So after treating myself to this plugin half price the other day, I've noticed a few consistent differences between my mixes and commercial ones (other than mine being inferior)...
Commercial mixes:
-- seem much more compressed. That lead vocal is just THERE dead center and seems like nothing ever gets close to fighting it (level or pan wise).
-- much wider than mine. Guitars hard panned seem even wider than mine. Oh...and they're right up front as well ala vocals.
-- not as much bass as I thought. Probably more a symptom of my poorly treated room/monitor deficiencies. Geez I have way too much mud in the sub 200Hz range.
-- so much brighter and more "airy" than my mixes. This is also confirmed with spectral analysis. I tried Ozone eq matching (which I've never used before) and hate to say it...but wow what a difference it made by gently dipping mids and boosting 12k and higher.
Anyway, seems like an eye opening errr...ear opening...plugin and I'm glad I bought it.
Oh, and don't get me started listening to the differences with side channel comparisons...namely...there's A LOT more low end information there than I thought "belonged" in the sides.
Feel free to chime in if anyone else had any similar epiphanies with reference mixes.