REFERENCE

Helping you get closer than ever to the

sound of your favourite music.

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Overview
REFERENCE can help you get closer than ever to the sound of your favourite music. It
does this by giving you the tools and insights you need to get your productions sounding
more like your reference tracks.

The Wave Transport allows you to create multiple loops so you can quickly compare
various sections of your track to your reference.

The powerful Level Match tool allows you to instantly and accurately match the loudness
of your track and your references. This is crucial for a fair comparison.

The time-saving Track Align button identifies if you have different versions of the same
song and lines them up automatically, so you can seamlessly switch between them.

The visuals in the Trinity Display show you how your frequency balance, stereo width and
compression compares to your reference track. You can also solo the frequency bands
allowing you to zone in on the intricate differences between your mix and your references.

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Load REFERENCE
To get started, load an instance of REFERENCE on the master bus of your project.
REFERENCE should go after your metering plugin, we recommend our comprehensive
metering plugin LEVELS of course

Wave Transport and Tools

Add A Reference

To load a reference track, drag and drop your file into the Wave Transport, or click the ‘+’
icon. You can drag and drop multiple files onto the waveform if you have more than one
reference track.

MIRROR / FREE

In the bottom right corner of the Wave Transport you will see the
buttons. MIRROR will match the playback location of your reference to your DAWs
transport. This is useful for when you have a different version of the same track you’re
working on and want to seamlessly jump between the versions at the same point in the
song. When FREE is activated, you can navigate to any part of your reference track by
clicking on the waveform in the Wave Transport.

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Loops

You can create loops in FREE mode. To create a loop, select and drag over the part of the
waveform you wish to loop. You can create as many loops as you want. To toggle a loop
on and off ‘CTRL+Click’ on the loop inside the Wave Transport. To remove all loops,
‘CMD+Click’ anywhere in the waveform section. Loops are not available in MIRROR
mode.

Option + Click Drag to create & CTRL + Click

to delete loop adjust loops to solo loop

Level Match

In the top right corner of the Wave Transport you will see the Level Match button that
looks like this . When selected, this will accurately match the perceived loudness of
the track you are working on and your reference. This is an absolutely crucial stage in
comparing audio. Louder sounds give humans the illusion that they have a thicker bass
and more clarity in the high frequencies. By level matching you’ll be able to compare the
tracks fairly and make mixing decisions with confidence. Click the button again to
remove the level matching.

If you have multiple reference tracks, another button will appear adjacent to the Level
Match button that looks like this . This button, when clicked, will level match ALL of
your reference tracks and the original track you're working on.

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Automatic Track Align

When you have different versions of the same mix or master, there can be slightly
different lengths of silence at the beginning of the tracks. This can be really annoying and
time consuming when you have to line them up to jump between them seamlessly during
referencing. The Automatic Track Align button does this laborious job for you in an
instant so you can spend your time mixing.

When you load a new reference track, the Automatic Track Align button will show that it’s
‘thinking’ by the two lines moving back and forth. If Automatic Track Align detects that
you have loaded a reference track that is a different version of the track you’re working on
(i.e. an alternate mix or master) the Automatic Track Align lines will stop moving and
become clickable. When you click Automatic Track Align, the selected reference will
become aligned to the original track you are working on.

If you have multiple versions of the same song, another button will appear adjacent to the
Automatic Track Align button that looks like this . When selected, this button will
automatically align any tracks that are an alternate version of the original track you are
working on. If the reference track is not an alternate version of the track you’re working on
the Automatic Track Align button will show a slider (more info on next page).

(note: Automatic Track Align works best when you play the original in your DAW from
the beginning of the transport)

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Manual Track Align

If the reference track is not an alternate version of the track you’re working on the Track
Align button will change to show a slider. Click to open the sample slider.

The slider direction works as if you were moving audio from within your DAW. Move the
slider to left to move your reference track forward, and move it to the right to delay it.
Click the ‘Mix’ button to preview both your Original and Reference at the same time. This
can make it easier to line up the two tracks manually.

To re-open the sample slider hover your mouse over the slider icon. Take your mouse off
the wave transport to minimise the sample slider.

Central Tools
Track Tabs

The Track Tabs display what tracks you’ve loaded into REFERENCE. Add a reference file
by dragging and dropping your file onto the Wave Transport, or by clicking the plus icon
to the right of the Track Tabs.

Click the minus icon to the right of the Track Tabs to remove the selected file from
REFERENCE. You can add up to 20 reference tracks. You can toggle between your
different references by clicking on the tabs. Double click on a Track Tab to change the
label.

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Original / Compare Buttons

The Original button is selected as default and you will hear the audio you are working on
in your DAW. The REFERENCE button will enable playback of whichever reference track
is selected in the Track Tabs. The buttons are linked so you don't have to move your
mouse to switch from Original to Reference.

Left Arrow Key Toggles

Original and Reference
(change this to any key you like in settings)

Meters

Both the Original and REFERENCE buttons have adjacent meters giving you the peak,
integrated LUFS and gain readings for the tracks you are comparing. Click on the
readouts to reset the meters.

LUFS, PEAK, GAIN - Main readout

Click on the LUFS, PEAK or GAIN text to switch between the three different readouts for
your original and reference track.

LUFS (loudness units relative to full scale) is an incredibly useful measurement as it gives
you an accurate display of the perceived loudness of audio material.

PEAK will tell you the peak of your audio measured in dB (decibels).

GAIN will tell you how much gain you have increased or decreased your track by.

