Hi Mumia
Hey cuz.Checked ur post and the advice that TNG gave is pretty useful.
Another thing I wanna know is which version of fruity u using?Cause if its version 3 then u dont have to export dozens of times.All u can do is when u wanna export, click "split tracks" or if ur using FL STudio it would be "split mixer tracks".Just double check this though.That would save u much time as it will be all split in one exportation.
Another thing is its not too good to normalize a track or anything really.If its very limited normalization, then it should be fine, but if u wanna boost it much then normalizing is not the way to do it.A suggestion is that when u want to export the different instruments to wav, then possibly take the master volume to the maximum on fruity, or what u could do is take the individual instrument volumes to about maximum.This would mean that the wav u export would be well maxed and would not need any sort of normalization.What normalization does, and many muso´s say this and if u have a really fine tuned ear u´ll notice it too, is that it increases any possible noise within the track as well which makes a less crisp track or beat.Any noise picked up will just increase through the whole process.I´ve experienced something of that nature too.Not a pleasure, sometimes could help to enhance a track if u wanting it to sound slightly dirty-ish.
Also, i´m not an expert on mastering or anything, but a suggestion would be to listen to songs that have a similar vibe to the one´s ur doing.Try and isolate individual instruments within them which relate to the ones u have in urs i.e. hats, kicks, snares, strings, etc, and listen to their perspective within the songs.Are they prominent of more to the background.R they in ur face or laying back in the cut, so to speak; What sort of reverb do they have on them, or is it just raw and dry.How r they panned, or r they just bang in the middle.U´ll notice with some old songs, the whole beat was panned to the one side and the vocal to the other.In a mono sort of way.Btw, many of the Rolling stone´s earlier tracks, and old brit recordings, were str8 up mono.(bit of useless info).Fruity has a good parametic EQ which is useful.Its nifty to do some final EQ once u got ur vocal in the track.I notice many of my buds do this (final/master EQ when vocal is mixed with) and it seems to work well.
Anyways, hope this little bit helps too.As for EQ settings or compression settings for mastering, I am not too sure what would be good suggestions.I am of the thinking that it is more song specific, but maybe someone like Nyambz could help in this regard or refer u to someone who would know this.Worth checking out.Check with Draztik too.Hit me back if all goes well.
I sent u a PM.Hit me back on that.Much luv.