In this post, I’m going to talk about reference tracks – why they are important, how to use them and where to find them.
When we mix our own music there is a danger of never having an end goal in sight.
You might have an idea of what you want your music to sound like but sometimes we lose perspective. Our ears are very good at fooling us especially if we have listened to our own mix for a long period of time. If we don’t remind our ears exactly what we are trying to achieve we may just keep chasing our tails round and round.
So, read on to find out more about how you can use reference tracks to up your mixing game.
What is a reference track?
A reference track is a song or composition that you can compare your own work against. The aim is not to copy your reference tracks exactly but it must be in a similar style or genre to your own track. The music must have something which you admire in terms of mixing or perhaps the blend of instruments (arrangement). This could be your favourite artist, a song from a film soundtrack or commercial; basically, any piece of music you want to use as a template.
Different people will have different ideas about what makes a good reference track. So, take your time and create a playlist of your own favourite tracks in a particular genre.
After you have made a list you then need to get these tracks into your DAW. Why? Because you need to be able to compare the track against your own mix, and switch between them quickly.
How to find a reference track
Sometimes finding a digital copy of reference tracks is easier said than done. Ideally, we need to be using a High Quality, uncompressed (lossless) version of the track. In other words: Wav or AIFF files that are CD quality, 44.1KHz and 16Bit.
Why can’t I use an MP3?
MP3 is a compressed, lossy format. In order to keep the file size small, MP3s remove some of the frequency content and dynamic range from the original, high-quality master track. This usually means the high frequencies and some low frequencies are reduced. Very quiet sounds can also suffer.
If you try to compare your mix to MP3 reference tracks you will be comparing it to a lower quality version with some important information missing.
Where can I find high-quality digital files?
In this era of digital streaming, many of us just do not have access to CD Quality digital files. Even if we download tracks from Itunes or Amazon they are mostly MP3 files.
Here are some options:-
Bandcamp: https://bandcamp.com/
I find Bandcamp to be a great resource for smaller, independent music. You can buy individual tracks rather than having to buy the whole album. Usually, you have an option to download in high quality. It’s not always possible to find major artists on Bandcamp but it’s always worth a try as the first option.
Tidal: https://tidal.com/
Tidal are a good option if you can’t find what you want on Bandcamp. They sell Lossless (FLAC) downloads however, you will find that most artists will only sell full albums rather than individual tracks.
Compact Discs
Yes, remember CDs? This physical format dominated music for well over a decade. Now CD’s are largely ignored in favour of digital streaming. One advantage of owning a CD is that you can easily copy the music to a computer and retain the high quality, uncompressed digital file. It is legal to make a backup copy of the music you own on CD. Itunes makes it fairly easy to copy CDs to our computer however, you will need a USB CD drive to make this happen: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rioddas-External-Portable-Rewriter-Desktop
Where to buy CDs?
You can pick up second-hand CD’s on Ebay for reasonable prices.
Retailers such as HMV (UK) https://store.hmv.com/store/music/cd or Walmart (US) https://www.walmart.com/ still sell most of the latest music on CD, as does Amazon.
Other Download options: https://www.videoconverterfactory.com/tips/lossless-music-download.html
Check out the link above for a list of other download sites that offer lossless audio.
I have not tried any of these sites personally apart from 7Digital which was many years ago.
Loudness Matching
Before we look at methods of comparison it’s important to consider how loudness can affect our judgement.
Our ears naturally pick up on louder sounds and this can often equate to louder = better.
Most commercial recordings have been through a mastering process in order to bring the volume up to an acceptable level. So, you may find that your judgement is coloured by the overall level of the reference track. This will usually be much louder than your unmastered multitrack mix.
You can try to match loudness by lowering the level of the reference track but this isn’t always sufficient. Alternatively, you can try to bring up the level of your own mix by applying compression and limiting to your stereo mix bus. You may also have to use both techniques to match the volume of your reference track. This kind of ‘Pseudo-mastering’ is commonplace in professional studios. Even if you ultimately bypass these plugins for the final mix, it’s worth having them available for making comparisons at the mixing stage.
