The last few weeks I’ve been writing about mixing. Yesterday I spent a few hours mixing a song for my upcoming album.

In thinking through this album, it’s so easy for me to get all caught up in what I want it to sound like and how I’m planning on mixing each song. All this is great, but what I’ve forgotten to give much thought to is using a reference track.

What is a Reference Track?

You may have heard this advice before, but whenever you mix or master a song, you should have some sort of reference track for comparison purposes.

A reference track is simply a professionally mixed and/or mastered song that you use as a standard to measure your mix against.