The Best Mix in the History of Rock and Roll (using commercial songs as a guide)

[Zakazastar]

Awesome Thread!

IMHO few reference tracks and albums of excellency would be:

POP:

Madonna "Something to Remember" album (amazing crisp and clear sounds, interesting arrangements, beutiful sense of stereo).

ABBA "Dancing Queen" and lots of other songs.

ROCK - METAL:

Deff Leppard "Hysteria" album.

Stryper "To Hell With the Devil" album (smoothest glam'n'heavy mix I've ever heard. BIG drums, very nicely sounding cymbals, lush guitars. beautiful backing vocals, nice stereo and depth, everything is very nicely sitting together).

Aerosmith "Just Push Play" album (nice, smooth, interesting, wonderful and interesting stereo arrangements)

Cinderella "Still Climbing" album (Rich arrangements with very well sounding drums and bass lines, every sound finding its nice place in the whole).

Jimmy Hendrix (just take the Hits :) With guitars sitting in the centre, drums and vocals panned to opposite extremes, and like... and sounding completely amazing!)

MODERN METAL:

Marylin Manson "The Golden age of the Grotesque" (amazing sound, dynamics, panning, lots of interesting arrangements. So many things packed tightly without making sound tiresome to ears, every sound remains well defined and easy to discern...)

[DonaldM]

Nobody's mentioned it yet, but I'd pick anything off Toto V album. Songs like Africa or Rosanna were amazing mixes! (And as I recall it did win album of the year at the Grammy's).

[brianjanthony]

Black Crowes - Southern Harmony and Musical Companion - the guitars.

God those guitars.

oy ve.

those guitars.

[NealMiskin]

For system calibration (or ears to system calibration) I often go for The Music Never Stopped by the Grateful Dead (from the Blues for Allah album) mostly because I know -exactly- what it's supposed to sound like. I generally also grab a track with a more modern feel (often My Moon My Man by Feist) but generally just any track that I know well that has more bass than you find in recordings from the '70s.

For actual mix reference I just go through some tracks until I find something that sounds like what I want the mix to sound like (sometimes the client will suggest a reference song "I want to sound like such and such") I am not always consistent in which tracks I use because I don't necessarily want all my mixes to sound the same.

Steely Dan is very common as reference music, largely because Roger Nichols produced many of their albums and he's got ears like nobody's business!

A quick note about volume: Reference tracks, by definition, have already been through the mastering process. So if you leave the reference track at 0dB and volume match while mixing you can very easily end up with an overly compressed mix. If I want to volume match to a track while I'm mixing, I will usually turn it down 6 to 10 dB, as the mastering engineer to make up the additional volume as part of their process.

[Zakazastar]

Originally Posted by NealMiskin

A quick note about volume: Reference tracks, by definition, have already been through the mastering process. So if you leave the reference track at 0dB and volume match while mixing you can very easily end up with an overly compressed mix. If I want to volume match to a track while I'm mixing, I will usually turn it down 6 to 10 dB, as the mastering engineer to make up the additional volume as part of their process.

Yep!

This is what I do: I select few pieces (about 20 sec. long) from my reference tracks, drop them on audio track. Then in between of them I insert 20 sec. piece of my bounced track. Level all them to the same volume. You get a track made from bunch of different tracks with the same loudness and (preferable) similar dynamics. Your own track keeps poping up every 20 sec. If there are problems in your mix, you notice them instantly. Listening to such thing is very revealing and... FUN! :)

[guitardom]

Rock is a bit tough as there is such a huge variety to choose from. I usually determine by the style it is.

A very important album to check out for acoustic rock guitar sounds is Zakk Wylde's "Book of Shadows" The entire mix is just amazing on the entire album. Crazy to see Zakk go from this masterpiece to moving onto BLS. A night and day difference. Cant state enough how good this album is from the songs to the mixing.

Have to agree about Black Crowes guitar sounds. For me Lions and 3 snakes and a charm are the 2 I gravitate to for mixes. I remember when Lions came out and taking the cd into a large room I was working in at the time (the stereotypical SSL-Neve room w Genelecs) and putting that in and not being able to move for 45 minutes just being overwhelmed by how good it sounded.

Cowboy Junkies "The Trinity Sessions" Perfection is about all you can say.

Dark Side of the Moon is another staple.

Robert Plant/Allison Krauss "Rasining Sand". That album is scary how good it sounds! T Bone Burnett never fails to impress!

Fiona Apple "Extraordinary Machine"

For metal, I have heard very few other albums have the impact that Sepultura has on "Roots" Andy Wallace performed absolute perfection. This is still my measuring stick for metal and its a 20 year old album this year.

Sevendust's "Animosity" is an absolute lesson in heavily dense mixing and slamming compression yet somehow still retaining its impact. It rides a very thin line between too much and perfection. Ben Grosse has somehow flown under the radar of recognition for being a great engineer. His discography is ridiculous!

[soybalm]

Rude by Magic
It's a nice syrupy smooth mix but has quite a punch to it. You'll be able to crank your cd up because the upper midrange won't rip your ears off. Don't smooth the eq curve too much. That's where the "magic" happens.

[JFreak]

Toto: Kingdom of Desire. The whole album. I bought 3 more copies of that vinyl once I realised how golden it is.

[f41qu3]

(just my 2 cent)

For Heavy-punch-compressed metal:
Fear Factory - Digimortal (the best imho)

Depeche Mode - Ultra (I love that sound).

Cheers,

[HMV]

Well this is fun.

My go-to mixes for ringing out a system or just critical listening overall are:

1. Faith No More - Stripsearch (Album of the Year)... punchy low end, nice wide image, crystal clear highs, my #1 for a perfect sounding album, especially for hard rock.

2. Steely Dan - Aja... enough said.

3. Fu Manchu - Godzilla (Eatin' Dust)... SUPER warm low end, super heavy guitars that sound warm and fuzzy, good for making sure your lows aren't *too* cranked, makes you listen closely for high end content

4. Toad the Wet Sprocket - Something's Always Wrong (Dulcinea)... Another just beautiful sounding record, crystal clear, not-so-heavy 90s rock

5. Electric Wizard - Barbarian (Dopethrone)... because **** it, this record owns. Heaviest thing in the universe. If this record sounds good on your system, you did a good job.