Trying to copy a mix...

Ever tried to perfectly copy the mix of some project to the artist's "favorite album" 'cause they asked for it to sound "just like so-and-so"? Trying to simulate what you hear on a well recorded album is actually a pretty good exercise for learning how they got that sound and to train your ears to hear things in the studio. For example, most people start out mixing (for the first time) with the bass too loud the drums too quite and the vocals kind of buried under it all. Comparing your crappy mix to a beautifully mixed album in a similar genre will show you that your balances are way off and you can start compensating and training your ear in the studio to get closer to the finished product with out any referencing.

The problem with this process is that, ultimately, you will be mixing to copy the sound of a mixed and mastered album. The result will be that you get your balances to where they sound ok (usually with a lot of compression) and then you have your mix mastered (usually compressing and limiting it some more) and all of a sudden your mix sounds flat and squashed.

Bob Katz speaks to this problem in his book, "Mastering Audio: The Art and the Science." He notes that the albums that we reference our mixes to are mastered and have a greatly reduced dynamic range in comparison to music that is only in the mixing stage. So, we compensate to try and match the sound, over compress, send our stuff to mastering and end up with a really squashed finished product. Obviously a mastering engineer with good ears will know to lay off the compression when the music is already so flat, but the damage is still done since it is unlikely that the material will leave mastering with no compression or limiting. Bob Katz points out that this likely is happening on a large scale all over the world and as a result our music in becoming less and less dynamic.

Just think... that album you are listening to as a reference was probably mixed to compare to some other mastered album as a "target sound" and they ended up with a reduced dynamic range. Now you are trying to match that final reduced dynamic range in your mixing stage!

You get the point.

Basically, if your mix sounds (dynamically) just like that album you are trying to imitate, you are likely overcompressing. Your drums should pop, your vocals should jump up slightly, if someone is playing harder, it should get louder!

If you can anticipate the compressed sound that may be introduced in the mastering stage, your mixes will translate better and you will be a lot happier with your mixes!