Reference tracks can be your secret weapon when mixing - but be mindful of replicating other artists' creative decisions

Reference tracks.

In the last instalment of this ongoing music-making advice series we extolled the virtues of listening to a broad array of music with your emotional radar switched on. Feeling how music actually works to affect us can inform our songwriting and creative process, but when it comes to the granular makeup of mixing, a sharper focus on the fine details is needed.

So, switching off our emotional radar for now, we're going to look a little at deploying reference tracks when building out a mix arrangement in your DAW.