fruity Limiter in COMP mode is the best pick, because its display shows exactly what gets turned down. Fruity Compressor does the same job with the same main knobs, just without a display. For mastering, Image-Line suggests Maximus or Fruity Multiband Compressor instead. You don’t need to buy a compressor to get started.
What are good Fruity Compressor settings for vocals?
Start with a ratio of about 4:1 and lower the threshold until only the loudest words get turned down and every word is easy to hear. Keep the release at 30 ms or more, and use Gain to match the volume before you compare. The same settings work in Fruity Limiter’s COMP mode.
What’s the difference between a compressor and a limiter?
A limiter is a compressor with an infinite ratio, so nothing gets past its ceiling. A compressor only turns the loud parts down by a set amount, like 2:1 or 4:1, which keeps the sound natural. Use a compressor on most instruments and a limiter only when a part must stay at one level. In Fruity Limiter, the LIMIT and COMP buttons switch between the two.
Should I use a compressor or a limiter on the master to make my song louder?
Use a maximizer, the loudness version of a limiter, or a soft clipper as the last plugin on the master, not a compressor or a plain limiter. Set the ceiling to -0.3 dB, raise the gain until the song distorts, then back off about 0.5 to 1 dB. In FL Studio, Maximus does this on its master band.
How do I compress drums without losing their punch?
Slow the attack so the first click of each hit slips through before the compressor grabs it; the video uses 100 ms. Keep the release at 30 ms or more, so the compressor lets go before the next hit, and compress gently, about 2:1 for 3 to 4 dB of reduction. For extra weight, blend in parallel compression at about 30 to 40%.
