Many times musicians and engineers will work for long hours on a mix only to find the next day that critical balances are off, i.e., vocals too loud / too low, certain instruments too loud / too low, the mix overall too bright / too dull, too much reverb / too little reverb, etc. The way they usually discover this is by playing them in a more familiar environment (their home or car), and comparing them to other CDs in their collection. Much better to bring those CDs to the studio and compare there, while mixing. Bring along some of your favorite CDs, and do an A/B test periodically. For example, if you find that you have more bass than the reference CDs, turn down your bass! Does your vocal seem low by comparison? Adjust it accordingly. If your mix doesn’t pass this comparison test in the studio, it won’t at home either.
If you are using a computer-based recording system (Pro Tools, etc.), try importing the reference songs right into your session file. Play the CD tracks through the same outputs as your song. Now you have a totally level playing field. Just remember to turn DOWN the CD tracks, as they will be much louder than your mix, due to the CDs having already been mastered. Also, if you have any plugins on your master fader, you will need to avoid your CD reference passing through them, so you may need to rout them to another set of outputs. But once you get this set up properly, consistency will be yours. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel at every mix session.
Two things to be careful of:
1 – Don’t try to match the volume of your mix to the reference CD. It’s already been mastered. The mix that THEY used for mastering was not as loud as their final CD, and neither should yours.
2- Don’t try to match their compression. Additional compression was likely added in mastering. If you squash your mix, you will be stuck with whatever you did.. Mastering is usually a better time and place for that.