Guides

Mastering to a reference track: what it can and cannot copy

Updated 2026-09-06

Reference matching is the most requested mastering feature and the most misunderstood. Here is what happens when you hand a tool a song you love and say "make mine sound like that."

What gets measured on the reference

• Its long-term spectrum, in bands. How much low end, how much presence, how much air.
• Its width, as the side level against the mid.
• Its integrated loudness and true peak.

What gets applied to your track

The difference between your track's bands and the reference's, as EQ, capped so that no band moves more than a few dB. The width target moves toward the reference. The loudness target becomes the reference's loudness. That is all. It is a tone and level target, applied gently.

What it cannot do

It cannot move a vocal forward, fix a muddy arrangement, or add a bass part that is not there. If the reference has a huge sub and your track has a kick with no sustain, boosting the sub band gives you a boomy kick, not the reference's bass. That is why the match has an amount control. Fifty percent is usually where it stops helping and starts hurting.

How to pick a reference

• Same genre, same era, ideally the same tempo range.
• A track you know on every speaker you own.
• A commercial master, not another AI export. You would be matching the same problems.

Burnish measures the reference on your device, applies the difference with the amount you choose, and prints the bands it moved. If the match makes it worse, turn the amount down and re-master, free.