iZotope’s Ozone 3

[darkglass]

anybody familiar or experienced with this?

[Straatocastoer]

I have it and use it. A very powerful plug IMHO. It is very powerful in that you can perform multiband dynamics processing, equalization, reverberation, multiband stereo imaging, and multiband harmonic exitation all within one plug. It has many, many useful presets. It has a user-friendly interface. You will not be able to find any other ONE plug that will do everything this one does. It can be a sort of "mastering" plug for those of us on a budget. On top of all of that, it just sounds good.

There are downsides, however. It introduces a considerable amount of latency -- which isn't a problem on the master fader, but on individual tracks it can be problematic. Also, there are SO MANY parameters you can control, you can knock a mix right off of a sonically pleasing "seat" if you are not selective with your choices.

All in all, I'd say it is definately worth $250.

[Greg M]

Yes. Really nice mastering plug. There is a lot of stuff in that plug-in. Not the prettiest interface, but straight forward. More time was put into function rather than looks. It is so flexible that you can make things sound great or awful with it. It is a mastering plug-in and should only be used as such. It is a resource hog - not an issue if you are mastering. Price is pretty good. I think it's around $300.

I think they have a demo, so you can try it out.

I have Ozone, TRacks, and the PSP Vintage Warmer. I think you can get a wider range of sounds with Ozone than the others. I also think you need to be a bit more skillful with Ozone than the other two.

Greg

[tele_player]

I've got it, it's a great all-in-one for self-mastering. Very versatile, you can do a lot of damage with it.

[darkglass]

thanks guys. I was looking at the T-racks plug in when I came upon this one. Like somebody said, not as pretty looking but very functional. I do like the "analog" sound of T-racks. I will have to see if I can download a demo. I recently had a project mastered by a "pro" in California. I thought it would be a huge difference in what I can do at home. It wasnt. Either he isnt as good as I heard.. or I am better than I thought. LOL.


BTW: How about starting a list for Mastering Houses... let's leave out the very big and very expensive places like Gateway. Also: some kind of rating system lets say a scale of 1-5 with a little explanation.

Here is my offering:
http://www.zenmastering.com/index.htm