yes, my mix ist ready, take it to the car, and.... cry...

Trick finally begins after 8:30 or 8:58

Really never thought about putting a high cut for reference the low end. That really helped checking my low end! Thanks for the great tip.

Great trick for checking references and great way to fix the issue: all in the levels, so simple yet we always reach for a plugin to help instead of keeping it simple. TY!

Pretty cool stuff. Something really interesting to think about here. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you for sharing.. it help me alot.. i don’t have a subwoofer.. by doing this trick.. now I can adjust the low end in my mix closes to professional mix.. 🤘🏾

Excellent tutorial! This is the best advice for saving a lot of time running back and forth from the car. I've always used reference tracks but that low-pass trick is invaluable! You nailed it my brutha!

Thank you, I already use this trick, please more and more video on The balance subject, the right balance between Low, mid , high on a track

This is very helpful to get a more balanced and clean mix!

that's a really great simple trick, thank you.

Boi your detailed ! And honest. I guess most people cut their scenes where its getting too unexpected. Keep it real. Keep it going

Always the best videos Rob! Thanks!

Absolutely awesome video man, thank you so much for sharing your knowledge, and also by doing it so well! 100% Pete

Great tool! This one is going right in the toolbox. Subscribed!

nice one man really handy, i will be trying this for sure, thanks

Good trick! I actually use this at times when I get completely lost. Though one problem with this trick that you have to aware of is that the phase changes drastically when applying a strong EQ like this. And it's not certain that it changes in the same way as your reference track. So it's good to know that if there's just an incremental difference there actually might be no difference at all when using this trick. With all that said, this is still a good trick if the db difference is big when comparing.

Thanks for sharing! I'll keep that in mind

Very simple, but great idea. Have done this, but not the level match after the hp. Gonna try with low and reg mids as well!

Ozone 8's new Tonal Balance graph makes getting the low end correct so easy now! Have you tried it yet, Rob? It's excellent.

Thanks for your impotant message and thoughts about blance in the sound.

Awesome tip. Thanks for sharing!

great idea. nice little trick

Thank you, that was great. I always have trouble with this. Great trick. Thank you again.

Very helpful! Thank you for this!

Thank you so much for this! It's so useful.

Awesome tips! Thank you!

This is a big help, thank you!

You're like an english finneas. Always hits my brain when I see you here.

Amazing trick. Appreciate this!

Great info! thanks for taking the time to explain!

Great video man, really helpful!

Gratitude & Appreciation💯

Thanks Rob!

very very good! thanks a bunch!

Thanks. Lot of usefull informations. This is what i was looking for

Cool trick, will try it.

Love Your channel! Always informative.

Great Video. Thanks man

I only have studio monitoring headphones and my computer speakers so I will definitely try this.

i think low passing on a mix is one of the best tools.. to get an idea of whats going on and where you might wanna go. when listening to the low pass only i can imagine the high end on top of it, create a vision of what the total mix should sound like (imo). its like standing outside of a club, hearing only the lowend, then entering through the door and adding all the rest. i'm still amazed by this technique.

thank you for your information it helps me a lot

very helpful. thanks

Interesting idea. Thanks

man you're good at this

really nice trick

Excellent trick. Will adopt it from now on. It is, however, rather difficult when you have a bass player and a drummer in the room while mixing who continuously ask for the kick or the bass to be pushed up louder. This process would freak them out. And around and around we go.

I heard A LOT more snare below your 160 Hz low pass in your mix than the references. A little 100 Hz on the snare on the snare adds some nice weight to the snare, but I was surprised how much you had. That's all. Nice sounding mix. Nice song, too. I'll have to check out more of their music.

Good advice, I need this. Im usually lost when it comes to the low-end cause I cant hear it very well. It mostly sounds muddy to me on both headphones & speakers. I'll give this a try. Thanks! 👍

I've never tried using a low pass to compare low end. Great tip.

Brilliant!

Great tip man, thanks very informative!! :-)

Thank you Sir.

Thank you

Good one! Remember when Dorroughs PPMs were the rarity and VU metering was the norm?

Great video as always thank you. What do you think about the fact that the low end on the reference tracks was probably bumped up in the mastering process? Any thoughts on under compensating the low end on the mix given the tracks likely fate in mastering?

Super useful

Helpful ideas, thanks mate!

cool thanks

great piece of information! I have a question tho! Now that you find the "problem" why automate? Wouln't be easier to put a multiband compressor?

