Well Mixed Songs for Reference

DM60

Well-known member
If this is in the wrong thread, please feel free to move it. Probably already been covered, but starting to record again and looking for fresh ideas on mix styles.

Just wondering what are some people's mix reference. I was listening to Elvis Costello's I write the book and that is a very clean mix.

Just curious and looking for fresh ideas, something not in the mainstream.
 
But that is kind of the nice thing about no rules, nothing says that a mix style for one type of song, wouldn't work for a totally different style of song. I mean, no rules right? Hearing in your head what could be.

Since most of us do everything, the question might be more mixing/production reference.
 
How would you use a completely different style as a reference? You need similar sounds. If you're recording a punk song, you wouldn't use a James Taylor song for reference, a pop song, you wouldn't use Metallica for a reference!
 
Sit in front of your monitors and listen to The White Album, or maybe I Feel Alright by Steve Earle. Or September Of My Years by Frank Sinatra. We have enough cookie cutter music, go left field and against type. Lots more fun....
 
I thought maybe some people would different mixes from various sources to get ideas, approaches, something to jar the creative mixing juices.

I can see by some of the responses it was a silly question.
 
I've collected quite a few tracks -for mix refs, but also of interest for their qualities, but mostly in the genres I'm interested in or I get come through here. -but which also makes that fairly narrow' range :)
 
OK, I listen to mixes of different types of music in my control room, but I don't use them as mix references they are mostly to keep me in tune with regard to the sound of my monitors and the control room. I should point out that CD's I listen to sound great in my control room, however they are all different, which is part of the artistic licence.

One experience that I had with reference tracks was when I mastered my own bands last CD at another studio with a mastering engineer, he had a reference track from an album of the same genre, I thought the reference track sound like crap in the mastering room, so we ignored it, my bands album sounds really good on all systems that it gets played on but it does sound different to a some similar genre albums, but thats what we wanted, I wanted it to sound like an album recorded in the 70's with a bit of modern edge, and it does.

So bottom line, don't try to make everything the same.

Alan.
 
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