Reference Track Round Up

[MrBaxter]

Whats up dsf, So as of recent I dove head first into improving my mixdowns, I have been reading "Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio" by Mike Senior most recently, and his recommendation on using reference mixes during the mixing process seem rock solid. He identifies it as the quickest way to get from an amateur mix to a commercially competitive mix. He says to choose mixes that have a specific quality that your looking for, so you could end up using multiple reference mixes for a single mix. You would identify a part of the mix that you want to emulate, for example the low end on one track, and the vocal mix on another.

I was just wondering if anyone has actually tried this, maybe not as far as using multiple ref tracks but just using references at all to aid in a mixing session, and if it has helped you improve your mixes.

I am in the process of picking a library of quality mixed reference tracks so I have not seen the benefits for myself yet.

[Artie_Fufkin]

for example the low end on one track, and the vocal mix on another.

You mean 2 different tracks? Depending on what you're using, they might not be compatible mixes. If you tried to emulate a track where the vocals are really boomy in the lows for whatever reason and you tried to use the low end from a track that had a big emphasis on one instrument dominating the low end, they'll clash.

Can't say I've had experience with it though. I've been meaning to try it out, but I haven't sat down and tried to do a mixdown in it's own process in a while.
I've listened to tracks that I would like to mix like and analyzed them, listening to how they sound in certain ranges with filters, but never A/B'd them with my own stuff. Just took note of things.

Definitely get the highest quality format you can. I've bought cd's for albums/bands I've wanted to analyze, like 311's From Chaos or Nile's Annihilation of the Wicked. You can center cancel the tracks to hear things you didn't hear before that were buried in the mix or to check out the panning on different instruments. It doesn't work as well with mp3s. Try it with a cd you own and you'll see(or rather, hear) what I mean.

[Electric_Head]

Referencing tracks across multiple platforms and with various tunes should be done as a standard.

[Sharmaji]

I can't imagine mixing w/o reference material.

[test_recordings]

When checking out speaker, I always take:

- The Beatles - Sgt Peppers'
- Metallica - the album with One on
- Justice album
- Jungle mix CD

Gives me a decent range of styles and frequency ranges to listen across.

[Yuri Viroj]

I should start doing this.

So let me get this straight, you have like your finished song, and then you put a reference track into a layer.

Should it be -3db as well, since this is about the mixdown am I right?

[test_recordings]

I should start doing this.

So let me get this straight, you have like your finished song, and then you put a reference track into a layer.

Should it be -3db as well, since this is about the mixdown am I right?

No? It's for A/B comparisons