AC/DC's Back in Back album is my number one go-to reference to test speakers and reference levels. I may not aim to get those same sounds, but the vocal/background relationship, bass drum/bass guitar balance is right on the money for a mix that would not wreck havoc on the lows and will be punchy with guitars off the singer's face. It may not the right for everyone, but having listened to the songs constantly for 30 years (I "discovered" them in '86) makes me feel confident about my mixing decisions. Plus it is in everyone's shortlist of 100 best engineered albums in history. That album serves a lot of purposes for me:

- Clean-ish guitar ambience: You Shook Me All Night Long
- Gang chorus levels: What Do You Do For Money Honey
- Kick drum decay: Hells Bells
- Kick and bass balance: Back In Black
- Vocal level and instrumental relationship: all songs

So you get the idea. It's not the only album I use, but it's the album I go back to when I get messed up and I lose perspective. Obviously, this is for rock music. For other genres, I ask the artist to supply their references.

 

Last edited: Nov 29, 2017

LOL what a miracle God brings.. was tracking on the tempo for You Shook Me All Night Long and now taking a short break to forum and suddenly you came out with AC/DC. Hehe. Just doing it for production mapping and learning purpose. I'll take note about your thoughts on each purposes. Thanks a lot @mercurysoto !

 

i would say have your reference tracks match the type of outcome you are seeking so vinyl rip sacd flac would be great for specific uses

 

For pop, Any track Mixed by Serban Ghenea is an instant reference

Serban Ghenea is an fourteen-time GRAMMY Award and three-time Latin GRAMMY Award winning mix engineer. He has mixed songs for such artists as Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, Beyoncé, Justin Timberlake, Usher, Bjork, Thirty Seconds to Mars, Faith Hill, Carrie Underwood, Jewel, Santana, Ozomatli, Shakira, Jill Scott, Floetry, Musiq Soulchild, R. Kelly, Taio Cruz, Rod Stewart, Dave Matthews Band, The All American Rejects, One Republic, and Beck.


As of August 2018, Serban had mixed over 163 No. 1 singles and albums, – including hits for Taylor Swift, Kelly Clarkson, Katy Perry, Ke$ha, Britney Spears, Black Eyes Peas, The Fray, Train, Lifehouse, Weezer, The Hives, Maroon 5, Avril Lavigne, Gavin Degraw, P!nk, Rihanna, Ellie Goulding, and Keith Urban

 

Any hiphop reference track mixed by Serban Ghenea,

 

for the subtleness you could try waves S1 stereo imager and push it right out, i do this alot for drones and background noise loops... or if you havnt got it, duplicate and pan 1 hard left and one hard right

 

Need advice on the same

 

Maybe useful for Mastering reference.. some link to profile and selected works:

Tom Coyne,
ALBUMS: STARBOY(THE WEEKND), 24K MAGIC(BRUNO MARS), 25(ADELE), DANGEROUS WOMAN(ARIANA GRANDE) and others
https://sterling-sound.com/engineer/tom-coyne/#the_work

Others Profile:
https://sterling-sound.com/engineer/

 

also disney's karaoke collection, maybe good for arranging/mixing reference for library music. available on itunes/rutracker (flac)

=> https://peeplink.in/71053c57fa13

 

Last edited: Jul 17, 2019

Not really, try to get the closest source from the original mixdown when referencing.

 

Happy new year fellow board members. I'm looking for reference tracks in the rap, trap and pop genres. Of course there is Youtube, but I would like to have files without data compression / quality reduction, so that I can study the original frequency response. Anyone willing to share?

 

Go on https://rutracker DOT org
type the name of the track you are looking for, followed by "lossless" or "Flac" if it's not to exotic you should be able to find what ever you need.

 

i forgot it links but if you search around the net, you should find site that share hi-res audio from its original hi-res audio vendor

 

i dont like useing refference tracks thease days because of 2 reasons:
i ve got tothe point knowon how i want things to sound sonically in the styles i make
and i want my music to have its own identitiy if i refference off someone elses work then i end up wanting to sound like that said artist and i hate that.

 

yeah, besides, music industry is following bad trends such as loud overcompressed masters, and if everyone is taking as reference to everybody else then all the music ends up sounding the same: flat, lousless, impactless, and nedlessly loud.

 

Last edited: Jan 25, 2023

What are some good reference songs for 120-124 bpm 4x4 melodic/deep/chill/house vibes?

 

Maybe I should make a new thread..