How to use a reference track: import a finished song in your genre next to your mix, turn it down to your mix's loudness, loop the same section of both, and switch back and forth comparing one thing at a time: low end, vocal level, brightness, width, punch. In Veena, CoProducer, your personal music producer, measures both and fixes your mix, free in your browser.
A reference answers in seconds what tired ears can't: whether your kick is too loud, your vocal too buried, your top end too dull. It's a ruler, not a template. For the definition, see what a reference track is.
- Same genre, similar tempo, similar density. A sparse piano ballad can't tell you anything about a packed EDM drop.
- A mix you'd be proud of. Great on your speakers and headphones, not just a song you love.
- The best file you have. WAV, AIFF or FLAC beats an MP3; a low-bitrate stream skews the top end.
- Two or three, each for one question. One for the low end, one for vocal level and brightness, one for loudness.
Put the reference on its own track with nothing on it: no EQ, no compression, no effects.
In Veena, drag the file onto the timeline or press Upload in the transport bar; WAV, AIFF, FLAC, MP3 and nine more formats come in. It appears immediately; keep it on a track of its own. If your song is already in the project, your tempo stays put; import into an empty project and Veena adopts the reference's tempo instead, which is handy when you want to write at its speed. Hold Alt and drag the clip so its first chorus starts on the same bar as yours.
Ask CoProducer: "What key and tempo is the reference in?" It reads the tempo grid and the chords of the audio. The Find Key button in the clip's Waveform tab answers the key question too.
A finished master is usually several dB louder than a mix in progress, and louder always sounds better. Compare at unequal levels and you'll push every fader up chasing a volume difference, not a mix difference.
In Veena, pull the reference track's fader down in the Mixer, or set its clip volume from Open Control Panel.
Ask CoProducer: "Measure the loudness of the reference and of my mix with the reference muted, then turn the reference down to match."
What good sounds like: switch between them and neither one jumps out as louder.
Eight bars of chorus against eight bars of chorus; never your verse against their drop. Switch every few seconds, because your ears adapt to any balance within a minute or two.
In Veena, drag across the ruler to loop your chorus, then use the track's mute and solo: solo the reference to hear it, un-solo to hear your mix. Keep the volume low and steady.
Go down the list in this order, and write down each difference before you touch a knob:
| Listen for | What to hear in the reference | Where to fix it in Veena | Ask CoProducer |
|---|
| Low end | Whether kick or bass leads, how much sub | Bass and 808 faders; the 8-Band EQ's Low Shelf | "Is my sub louder or quieter than the reference's?" |
| Vocal level | How far the vocal sits above the music | Vocal fader; the Compressor's Vocals preset | "Is my vocal more buried than in the reference?" |
| Brightness | Presence at 2–6.5 kHz, air above 6.5 kHz | 8-Band EQ, Band 5 and the High Shelf | "Is my mix darker than the reference, and where?" |
| Width | How wide the pads and guitars spread | Pan in the Mixer; the Chorus effect's Wide preset | Judge this one by ear |
| Punch | How hard the drums cut through | Compressor attack; drum levels | "Compare the crest factor of my mix and the reference." |
CoProducer measures both clips in the same terms: integrated loudness, true peak, crest factor, and the balance across six bands, sub (20 to 100 Hz), low (100 to 250 Hz), low-mid (250 to 800 Hz), mid (800 Hz to 2 kHz), high-mid (2 to 6.5 kHz) and high (6.5 to 16 kHz). That turns "mine sounds dull" into something like "your high-mid sits 3 dB under the reference".
Change one thing, re-compare at matched loudness, repeat. Don't chase an identical mix: your song has different parts, a different key and a different singer. Close is the goal.
Ask CoProducer: "Fix the biggest difference between my mix and the reference, without touching the reference." It changes your clips' levels and EQ, then measures again. One Ctrl+Z (Cmd+Z on a Mac) undoes the whole pass.
At the mastering stage, the reference sets the target for loudness and overall tone. Drag the reference clip into the CoProducer panel to give it as context and ask for a master that sits beside it: CoProducer masters your song toward your reference, and you compare the two on the same loop. The details are on the AI mastering page.
Ask CoProducer: "Master my song toward this reference: same loudness, similar brightness, keep my low end."
You can also tell CoProducer the song or artist you're aiming for, and it pins that as the project's style reference, which the parts it builds then read. You don't need a famous name, though: in Veena's own data, only about 3% of typed requests name an artist, and most producers describe tempo, key and instruments instead.
The reference is a ruler you measure with, never material you use. Mute it, or delete its track, before you export: Veena's stems come out one file per audible track, and the full mix renders only what you can hear. Your song stays yours; see ownership and rights.
Once the mix holds up against the reference, work through how to mix a song for anything it exposed, and let AI mixing take the next pass. Export a 24-bit, 48 kHz WAV of the master, free, with no watermark and no cap on exports.
Related reading: how to mix a song · how to master a track with AI · how to export for streaming