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Gain Slider

You can use the gain slider to adjust the gain of either the Original or REFERENCE track.
The gain slider has a default range of -12dB to +12dB (can be increased to +-18dB in the
settings). When using the Level Match feature, the gain of one of the tracks will be
changed to match the other. You can see any gain increase or reduction on the gain slider
and you can adjust the amount if necessary. To set the gain back to 0dB double click or
‘Alt+click’ on the slider.

Resizing

Click to switch between

normal and compact
view.

Click and drag bottom

right corner to resize.

Trinity Display
When you listen to your reference track and you compare it to your own music, it can be
difficult to put your finger on what changes you need to make. The one-of-a-kind Trinity
Display uses intelligent algorithms to show you how the frequency balance, stereo width
and punch of your track compares to your reference. You can create from 1 to 5 moveable
frequency bands in the Trinity Display. Each band gives you a specific reading of how the
punch and balance of your track compares to the punch and balance of your reference in
the corresponding frequency band.

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The Frequency Bands

The Trinity Display lets you analyse your music using from 1 to 5 frequency bands. To
solo one of the frequency bands click anywhere inside the band. Click once more to un-
solo that band and listen to the whole mix again. Soloing the bands is a great way to zone
in on the intricate differences between your mix and your references.

To create a new frequency band divider, ‘Ctrl+click’ anywhere on the Trinity Display.
Once a divider is created you can move it by clicking on it and dragging it. To remove a
divider, ‘Ctrl+click’ on the divider itself.

Stereo Spread

The Stereo Spread displays the stereo width of both your original track and your
reference. Each frequency band has it’s own Stereo Spread display allowing you to
quickly identify which frequencies are wider or narrower. The two horizontal lines
represent your Original track (the upper horizontal line) and your reference track (the
lower horizontal line). Whichever you are monitoring will be highlighted white.

Understanding the stereo spread of both your original track and your reference will help
you get closer to the sound you want. You can use panning in your DAW or a stereo tool
to reduce or increase the width of a frequency band in your track.

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Balance

The Trinity Display has a thin, faint white line through the middle. This represents 0dB.
The white horizontal Level Line tells you how much perceived volume that frequency
band has compared to the same frequency band in your reference track.

The white Level Line will move into the upper half of the Trinity Display if the frequency
band has more perceived volume than the corresponding band in your reference. The
Level Line will descend into the lower half of the Trinity Display if the frequency band has
less perceived volume than the corresponding band in your reference.

Looking at the example below, we can determine that from 0-200Hz, our original track
has less energy than our reference. This might prompt us to boost the volume of our bass,
or add a low-frequency EQ boost to our kick. We can also see that from 200-2kHz our
original track has a similar amount of perceived volume to our reference. So we might not
change this at all. Finally, we can see that from 2kHz to 20kHz, our track has more
perceived loudness than our reference. We might decide to musically reduce the high
frequencies sticking out in our mix. Alternatively, we might decide that we like the clarity
of our mix and leave the EQ balance as it is.

Punch

The purple Punch Dots in the Trinity Display will tell you how the short-term dynamic
range of your track compares to the short-term dynamic range of your reference. The
Punch Dots will move towards the white Level Line if that frequency band is more
compressed in your original than in the corresponding frequency band of your reference.
The Punch Dots will move away from the Level Line if that frequency band is less
compressed in your original than in the corresponding frequency band of your reference.
The more opaque the dots are the larger the difference between the punch of your track
and the punch of the reference.

In the example below we can see that the low frequency band from 0-200Hz is showing
the Punch Dots moving towards the Level Line. This tells us that our original track has
more compression in the low frequencies than the reference track. This might prompt us
to reduce the compression on our kick or bass elements. We can also see that from
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200-2kHz the Punch Dots are barely visible. This means our original track has a similar
amount of compression to our reference. Finally, we can see that from 2kHz to 20kHz, the
Punch Dots are moving away from the Level Line. This means that the high frequencies
are punchier in our track than in the reference. We may decide to compress these
transients using a multi-band compressor, or we might decide that we actually like the
punchy top end and leave it just as it is.

Changing The Scale

The Trinity Display has 4 different scales, +-5dB, +-10dB, +-15dB and +-20dB. By
default the range will automatically change depending on the readings. To change
the scale manually to a broader or more magnified setting, click the +/- numerical
readouts at the bottom left or top left of the Trinity Display. If you are mastering a
track and you want to visually see the intricate changes you have made then +-5dB
would be the most magnified setting. Click the ‘A’ button to engage Automatic
range setting.

Why The Trinity Display Works

REFERENCE shows you visually what you would be able to hear if you were in a world-
class studio.

Trying to get your mix or master to match the frequency spectrum of a reference track
simply will not work. This is because there are so many variables that affect how a track
sounds (such as instruments, tuning, performance, samples etc). The music won’t
necessarily sound good even if your track and the reference look the same on the
frequency spectrum. The Trinity Display has a unique approach to this… REFERENCE
uses a complex algorithm created to specifically identify how the human ear perceives
certain frequencies relative to the balance of the whole mix.

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Settings

You can change the default settings of REFERENCE to suit your workflow. Click the (S)
icon in the top right corner, choose your preferred defaults then click save.

Create Your Own Presets

Create and recall presets using the plugin wrapper in your DAW. When you create a
preset you will be able to recall the reference tracks, the loops, the Level Match
adjustments and the Trinity Display settings.

We recommend creating presets categorised by genres you work in. You can then quickly
recall your favourite reference tracks with the loops already created.

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