which of these two do you prefer?

[Schwarzenyaeger]

Actually, I was a bit out of line with the 'bullshit' comment. He was reporting what was true for him, I guess. He wasn't flaming, he was just missing the point. For me, the guy talking at length or using a Christian rock tune is beside the point - what's important is the technique he's describing and what he came up with by using that technique. A better response to his post would have been: "Beside the point."

I was just mentioning how I find his music corny. A good sound engineer mixes anything but I can still chuckle at some kind of synth song with a guy singing the word "Jesus" with closed eyes and an acoustic guitar in his hands.

I watched all of the 5 minute to a better mix videos and most of them helped me. I don't agree with his general business model (I'll make you a world class engineer for only 300$ a month!). His newsletter is cancer in my inbox.

 

[Anders Erisian]

Well, that's the whole point of using reference mixes - you want to nudge your mix in the direction of a commercial mix you emulate, or you just want to check that you haven't disappeared up your own ass cuz you've listened to your mix so many times you're just not hearing some obvious issue. But like you said, he made his mix different, but not better. And so the lesson for me that I took from this video is not that using reference mixes works, but that it's pretty important which mixes you use for your reference. I'm suspicious of the current taste in bright mixes - it's a fashion.

Yeah, i didn't mean to sound so redundant or dismissive of the idea. But I've been thinking about the whole referencing issue a fair bit in the last few days, and i think it's definitely a worthwhile pursuit. I often find myself 'head up ass' mixing, and know i'm there, but can't stop. Now when i think i'm there, I'll stop and listen to some other music, something fairly close in genre and an obvious target reference, to start, and maybe a couple of very different tracks. It's good just to break that familiarity with your own mix and reset your ears. I still haven't gone so far as to import a song in my project and A/B level matched reference material, but i will try that just as an exercise one day. Seems like more of a mastering process than a mixing process referencing like that, i mean any raw mix is going to sound a bit thin and underwhelming next to a commercial release mastered track.

But as you said what your reference material is, probably is the most important aspect. Know what you want and shoot for it. I've never really approached music with a fixed outcome in mind, and i've always liked to let things evolve as you record them. If it sounds roughly comparable to other music in genre i think i'm ok. But it's really head up ass from go-to-whoa that self written/performed/recorded/produced game of music, and i'm probably a bit of a slacker.

I'm going to get all mature and unartistic, set a goal, with an outcome and sound in mind, and try to hit it for a while. At least i'll have a benchmark, and know where 'the end' is, rather than 1001 revisitations that go nowhere. I won't be referencing modern pop music though, and not because i dislike it, i just don't really want to sound like that. I think the current fashion in mixes for popular music seems to be the legacy of 20 odd years of electronica, that really infused pop, but i think that is starting to change too. Not trying to pontificate in that ramble, i needed to be shoved out of my fixed ways a bit, and this discussion helped that

 

[xcracer]

I actually watched the whole video. The song is not the kind of music that I like... at all... but that is not what is the question here. What was the question ? So much bashing.. geez. I think the concept is solid. The modified version is better. The video is probably hitting the target for those that would be open for learning and that would be needing it. Would some people do things differently? Yes. Does it make them right? Not necessarily. Good luck.