10 Great Reference Mixes for Electronic Music

See reference mixes 1 to 5 in part 1 of this article.

6. “Follow” by Martin Garrix, Zedd

Listen: Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal

“Follow” by Zedd and Martin Garrix introduces dramatic chord progressions long out of favor into popular EDM music, and for that, I like listening to it. Wherever possible, you should enjoy listening to your references; I cannot stress that enough. 

You can’t always reference Radiohead all the time in this business, but 1:48 into this tune, you can get pretty damn close. 

From a mixing perspective, note the brightness of this track around 10 kHz. Also note how the bass absolute dominates at around 48 Hz—but never overwhelms.

This is a masterclass in pushing things to limits: bass without tubbiness. Width without phasiness. Absolutely deafening levels without (too much) fatigue.  

7. “Love Me Now” by Kygo Ft. Zoe Wees

Listen: Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal

This is another mainstream EDM offering, doing that “almost too much” thing which seems to be a hallmark of the genre. You’ll note there’s almost too much sidechaining compression, the tune is almost too bright, and it’s almost too wide. 

One thing to take particular note of: this song makes use of a now ubiquitous vocal trend—the interplay between real formant shifting and a singer attempting to recreate a formant shifting effect in the performance itself. 

The singer intentionally tries to distort their voice while singing the song, using their technique to assume a kind of effect usually applied in post. However, the producer is also affecting the voice, so the line between the two becomes blurred.

This sound has come more and more into the forefront in recent years, and “Love Me Now” is as good an example as any for your reference folder.

Another thing to note: the true peak level in the choruses:

Yep, this song peaks at 2.4 dBFS. If you play this song at low levels, you can almost hear Bob Katz shuddering in his studio. 

Does the song sound bad? I mean, I like it! But I was born in 1985, so I’m a casualty of the loudness war. Your mileage might vary.

8. “Beg For You” by Charli XCX (Pocket Remix)

Listen: Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal

Our second remix departs more from the original than the last one. The original version of “Beg for You” is kind of a traditional EDM pop number, if such a thing can be said. The remix pushes the drums way up front, swirls the piano around, and does strange pitchy things to the main vocal.

Yet for all the mangling, the mix has a way of playing with depth. Those pianos, drums, and vocals are the key to hearing the soundstage: during the chorus, the drums hang out in front, while other elements push from the foreground to the background—particularly the lead synths. Then the verse happens, and the vocals take the front, while the drums move into the back. If you want to achieve good front to back imaging, and you find your electronic tune doesn’t compare well to this one, you know you have more work to do. 

9. “Sirens” by Flume Ft. Caroline Polachek 

Listen: Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal

Our last new tune on the list sounds like someone put The Chainsmokers through a woodchipper. Yes, you can also draw a line from SOPHIE to “Sirens”—particularly in the metallic percussion of the second verse, as well as the rusty synths of the chorus. 

The song is also illustrative of how rhythms are changing in electronic music. The triplet nature of these synths are reminiscent not so much of dubstep sputtering, but of trap-style sprinkler hats. 

From a mixing perspective, this mix is a pretty good example of a near LCR panning scheme. It feels dense and weighty, but the arrangement is actually pretty simple: drums, vocals, and bass are upfront, while sound design elements and synths take up the sides. 

The tune is quite forward in the midrange between 600 Hz and 1 kHz, and very cagey about which frequencies are chopped out for builds and drops: the low mids go away, rather than all the lows.

10. "Are You Lonely" by Steve Aioki and Alan Walker ft. ISAK

Listen: Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal

"Are You Lonely" by Steve Aioki and Alan Walker ft. ISAK is the only song to make the cut from the previous version of this article. I still use it to judge if my mixing choices have either destroyed or enhanced the groove. Extensive use of sidechain compression makes these synths bounce against their downbeats; if I’m mixing something with a similar effect, this is the reference to see if I’ve achieved the right bounce.

The tune also makes use of vocoded background vocals, which are more and more en vogue. Sometimes vocoded vocals require massaging to sound right, so I’ll use this as a judge when handling those. 

Then there’s the low end of that kick: it’s massive! And everything drops out of the way. However, in terms of balance, it actually matches the Tonal Balance Control guidelines for bass-heavy music pretty spot on:

Start referencing these EDM tracks in your sessions

Electronic music continues to worm its way from all sorts of music, from jazz to pop to metal. If you trend away from this sort of music, it’s still worth studying, for it’ll likely make its way to you.

And if you love this music, these tunes represent clear examples of its vital parts—from the handling of low end to the building of drops, from stereophonic content to the incorporation of sampled—rather than synthesized—elements. Whether you produce, mix, or master, I hope you find these tunes as valuable as I do.

And if you haven’t yet, demo  Tonal Balance Control for free to start using these reference tracks in your sessions. 

Demo Tonal Balance Control Free
Download Tonal Balance Control Electronic Curves Free

To load the curves, download them and move them to the Target Curve folder, which you can locate in the following path on both Mac and PC /documents/izotope/tonal balance control 2/target curves. You will then be able to access the curves directly in Tonal Balance Control.

See reference mixes 6 to 10 in part 1 of this article.