The Metric AB plugin is best for that. No need to hassle with levels or low pass filters.

Thanks for the LF pass trick. There is one question though. As a reference track you use mastered songs probably with multiband compressor applied for low end, while your mix is not. And at the end of the video your mix still has peaks in low end. Does it make to stop matching mastered track at some point, because master compression will eliminate the LF peaks eventually?

Great tips! I'm definitely going to use this one! I have a question though, what if my mix has more low end than others, but I like the way it sounds? This matter is subject to taste too, isn't it? Tonally, I think your track sounded just fine the way it was, even though it was a bit heavier than the references. Does balancing it like this really affect it that much when it comes to "translating" to other sound systems? Cheers, all the way from Brazil!

cool clip m8 question though.. do you think the mastered tracks you used could influence your perception of low end compared to your un-mastered mix? i am totally undecided as what my decisions would be, however the thought of the mastering engineer having nothing to do with the low end is worth a wry smile. anyway thanks again for you superb content.. Cheers T

I'll give it a try but This actually could be the case in which you should use MB comp. The reference low end has that behavior because is compressed an it is mastered nonetheless, i think that is an important difference...

Your track sounds cooler then the other ones . . . Music and frequencies ! I find that way of listening, the high cut, difficult, cos it sounds so muddy. Though I love to really use multiband compression and make-up gain on the bass and subbass. But I dont solo the bands while doing that. But after seen this video, I will give it another chance. :-)

What do you suggest as source material for Reference Tracks? I've been using CDs as opposed to, say, some Audacity captured youtube track? Do you ever use "negative" reference tracks? A Reference, but, we want to make sure we do not sound like X? Thanks for the great videos here. Excellent channel.

Спасибо

Can you you do a tutorial on making sound treatment on a bedroom?

Wouldn't just match EQ be a more simple way to check the low end? Match your mix to a reference track and it will adapt to the low end frequencies of your reference. Just my thoughts.

Hi. You are comparing a mix before mastering to a mastered referenced track. So even if you match the volume, the mastered track sounds different, maybe more compressed or tighter because of being mastered, not ? Another thing- U didn't mentioned exactly where you put the low end filter & why you decided to put it exactly there. Nice tutorial !

Hey Rob, got a question for ya. Currently I'm in a situation where I can't set up monitors for mixing, yet I'd like to do decent mixes. I find that with headphones I can get close to decent mixes, because I understand how to compensate for the lack of bass. I also mix mostly in mono because phones do this unnatural sound separation where it's almost like the phantom stereo image appears between your ears, but it really doesn't. It's so much easier to hear masking and EQ problems in mono. That said, I'm finding that the real issue is the lack of hearing the real "dynamic range" or "available headroom" or vertical space (in terms of levels) with phones. I feel like maybe I'm only getting the top -30db of dynamic range (up to 0 dbFS) which means I can't really add all of the cool stuff I'd like to add to my arrangements. Do you have a workaround for this? I used to have a really really quiet room that measured -40db (dbu). Thanks!

Great tip! I like the track you're working on. What is it?

Dude your like the dr phil of recording ! You have helped me so so so much ! Thank you !

Do you ever mix with a studio subwoofer?

Good info but how can you reference a fully mastered track with the ones we make which are not.theres a disparity between the two.

Just make sure to gain match when referencing tracks, and also if you're going reference with an mp3 file then the top end will be cut off, I think mp3s get everything above 16k hzs cut off. Low hzs should be fine though. Edit: Lol I was like 2 min 30 sec in when I wrote this, and then as soon as I start watching again you say to gain match.

link does not work......

Like all recording techniques, referencing is not mandatory. Sometimes you need to break free, but only after achieving proficiency.

Wat I've been wondering is since the reference track is naturally supposed to be louder. I normally take the fader down to -6 db to suit my vu 0db else it's awfully loud. Would you use the same approach. ?

Magic A|B is your friend

Where it says "Send A-E" how do you get the small display with the knob, mute, and fader??

hey why is your reference channel collapsed to mono?

