diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 387ecd2b7..9889f68e7 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -344,8 +344,8 @@ CONFIGURE_FILE(${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/lmms.rc.in ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/lmms.rc)
 
 # set compiler flags
 #SET(CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE relwithdebug)
-SET(CMAKE_C_FLAGS "${CMAKE_C_FLAGS} -O2 -g -Wall")
-SET(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -O2 -g -fno-exceptions -Wall")
+SET(CMAKE_C_FLAGS "-O2 -g -Wall ${CMAKE_C_FLAGS}")
+SET(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "-O2 -g -fno-exceptions -Wall ${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS}")
 #SET(CMAKE_C_FLAGS_${CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE} "${CMAKE_C_FLAGS}")
 #SET(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_${CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE} "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS}")