Reference Tracks

[rlcramer]

I know we probably all have reference CD mixes that we use to gauge how our own mixes sound compared to commercial releases. But do any of you guys have individual guitar, bass or drum tracks that you use as a reference when you are tracking, to make sure that your tracks are sounding good before you get to the mixdown stage?

Bobby

 

[GarethSE]

No, because it's all about the big picture.

 

[Pedro Teixeira]

No

 

[Harry Hughes]

Although I know it's about the big picture, I'm guilty as charged as using This Godless Endeavor, Dead Heart In a Dead World, Alaska by Between the Buried and Me (call me a sinner, but I use Colors too, I never got the whole muffled thing, the tone has plenty of high end air IMO), and End of Heartache guitar tones as references.
I think this is probably due to me still being in a fairly primitive stage of audio engineering knowledge and skill so far, so I haven't quite gotten to that stage where I can hear it all in this great cohesive whole as the more experienced guys on here can.

 

[Morgan C]

When you're beginning I think its a good idea to see what a good tone 'should' sound like. But once you have moved past that and listen to the mix as a whole, and can be more creative, I don't think there's much point.

 

[Erik Monsonis]

When you're beginning I think its a good idea to see what a good tone 'should' sound like. But once you have moved past that and listen to the mix as a whole, and can be more creative, I don't think there's much point.

That.

I don't want to sound arrogant, but in the beggining I used to have some reference albums to A/B check while mixing, but now I just don't use any kind of reference to mix to be honest, just trust my ears.

 

[kramer1309]

well you are the boys and we are the noobs.. our ears do need reference material to adjust to fetching 'that' sound..

 

[Ermz]

Back when I used to track to largely unmixed backing tracks, yeah, I used to reference to individual guitar tones to see if I was in the ballpark. These days I will try to get a rough tracking mix going which is balanced like the finished product will be, and I will aim for a guitar tone that sits best within that. Anything else loses perspective.

 

[Williamn]

Well I don't use them as a direct reference. More like I listen to the song or even better, I find a multi track version and then study how the tone sounds alone and how it fits together in reference to the other instruments.

So for learning purpose yes, but I try to sculpt my own tone according the song/mix im doing