If you want to make sure that your songs sound great no matter where they’re played, and what they’re played on, referencing is the key.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re just starting out, or you’re a seasoned pro with years of experience under your belt, referencing is essential to making sure that our masters sound great out in the real world – not just our home studios.

“Referencing is really just a fancy word for ‘go listen and compare your masters on a bunch of stuff’ “

Referencing is really just a fancy word for “go listen and compare your masters on a bunch of stuff”.

A good analogy for this can be found in web design. Let’s say you’re a web designer… You’re working on your big 27-inch thunderbolt display, designing the most beautiful looking web page the world has ever seen. You sit back and stare it in wonder, thinking ‘look at how clever and talented I am to design such a marvel’.

The problem is, most people are NOT going to be looking at your website on a 27-inch thunderbolt display!

They may be on their iPad, a laptop, their Samsung Galaxy, a 17inch monitor, an old iPhone 3, a Nokia 3310 – Ok, hopefully not the 3310, but it literally could be anything…

The point is, every device, every platform, every browser, all look and behave slightly differently. As you can imagine, this can be a challenge (as I discovered putting together the site you’re on now!). The only way to truly test this out is to check the site on as many different platforms and devices as possible and make adjustments and compromises.

Just as a web designer must make sure that their website looks great on most devices, we must make sure that our music sounds great on most playback systems.

The same is true for your music. Just because your master sounds great in your home studio or on your headphones, doesn’t mean it’ll be the same in a car, on a large HiFi, or on a crappy little boombox. You are the only person who is ever going to listen to your music on your exact system, everyone else is using something different.

One advantage the big mastering houses have over ‘the little guy’ is convenient access to a whole bunch of different playback systems in one place.

Often they’ll have entire rooms filled with a variety of different speakers, sound systems, and reference monitors, so they can instantly listen back and compare the sound on many different sources. The reason this is important is because ultimately we’re trying to make sure that our masters sound great no matter where they’re played or what they’re played back on.

Although you may not have an entire room of your house dedicated to referencing you masters, we can do this the old school way.





There’s no secret to this step, you simply want to burn your master to a CD, or put it on some kind of player, and go and listen to it on as many different systems you can get your hands on. Everything from small portable stereos, the car, a laptop, headphones, a PA, HiFi with a subwoofer, PC speakers, iPod, etc.

Make sure to compare it to the two or three reference tracks you used for comparison in your mastering session. Because all systems sound different, you want to get an idea of what some professionally mastered commercial tracks sound like on them before judging your own.

Look for patterns

What we’re looking for are patterns – consistent differences or problems with the audio.

For example, if you notice that your master sounds harsh on four out of five of the playback systems you test, chances are, it’s got too much energy somewhere in the 2kHz – 8kHz range.

“Every decision made while mastering a song should be about what’s best for that song as a whole.”

On the other hand, if you find that the low-end sounds good on most systems except for your laptop, chances are, this is probably just because the laptop can’t reproduce much bass!

The point is, don’t jump to conclusions based on one playback system. Use your reference tracks to get an idea of what a commercial master should sound like on a particular system, and then listen to how your masters compare to that.

Keep in mind that you can only do so much in the mastering phase and that if the bass wasn’t mixed loud enough, or at the right frequencies, you may not be able to fix it with one overall EQ. As I mentioned earlier, it’s often better to go back and fix issues like this in the mix session.

This is the great part about learning to master – it teaches you so much about what you need to be aiming for in the recording and mixing stages.

Mastering is the art of compromise. It’s about the overall song and making it the best it can be, not about making an individual instrument sound great at the expense of everything else. Every decision made while mastering a song should be about what’s best for that song as a whole.

Three playback systems that make mastering easier

While going out and listening to your masters on a bunch of different systems is important, it can also be a bit of a hassle – especially when you have to keep on coming back and making changes.

I like to have at least three different playback systems / speakers / devices right in my studio and ready to go, so that I can quickly switch between them. If this sounds complicated, it’s not!





Firstly, I have my studio monitors. At the moment, I’m using some relatively inexpensive (as monitors go) Yamaha HS80’s. They’re not the best in the world, but they do a great job and I’m happy with them.

You may be able to record (or even mix) without proper reference monitors, but when it comes to mastering, you’re going to find it extremely difficult to hear what’s really going on unless you have a set of decent monitors.

Mastering without studio monitors is kind of like trying to paint in the dark. If you can’t hear what’s really going on with the sound, it’s very difficult to make accurate judgements.

You don’t need the best or most expensive monitors, you just need some basic studio monitors that will help you hear what’s really going on, and aren’t going to hype the sound like most consumer HiFi speakers and headphones do.

Check out the HS80’s on Amazon: Yamaha HS8 Studio Monitor, Black





Secondly, I always have some headphones on hand. I’m actually using some real ‘el cheapo’s’ – these Sennheiser HD 201’s. You don’t need anything fancy, but you do need some headphones to be able to pick up the finer details and stereo balance which is more difficult to hear on monitors. I also like to keep my Apple EarPods around as another reference.

Check out the Sennheiser headphones on Amazon: Sennheiser HD 201 Lightweight Over Ear Headphones

Here’s the newer version of those headphones (the 202’s) which only cost slightly more: Sennheiser HD 202 II Professional Headphones (Black)

Finally, I have a Bluetooth speaker which I’ve linked up to some extra outputs on my audio interface. I’ve used all kinds of things over the years, but the concept is the same – have something to represent the small boombox type systems out there.

The one I’m using at the moment is this Creative audio Bluetooth speaker pictured above. It just gives you a good general representation of the ‘average system’ people are listening on these days. It’s really affordable and does a good job. It also has a mini-jack input so you can plug straight into it from your sound card if you like.

If you want to check it out on Amazon, here it is: Creative D80 Wireless Bluetooth Speaker (Black)