Like Beetlejuice, if you say my name... wink

Reference tracks can tell you a number of things.

The most obvious what volume the different instruments should be. I've found that I always overestimate the volume of vocals, and place them too far in the front.

On the other hand, drums are often quite louder that I expect them to be.

But you should match for frequency as well. That means deciding which instruments live in which frequency. There are various tools to help with spectral matching, such as the Reaper's free Spectrum Matcher. While it's not a good idea to simply apply spectral curves, it can be quite instructive!

Once you've decided who gets to live where in the frequency range, the simplest thing to do is high/low pass those instruments outside of that range. It's amazing how much you can remove from an instrument that's never noticed in a full mix.

Finally, reference tracks can tell you how many instruments to use. It's a lot easier to balance a song with fewer instruments, and floyd jane's latest reminded me to put less in, and make more from what I had.

Just some thoughts.

-- David Cuny
My virtual singer development blog

Vocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?