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Best Reference Track For All GenresUsing a great sounding reference track is one of the best ways to help you create professional sounding music. It keeps your mixing and mastering focussed from start to finish, ensuring that you dial in a great sound for every element of your production.
In this blog, we’ll list our suggestions for the best reference tracks across a huge range of genres, and an explanation as to why we’ve chosen that particular track.
To get the most value out of these reference tracks, we suggest you download the free trial of our plugin REFERENCE, which will give you the tools and insights to get your song sounding more like your favorite music.
Jump To Section: Star Engineers | Electronic | Hip-hop | House | Pop | R&B | Rock | Other Genres
Best Reference Track Mixed By A Star Engineer
Serban Ghenea
Ghenea is arguably the most sought after mixing engineer of our generation. With his fee at around $10,000 per mix and growing, his services don’t come cheap, but there’s no doubt that he delivers on the result. With an impressive 16 Grammy wins, Serbhan is someone you can trust to set the bar for what a mix should sound like.
My My My - Troye Sivan ► Play On Youtube | ► Play On Spotify
✓ Amazing clarity and focus.
✓ Rich low-end.
✓ Transients aren’t squashed.
✘ Phase issues in the main lead.
Below is an infographic showing the instrumentation and stereo spread of the most prominent elements of the song during the chorus. When selecting your reference tracks for any genre, try to keep this in mind and chose a track that has comparable sonic choices to what you want your track to sound like.
Don’t Go Breaking My Heart - Backstreet Boys ► Play On Youtube | ► Play On Spotify
✓ Great separation of elements, due to great panning.
✓ Balanced and controlled bass.
✓ Dense production.
✘ Could be argued that it’s a touch ‘too bright’.
Only - Imagine Dragons ► Play On Youtube | ► Play On Spotify
✓ Great modern sound choices for synths and drums.
✓ Crisp detail.
✓ Commercially successfully, 1 grammy win, 4 nominations.
✘ Quite bright. Too bright if you’re going for a more traditional rock sound.
Josh Gudwin
With a crisp and clean signature sound, and 4 Grammy wins, Gudwin is the go-to mixing engineer for cutting edge chart-topping artists.
Electricity - Silk City ► Play On Youtube | ► Play On Spotify
✓ Solid and cohesive low-end.
✓ The loudness range of 7.9LU (loudness units) shows that there is a considerable difference in the loudness between the various sections of the track.
✓ Commercially successfully, 1 Grammy win.
✘ Bass takes a busy lead role in the drop which is fairly uncommon. If your track doesn’t do this it might not be the best choice.
Instrumentation and stereo spread:
New Rules - Due Lipa ► Play On Youtube | ► Play On Spotify
✓ Bass is absolutely huge.
✓ Great width on mid-range musical elements.
✓ Loud whilst still being really punchy.
✘ Bass is so huge that it might be tough to match for most productions.
Derek
this is the track against a good sounding world hit in house music.
just take a look at this track. it has a rms of -1... the artist posibely calls the engiere 20 times to make it loud instead of mix it better... https://youtu.be/DMPT5BL2gj0
there is a tool from mastering the mix called expose. it scans the track for problem. it´s help allot when you what to find problem. loud mean not good.
Hey Jose! This is really helpful and a great insight on how tracks can be mixed.