Although I am not big on reference tracks it is overall good advice but only for checking bass levels. The last thing any mixer wants is for his mixes to sound like the other guy's mix. Your mix should sound unique, not a carbon copy of the latest radio hip hop hit. In other words Radio Head is a group with it's own sound. Trying to lower the bass to match your song too some band's single doesn't make much sense. Low bass is never heard on it's own and playing just the low end will be misleading. It is akin to mixing in solo which one should never do. That Radio Head song comes from the peak of the loudness wars. Heavy use of multi-band compression would have played havoc with the low end. And as we know mastering engineers hate the cloud. (90 - 250hz). So trying to get your song's unmastered low end too match a professionally mastered songs low end will be problematic at best. But in a pinch it will do. Reference tracks are a great idea for those who don't have full range monitors in a treated room. And although they are plugins that will allow you to see the low end, the ear is always best. And you really can't match levels properly without a K meter. We use these in film mixing. But by ear is good. For those who are just writing, recording and mixing their own music, highly detailed full range monitors in a fully treated room is probably not an option. Very expensive. If you are have a small studio and and have a few clients you need to get proper monitors and treat your room. Yes, you can mix with cans but that doesn't mean you should. If you are advertising your studio as "PRO" then you need a pair of monitors. A pair of KRK Rocket 5' s and the KRK subwoofer in a properly treated room can be done for under $1200. Which for a lot of people on here might as well be $12 million. Treating room is really very cheap unless you are going for Dead Zero room. Again. Great video. This trick, although not full proof will prevent to much low end from ending up in your mix. And believe me....ENGINEERS HATE THAT.

Hi Rob, thanks for the video and trick. I understand you're using a Radiohead track as a reference, but what's the other artist's name you're using as reference?

Reference track should always be spin me round by dead or alive

I find the pink noise trick to be much more efficient for balance.

if you are doing this all before mastering, won't it drastically affect the perfect levels you just mixed once you throw a limiter on there?

how do you get the audio files of commercial songs into your daw?

What the mix you're working on? It reminds me of Codeseven

For your mix, I uses a sub and a pair of Beyerdynamic DT880 Pro and I can clearly hear that your bass is stronger than the reference tracks you played. It came in clear as day even without the "trick." This is something that I've been struggling with for some time. Like you, I use reference tracks and I can "hear" the difference but the problem actually goes deeper than what you can "hear." It's about what you feel as well. I have my own way of gauging the feel. I HAVE to use reference tracks, although I've gotten REALLY good at getting near the average of mastered mixes, for both high and low end. I'm not perfect, but I get really close...we're talking about a gain difference of between 0.3 to1.2db of difference for everything except the low end and hi's. There, I'm off at most about 3db. That's significant! So, independently, I've used a low pass eq to measure the low end. Here's what I found out. It's not always true to feel or perception because I mix artificial sub harmonics and the sum of all the sound adds up to be different in the band that you pass. What works really well is to split the low end up into several bands and check that way. All the way from 20-300/500Hz. In fact, there's a plugin called Bassroom that does just that. The limitation though, in all these auto mixing and auto sensing plugins such as Ozone 8, is that they offer a suggestion for the part of the song you are using as the reference and not the entire song. Your hook will come out great sounding but the rest of the track will only have as much energy in the bass as allowed by the levels created by the plugin for the referenced section. Most of the time, it thins out the rest of the song. So, there's that. I just ride the levels based on the leveled suggestion of the bass from the plugin. There's nothing easy about this entire process. It takes a lot of practice and most of the time, I have to stop listening to the song and do something, anything, else that isn't music. Then I come back with a fresh set of ears. I have to take a lot of breaks. A lot. This is all old news. Every pro has said, endlessly, to take breaks, use reference tracks, and test different systems. The entire mixing and mastering process is involved and I wish I could say something new that hasn't been mentioned already, but it really boils down to practice and learning how your system sounds. It's like you have to train yourself on what music sounds like by listening to tons of tracks of different genres. Yes, a treated room is ideal, but a semi-treated room is actually good enough. A non-treated room...that's a big no-no. If you're not using any treatment...you're fooling yourself. For goodness sake people...use moving blankets and put them up on the walls. At least that. And really, that's a start and you'd be surprised at how significantly that helps. In fact, that is all you'll need for a while. For everyone else, get a sub when you can. Lol. Seriously. Anyway, thanks for posting this video up. It was super informative, and similar to my workflow. I picked up some good info.

LMAO I just emailed you about Weird Fishes

Where can I purchase Wave reference songs as opposed to mp3s to put in mix session???

What is the name of the radiohead song?

i referenced my subby kind of bass to a boombox cartel track and noticed that i had too much sub ;D

Who's the band? You should put the artist name in the description.

weird fishes

"...the best basses for comparison" ;)

The reference track should often be Automatic by Pointer Sistets ;)

Can I send you something to mix and you can make a tutorial out of it there no many mixing tip on hip hop

His mix sounded better than Radio Head.