How to compare reference tracks in your DAW
Once you have digital copies of your reference tracks you can put them inside your DAW session to compare as you mix.
There are 3 main ways to do this. I have tried them all and will explain which one I think is best.
1. As a separate track in your DAW.
The simplest way to compare your reference is to import the file into your DAW and place it on a new track. You can mute the track when you don’t want to hear it. In order to solo the reference track, you would usually have to unmute it and then solo it – so that’s a 2 click process. One problem here is that if you have any processing on your master bus then it will also affect the reference track. This is not ideal so you will have to do some rerouting of tracks. Set the output of all your individual tracks to a Sub-Master bus. Then set the output of the Sub-Master bus to the main outputs. Now place all your bus processing plugins on this Sub-Master Bus. Your reference track needs to route directly to the master output thus bypassing any processing on the Sub-Master bus.
You’ll also need to make adjustments to match the loudness of your reference track as described earlier.
2. Reference Plugin (free option).
HOFA make a great free plugin called Blindtest https://hofa-plugins.de/en/plugins/4u/
Blindtest can be used to compare up to 3 different tracks. While not specifically designed as a reference plugin you can still use it as such.
Simply place the plugin as the last insert on each track you want to compare. In our situation, you would place one instance on the Sub Master Bus and then another instance on your reference track.
The main advantage of Blindtest is that you can switch between different mixes with one click. It also has loudness compensation controls built into the plugin but you must still set this up manually.
3. Reference Plugin (Paid option).
The best reference plugin in my opinion is ADPTR Metric AB . https://www.adptraudio.com/metric-ab
It’s a dedicated mix reference plugin with lots of handy features built-in.
You can load up to 16 reference tracks directly into the plugin, removing the need to create new tracks in your DAW. Simply place the Metric AB Plugin as the last insert effect on your Master Bus. There is no need to re-route tracks as in other methods.
Switching between the reference track and your mix is a single click. Loudness matching is handled by the plugin, so you don’t have to use guesswork. There are many different ways of controlling which part of the reference track you wish to compare. For example, you can set up cues so that a particular cue is played regardless of what part of your mix you are comparing it to.
Best of all, you get a detailed analysis of every element of your track versus the reference track. For example, you can view the frequency spectrum in real-time, the loudness, dynamics and stereo image. There are many more features of this fantastic plugin: for more information click here.
You can pick it up from Plugin Alliance for around $50, sometimes less when there are special offers.
Taking Referencing to the next level
Having a reference plugin is a good start. But you still need to have the right mixing skills and experience to benefit from it. Once you have exposed shortcomings in your own mix you have to know how to resolve these issues.
You can, however, take some of the guesswork out of mixing by using a tonal balancing plugin. Izotope’s Ozone 9 (and later) includes tonal balance technology. This uses Artificial Intelligence and a database of reference tracks to make decisions. You can also use your own reference files if you like. While Ozone is mostly aimed at Mastering you can still use Tonal Balance as a standalone plugin on individual tracks (included with Ozone Advanced or to purchase separately).
You can find out more about Tonal Balance here: https://www.izotope.com/en/products/tonal-balance-control-2.html
Further Reading
If you’d like to learn more about reference tracks then you’ll find no better recommendation than Mike Senior’s excellent book ‘Mixing secrets for the small studio’. In Chapter 4, Mike goes in-depth into the subject of how to make objective mix decisions. He says that mix referencing is by far the most powerful technique for achieving objectivity.
Conclusion
In my opinion, a reference plugin is by far one of the most important Plugins you could own.
You can improve your own mixing by periodically comparing your own mix to the reference.
Switching quickly between a reference and your own mix is important, as is loudness matching.
The ability to see the differences in the frequency spectrum can help you make decisions with EQ and track levels.
A dedicated plugin such as Metric AB makes the whole process so much easier. The controls and features of the plugin make it well worth the price.
Give referencing a try yourself and see how it can improve your mixing. If you want to go a step further then Tonal Balance by Izotope can help speed up the process.
Thanks for reading and as always please let me know what you think in the comments below. How do you use reference tracks when mixing? What works for you and what would you like to know more about?