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Well a couple of questions..

Firstly, do you guys A/B against reference tracks constantly while putting a track together, just at the end during the mix-down, or not at all (!)
I've never really done this before, but having listened to some of my tracks not being as full as I wanted, I think it's something I should definitely be doing. But it leads me to...

Secondly, I understand that you lower the volume of the (limited) reference track, but won't there be an inherent difference in sound due to the brickwall limiting of pretty much all music these days? I've followed the MONEY-SHOT thread and understand the theory, but surely you can only really match the mix of a reference track by whacking a limiter on the output from the word go.....??

Bit confused, me

mikeyboy75 wrote:Firstly, do you guys A/B against reference tracks constantly while putting a track together, just at the end during the mix-down, or not at all (!)

When I was starting out, all the time. These days I do it constantly during mixdown but not so much when I'm writing the track. Your ears get better with practice.

Secondly, I understand that you lower the volume of the (limited) reference track, but won't there be an inherent difference in sound due to the brickwall limiting of pretty much all music these days? I've followed the MONEY-SHOT thread and understand the theory, but surely you can only really match the mix of a reference track by whacking a limiter on the output from the word go.....??

There's an element of truth to this. However, I find that generally speaking, a well-balanced mix will suffer less from being dragged kicking and screaming through a limiter at high gain than an unbalanced mix. That is, if your mixdown is balanced, then it'll still sound balanced (but with less punch) if you limit it heavily. With all the usual caveats about the loudness wars etc, I often find it useful to check my own mixes by limiting the master really hard and seeing what gets squashed. Sometimes it can make certain things obvious that you might not otherwise hear - eg if your snare is peaking way too loud or your sub is sucking up all your headroom.

always. more for ideas of balance and frequency rather than dynamics.

Cheers guys.

I can't believe I've not been doing this before actually, seems to be a great way to learn about how sounds are layered and blended.