What reference material do you use?

[AMT]

I've found that it helps me a ton to listen to an album next to my mixes to figure out how I want the song to sound. Anyone else do this? What albums do you use? For me, I've used The Mission Veo's self titled, MCR's The Black Parade, and Showbread's No Sir, Nihilism is Not Practical, among others.

[Brandon Strader]

I tried that once. I listened to a new "All That Remains" song, then played mine and it was not nearly as loud and in comparison the production was so, so off from pro level.. After that I decided to just really make the songs sound as good as my skill level permits without trying to match the production on another work. x_x I am influenced by other production but recreating that is a challenge I'm not quite up to yet.

[zircon]

It really depends on the type of music. I don't do so many A:B references anymore unless I'm really having trouble mixing, since at this point I've developed a style of my own that I'm pretty confident in. However, previously, I definitely compared to artists like The Crystal Method and BT for my electronic music. I also listen to just about everything at the same volume on the same pair of headphones, thus giving me a good idea of my own mastering relative to everything else.

[The Biznut]

I also listen to just about everything at the same volume on the same pair of headphones, thus giving me a good idea of my own mastering relative to everything else.

This is a very reasonable idea.

[The Smitchens]

I usually do comparisons for volume levels, but people suggest doing the same for EQing as well and I can't say I've ever done that. Maybe that's why I'm such a shit mixer.

[-RK-]

It really depends on the type of music.

Bingo. I'm not going to listen to Aerosmith (necessarily) if I want to write a house track. I'd listen to Wolfgang Gartner.

Just think of your genre.

[Nabeel Ansari]

I usually just master to what Zircon's music sounds like.

[PrototypeRaptor]

listen to Wolfgang Gartner.

Do what this man says.

Anyway, I do use other tracks for mixing/mastering purposes. I've done some pretty in-depth studies of deadmau5's ghosts n stuff, justice's genesis, big name mixes like that.

Mainly it's to get a sense of what is wrong with my room, as my acoustics are not anywhere near where they should be...

but it also really helps train your ears to see stuff like a 3db drop at 90hz and a boost at 100hz and then figure out WHY that was necessary for the mix to work.

[menskmoon]

Swans. Just blast Swans until your soul is crushed, then mix accordingly.