Best Ozone yet !!

I got the Tonal balance bundle, so along with Ozone 9 advanced, I also got Neutron 3 advanced and Nectar 3 Plus . I 've had Ozone 7 and 8 and they've gone from strength to strengthm but one of the things I loved immedately about 9, is that you can load every one of the modules as a vst in it's own right, so I could load Vintage tape on a snare, and then grab Neutron 3's Transient shaper, or any other combination, without needing to use all those modules only from within the Ozone shell program itself, and I find that liberating, because if I wanted to use the exciter on a hi hat, I don't have to load the whole program, which is like using a sledgehammer to open a peanut. I wasn't expecting this as a feature, and I'd never seen anyone else mention it, so it was a great surprise, after scanning in FL for new plugins, to discover that the modules were all listed individually. Very nice surprise !!! I can still load Ozone, and whatever module environment I want within it, but the freedom to set adrift from the main program is awesome !!

Ozone 4 has some features later Ozone versions don't...

Even though I have Ozone 7 and use it most of the time, I still use Ozone 4 for a few things, though usually on a channel rather than the master bus. The Multiband Dynamics in Ozone 4 includes a gate feature that isn't in 7, so you can eliminate specific frequency ranges below a certain threshold. Sometimes that's exactly what you need to remove noise & keep the sparkle on a channel. And then there's the frequency matching & morphing! Ozone 7 has this too, but Ozone 4 let you save snapshots of different songs / channels & reload the snapshots from a file later. I'd built a library of EQ curve snapshots from my favorite songs, and also of isolated tracks from commercial songs. So if you wanted your vocal to match the frequency curve of a pro isolated vocal you found, or to match the EQ of your guitar to an isolated pro guitar part, you could save a snapshot of the isolated track to your library, then use Ozone 4 to match to it... or even just show the curve as a comparison reference while you program in your own EQ with other plugins.

Expander, magnetic compression, Reel to Reel machines...

This nice looking package doesn't features an expander. In olde tymes there were compressors and expanders in the studio...this is because there was no Dolby (compander) and to reduce the tape hiss that was very high because of the tapes themselves, they were needed. Note that I would try to process a tape this way...I relie on my Dolby SR and it's perfect. Also there are different kinds of compression and a tape recorder allows you to make magnetic compression...magnetic compression is said to begin at 1000 nW/m with a 50 micron tape. So you need a powerful machine that pushes at least at +12dB and there are plenty in the pro world. My Studer A-807 doesn't want to run these days ( a chemical capacity, I guess ), so I use my Revox PR99mk3 with 35 Micron tape and it's ok.
Few years ago, I wanted to buy an old Ampex Machine but the specialist told me that he couldn't give a guaranty because it was too old and he added that to get the sound of the 60's, I had better trying to find vintage mics. On his advice I purchased a pair of AKG Solitube and they are already vintage...now as long as R2R machines are concerned would I choose an ATR100, a A820, a Sony, I thing I'd choose the Studer because it calibrates automatically...well, to 'tune ' a R2R is one thing but 'detune' it is much more difficult. Still, the sound engineers could do that in the 70's when R&R was great. That's all [email protected]

Vintage? Nope.

It's limitations? The Limiter. I feel a bit condescended to with the slow release times being called "vintage". I'm assuming they figured old gear= old dried out capacitors but while I'm not at all an electrical engineer I do know how to recognize my equipment needs servicing. I get it, sure...but I feel like I'm being taken for a rube.

Next? The "Pultec EQ". Come on. Sounds nothing like the insanely signature sound if a Pultec in the low frequencies. The upper range is a bit better but still. Why bother with this?! You made great stuffs is this just an appeal to the "Heritage Heads"? If so, I'm saddened. I loved the sorta "fabfilter" model they kinda had- "fuck the GUI interface of hardware lets just make something killer" ideals.

All that said? Ozone is a totally killer plug in. I use it often...just not the new "vintage" section in most cases. It's strengths are elsewhere.

Ozone 10 is actually really good.

Pretty epic plugin honestly.

Just slap it on your master channel, edit some stuff, and call it a day. who needs mastering engineers when you got ozone?

Still recommend a mastering engineer though.

Preferred Settings + Usage:

All You Need

The Ozone 8 Suite is the best all-in-one kit for mixing and mastering your song. Provides incredible modularity and simplicity when taking care of frequency balancing, stereo imaging, leveling, and more. Provides a great set of presets that show you what each genre aims for in their various mixing and mastering styles. Quite literally the Midas Touch of music.

THE mastering suite

This bundle has literally everything an in-the-box producer could need for mastering their mixdowns. All of the plugins work wonders (the harmonic exciter is my favorite, it does really cool stuff to your hi hats), and it really makes your final product shine when used correctly. A lot of people bounce audio out to a new session and then use Ozone, but I prefer to use it in the original session, although this is CPU-intensive and really about personal preference. If you are going to use it in-session, I recommend doing some A/B testing with other mastered tracks BEHIND these plugins using Sample Magic A/B or something similar.

I like this. Worth giving it a try.

This plugin is pretty new to me but so far I'm enjoying using it. I really like the way that the UI is laid out and how you can turn on and off certain effects depending on what it is that you want to be using. I don't really like the presets all too much but I'd probably want to master things myself rather then let a plugin do it for me (unfortunately, the same can't be said for everybody). A good way to describe this plugin is that it's a bundle of effects that you would commonly use for mastering all crammed into one VST in a nice neat little interface.

I'm not sure if this is going to become my main mastering plugin, but this undoubtedly has potential.

AMAZING!

This is amazing for mastering applications of course, but as you can deploy all the individual components as separate VSTs the Advanced version makes it so much more versatile and useful on the production side as well. Blown away by the combined powers of the Vintage Limiter and Maximizer, as well as the Multiband Exciter, and the visual tools are quite useful as well (Stereo Imager, Tonal Balance Control). Still learning the Dynamic EQ, and I tend to prefer FabFilter Pro-Q 2 as my go-to EQ, but this one is still great. Some say it's overpriced, but I managed to score it for about $270 by following the upgrade path from Elements to Standard to Advanced when they were on sale. Essential!!!

The go-to mastering plugin.

This plugin is very interesting and effective. It can also be a resource for beginners to test the waters, so to speak, when experimenting in trying DIY mastering. Very nice, very effective, an industry standard....but as always, I would recommend at least considering not overlooking DAWs simple, but effective, plugins for mastering.