Time to think about referencing your tunes. Ever find that when you're getting your own tracks in the mix, or playing them out in a club, somehow they just don't sound quite right when you put them up against released tracks? Even though they sounded fine back at home? You're not alone! Let's dive in and look at how you can make sure you're getting the right balance...When I say 'referencing', I'm going to be talking about two different things; there's listening to your track on different speakers and in different environments, and then there's comparing your track with others.
First though, before you even get to that stage, you should take a break. If you've been mixing down all evening, your ears will have gotten used to the track as it stands; anything you do will likely just make it sound 'wrong'. So go for a walk, listen to some completely different music, watch a bit of TV. Better still, leave it and come back tomorrow. Then, load a bounce of the track into iTunes or Winamp, and sit back. You'll be better able to appreciate what the track is actually doing if you can't see the mixer or the arrange window of your DAW; the brain has a funny way of rationalising everything, and it really helps just to listen to the file in a different program than usual.
Once you're happy with your mixdown so far, then you need to fire up some tunes that you think your track sounds similar to - or that you want it to sound similar to! Make sure you've got the volumes matched up so that they all sound the same level, and flick back and forth to compare the differences in the mix (you might find it's easiest to do this in your DAW so you can mute and unmute channels). There are some obvious things to listen out for, like the basic issues of a mixdown; is your snare much louder or quieter than another track? The vocals? On a more subtle note, you should listen out for the overall balance of the track. It could be that although everything sounds good individually, the higher frequency elements of your track are quieter, relative to the bass - which might mean they don't come through so well in a club. Or vice versa, of course.If yours sounds somehow 'harsher' perhaps, but you can't identify which element is causing it, then it could be that you've been boosting high frequencies on several channels (again, even if they sound fine on their own), and would be well advised to go back in and tweak them.
Pay attention also to whether the other tracks use any cunning techniques with the arrangement - often you'll notice that a track may create space for a vocal by dropping out some lead lines or high frequency percussion; or will program the bassline so that it's not playing at the same time as the kick. This can be a useful way to avoid cluttering the mix, or avoid it sounding 'top heavy' for instance.
Many people find it helpful to use some kind of graphical frequency analyser when mixing down and referencing, and it can certainly help - if you look at one track which seems pretty flat, and yours has a strange spike at a certain frequency, then you may need to consider what is causing it. But equally, you don't necessarily have to go after every little peak in the spectrum - your track has to have some kind of sonic focus after all! You don't want to be mixing all the character out of your beats. And you should always try to trust your ears, rather than what you can see on the screen.
Once you're confident that you've got a balanced and comparable sound, you then need to go and take your new beat, and your reference tracks, and listen to them on other speakers. This is vitally important, as so far you're going to be working around the imperfections of your room and speaker set up. So there could be some issues you've not spotted yet.
If you can, try and listen on a small setup which doesn't have much bass, a bigger system which has plenty, and maybe in the car - car stereos can vary enormously. Some common things to look out for would be the low end - especially on the small system. Can you still hear the presence of the kick or sub on some tiny speakers? At the top end, does your lead or vocal still stand up clearly amongst the tinny rattle of the rest of the track? Is it the same with the released tracks? Similarly, on some boomy speakers, you want to make sure that the low end still has clarity, and doesn't drown out everything around it.It's a bit of a long and often quite boring process, and one that will mean you get through plenty of blank CDs. But it's necessary if you want your tracks to hold up well against the best out there, so get a notepad and pen, and start listening closely. You may find your mixes start to improve quite quickly!
