An amazing part about being human is our aptitude for willpower, intelligence, and consciousness. It lets us take abstract ideas, like music, and create such wonder. Sometimes we get lost in our own self importance, our ego. One of the first things you’re going to have to learn as a Mixing engineer is to get over yourself. It’s no longer about how good that guitar solo was, or how fantastic that synth bass is. You have to look at it objectively.

Something that helps us reach that objective is referenced. The way the ear and mind works is it adjust over time. We also get this thing called ear fatigue. If we listen to the same thing over and over, it has a different impact than when we first put it on. Over time we don’t want it so bright because we perceive it differently.

Because of this we must always understand our references and out reference points.

What do I mean by a reference. A Reference is a source of information in order to ascertain something. Just like The Stargate or any other type of navigation. You need to know where you are, where you are facing, where you are going, how far to go, and when to stop.

Here is another way of putting it.

You need to have your point of origin dialed in. This is your Listening environment, which is your speakers and your room. you also need to know where you are going by referencing other tracks. it gives you perspective and an objective to reach for. Your ears are the vehicle that brings you there. You need to upkeep your ears, make sure you don’t run out of gas (ear fatigue), and protect them. If you pay attention to all 3 of these things, then you have the tools to create a great mix.

Lets look at your point of origin. Your listening environment which is your speakers and room.

The first thing you should look at is calibrating your speakers. First of all, you might ask why you want to calibrate your speakers. The most important reason why is the human ear perceives sounds differently at different volumes. We naturally EQ things differently when they are quite then when it’s loud. Here is a graph of the human hearing.