{"id":577,"date":"2009-01-26T09:41:42","date_gmt":"2009-01-26T17:41:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/passivepromotion.com\/?p=577"},"modified":"2020-05-20T17:20:48","modified_gmt":"2020-05-21T00:20:48","slug":"keep-your-mixes-consistent-by-using-a-reference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/passivepromotion.com\/keep-your-mixes-consistent-by-using-a-reference\/","title":{"rendered":"Keep Your Mixes Consistent by Using a Reference"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Like most of you, I work a “day job” to pay the bills. I run my own CD mastering business by the name of Resonance Mastering<\/a>. Unlike other mastering houses, I don’t believe in “corrective mastering.” If I hear a problem with a mix, I’ll ask the client to go back and fix it! Many clients routinely hire me for mix consultation, in which I offer detailed suggestions on each track in order to fine-tune their release before mastering. I run into the same problems again and again, so I find myself offering up the same solutions, which I’ll present here over the course of a few articles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Refer<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

TIP 1: Periodically A\/B your mix against the same reference mix in each of your song projects<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It used to be common for an album to be recorded in several studios, yielding an inconsistent set of mixes. Some might be thin or bright while others are boomy or muddy. These days most albums are mixed in a band member’s home studio. You’d think that songs mixed with one set of ears in the same room would be consistent, but that’s not always the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The best method I’ve found to keep my mixes on target is to periodically A\/B them against the same reference mix. Find a song with the tonal balance you’re looking for, insert it onto its own track in your project, set its fader to match the volume of the song (IMPORTANT!), and then mute it. Every twenty minutes or so, solo it. If it sounds bright, that means your mix is too muddy. If it sounds bassy or dull, your mix is too bright. If you use the same reference for every song, you’ll produce a consistent set of mixes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ve been using the same reference mix for years: “True Love Wars” as covered by Neuropa <\/strong>on their Beyond Here and Now<\/strong><\/em> album (originally recorded by Erasure<\/strong>). It’s not the cleanest recording in the world, but it’s balanced and the instrumentation stays basically the same throughout the entire song.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"radio-shack\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

None of this negates the need to revisit your mixes with fresh ears over several sessions. Even in a treated room with accurate monitors, comparing to a reference mix at a consistent volume level, I don’t trust my ears after a half hour or so. I’m always bouncing from mixing or mastering to e-mail or web surfing to give them a break.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo by\u00a0Kelly Sikkema<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0Unsplash<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Like most of you, I work a “day job” to pay the bills. I run my own CD mastering business by the name of Resonance Mastering. Unlike other mastering houses, I don’t believe in “corrective mastering.” If I hear a problem with a mix, I’ll ask the client to go back and fix it! Many…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":5504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/passivepromotion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/passivepromotion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/passivepromotion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/passivepromotion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/passivepromotion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/passivepromotion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/passivepromotion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/passivepromotion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/passivepromotion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/passivepromotion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}