Hi, and welcome back.
I'm going to talk about reference mixes today, but not really in the practical sense: whether
you drop them onto a spare track in your arrangement, or play them from a different application,
or use a dedicated referencing plugin, is not my concern today.
Rather I want to address the more philosophical question of why you would use a reference
mix, and what you would hope to achieve from it.
Many people think that the purpose of a reference is to copy it: you pick a mix in a similar
style to your own, then switch back and forth and compare: where's the kick drum sitting
in the reference for example?
Now switch back to your own mix: is the kick hitting in the same way?
This can be a useful method, especially if you're mixing a style of music that you're
not familiar with.
If you don't normally mix heavy guitar music, for example, then a suitable reference might
help you to realise your kicks need to be way clickier.
But this approach can also mislead you sometimes: your mix might need to fit together differently
from the reference, being different parts in possibly a different key, even if the reference
is in the same genre.
Plus, if your snare doesn't sound as good as the reference, that might be because your
snare is wrong, or it might be because the rest of your mix is obscuring it, and the
reference doesn't really help you figure out which of those is the real problem.
Ultimately your mix needs to sound like your mix, and it's the arrangement that chiefly
dictates how your mix needs to fit together, regardless of any references you try to copy.
Personally, unless I'm actually trying to allude to a specific mix, I tend not to use
references in this way.
There's a much more general way to use references however, which also, as a bonus, doesn't really
require that your reference matches your mix perfectly in terms of genre.
Let me tell you about that time, many years ago, when I visited a whisky tasting centre
in Scotland.
My girlfriend at the time also paid her entry, but decided she didn't want the whisky, so
I got her four tastes as well.
They were quite large and I was a bit wobbly by the end.
That's not the point though: my eight drams of scotch were laid out in a very specific
order, from lightest to heaviest, and I was warned to stick to the order to appreciate
them all properly, as once I'd tried the Lagavulin at the end I wouldn't be able to taste any
of the others properly.
Plus, there were little biscuit things, like whisky worshipers' communion wafers, which
were supposed to cleanse your palate after each glass, and reset your taste buds ready
for the next.
Those little whisky biscuit things: that's what your reference mixes are for.
I guess that might need more explaining.
I've mentioned before that your ears accustom themselves over time to the frequency response
you're hearing, and will start to accept that as the new normal.
It's almost like your brain has an internal graphic EQ, and if what you're listening to
seems unbalanced, your subconscious reaches over and tweaks the EQ to compensate.
That's why you can work on a mix for hours, tweaking every minute detail to perfection,
while falling to notice that the whole thing sounds boxy, or nasal, or harsh: your brain
simply tuned that out after a few minutes of tapping its foot and waiting for you to
get around to it, and now you're just blissfully unaware.
The reference is just to reset your ears.
It's not the only solution: you can take a break instead, or knock it off for the day
and come back tomorrow.
But it's a useful way to speed up the process, and can also be a diagnostic tool: if you're
starting to doubt your ears, listen to a reference that you're very familiar with, and check
it sounds like it normally does.
If the reference mix initially seems to have a glaring issue with its frequency response,
that's a hint that your mix is flawed in the opposite direction.
For example, if the reference seems mid scooped in a way that you don't remember, that probably
means you've been listening to too much midrange in your mix, and your brain has scooped that
out for you.
Usually this impression settles down quickly: listen to a verse and chorus of the reference,
and it'll probably be back to sounding as you remember it, and it's safe to switch back
to your mix… and you might then be shocked at how badly that midrange had built up without
you realising!
But sometimes you'll listen to your reference, and you hardly recognise it.
This mix that you usually think sounds great, seems incoherent; you struggle to make sense
of it; you notice weird details you've never spotted before, and not in a good way.
If this impression doesn't go away pretty quickly, your ears are shot.
You've been mixing too long, or too loud, or both, and your ears need a decent break,
probably until tomorrow.
You can ignore those warning signs if you like.
But in my experience, everything you do after you reach that point will suck and will need
redoing anyway, so maybe better to crack open a beer and relax for the evening instead,
then come back fresh in the morning.
Ok that's all for now.
I haven't forgotten the parallel bandpass video, I'm working on it.
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And thanks for watching.