Reference Tracks

Thu, 03 Sep 2026 15:41:07 +0100

“I don’t use reference recordings anymore” - I heard that from a few sources, most prominently from Andrew Schepps and from Zedd. I was curious, how is it possible? Andrew Schepps’ opinion was that it’s really about recalibrating your hearing after you’ve been focusing on details.

According to Andrew you could listen to a different recording, but you could just as well go for a walk. Meanwhile I struggled to shape a mix even with a reference recording. I think I’m starting to get it now.

The problem with reference recording is that it’s always different enough that you can’t really compare it directly. You can compare different mixes of the same production, and that makes a lot of sense. You can compete with someone else’s mix or with your own earlier mix. But comparing with another tune, that’s always doing to sound different, you will never make it sound the same.

If instead you listen to enough music that you build your own idea about how music should sound in your listening environment (room and speakers, or headphones), then you’ll match your mix against a more generalized idea of how this type of music should sound like. Your results will be just as good and you won’t have the feeling of chasing your own tail.

If you’re starting out, you can’t do that yet, and you do have to use reference recordings and chase your own tail. It’ll go away over time.

Mixing on Maciej Bliziński

Reference Tracks