Today I want to talk about one of the most important things for mixing in a home studio.
Using a reference track is one of the hardest thing to do. You're a few hours into your mix, everything sounds great, then you pull up the reference track and it totally brings you down, your mix doesn't sound even close to that commercial pro mix. So why even bother? I'll tell you why.
Using professional mixes as reference tracks is the only way to get a your mixes to sound as good!
In case you don't know, reference tracks are professionally mixed songs (like the songs you listen to for your own enjoyment), which we listen to while mixing, to get an idea of how our mix should sound like.
But they do so much more than that, especially in the home studio
We have so many issues mixing in our home studio, it can make mixing hard and frustrating.
But using reference tracks can solve almost all of these problems!
Take a look at some of the problems we have in a typical home studio, and how using reference tracks can solve them.
You Get Used To Your Mix
Is your snare too loud?
Are your vocals too quiet? Does your mix sound harsh? After an hour or so of mixing, you can't even tell. Why? Because our ears get used to what they hear, that's just how they work. Your ears get used to the problems of your mix and ignore them.
When you bring up a reference track to your session, it immediately refreshes your ears and exposes the problems of your mix. It's a similar effect to taking a short brake from mixing, but with some added benefits.
You're Mixing In Isolation Not only our ears get used to what they hear, your brain also loses reference of how things should sound. How loud should your snare be? How loud should your vocals be? How much low end is enough? And how bright this guitar needs to sound? Who's to say? How can you answer those important mixing questions after spending hours tweaking your mix, hearing the same song so many times nonstop? The answer is by listening to reference tracks. If you take a critical listen to a reference track (preferably a few), you can get an idea of how thing should sound, and answer those questions we asked earlier. You can compare your mix to the reference track, and aim for a similar volume balance, EQ, and amount of compression.
You learn how does a good mix sound in your room with your gear If you're in a home studio, like many of us (myself included), your studio has problems. Your room has some frequency issues, your monitors are not perfect, your headphones sound hyped, and your neighbor is too noisy. We'll always have problems, but that's fine. When you play a pro mix, you hear how does a good mix sound in YOUR studio, with all of YOUR problems. If your room has a weird low-mid frequency build up, or your monitors are too bright, or maybe your headphones sound harsh, the pro mix will have these same problems too.
Then you'll know that this is the sound you need to aim for in your studio, because this is how your studio sounds, even if it's your bedroom.
It will set you free from the endless search for gear I haven't dedicated a whole post to this subject yet (and I should), but mixing is not about the gear, and it's not about plugins either, it's about mixing.
Does your favorite song sound good in your studio? Yeah, of course it does. And if a song sounds good in your room, on your system, with your gear, then why can't you make your song sound as good? Well, you can! Your monitors are fine, your converters are great, and your cables are all good.
If your favorite song sounds good in your studio, there's no reason YOUR song and YOUR mix can't sound good as well. It's just a matter of skill and practice. It's not about the gear, it's about the music, and it's about you.
I know it can be hard to get pass these frustration and disappointment feeling that we have when we hear the reference tracks next to our mix, but you must do it and start using these tracks as your goals, and as your guides to a better mix. All you have to do is simply take a break from your mix every once in a while, take a listen to the reference track you chose, and compare the two. Then work your mix toward this sound, because you know that this is the sound of a great mix in your studio, no matter how weird it may sound to you at the moment.
What Reference Tracks To Choose? When choosing a reference track for the song you're working on, you have to make sure that you choose a track that fits. Choose a track in the same genre, that have a similar instrumentation, and has the same overall style and vibe. It doesn't have to be an exact match, but make it close enough so it seems logical for you to want the song you're working on to sound similar to this track. Don't forget to turn down the volume of the reference tracks, as they are mastered, and will sound much louder (and thus much better).
What About Mastering And Recording? Reference tracks can be a great help even when mastering or recording.
When Mastering, use a few reference tracks to get an idea for the right EQ processing and amount of compression for your track. This way you can make sure that your mastered track sounds good compared to commercial masters.
When Recording, listen to some reference tracks and try to get your recordings to sound "already mixed".
This will make the mixing stage much easier and faster, and will help get a great sounding final mix with less struggle. If you ever heard someone saying "The recordings mixed themselves", that's probably what they meant.
So next time you're mixing, pull up a reference track and start mixing like a pro!
Do you use reference tracks while you're mixing?
Did you ever try to compare your mixes to commercial songs?
Share your experience in the comments!
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