Ozone 5 with PT10?

[kchandlermusic]

I want to start learning and doing my own mastering. Good or bad idea? I keep reading that Ozone 5 is the place to start.

Is it easy? User friendly? Anything I should expect or not?

All help and advice would be awesome.

[rgconrad1]

I have had Ozone 4 for years and just upgraded to 5 last week. Mastering isn't exactly rocket science but I have found some simple things you can do to crash course yourself into creating a good master bounce track.

This plug-in uses A LOT of data so if your computer is already overloaded, go ahead and bounce down your BEST mix UNMASTERED in wav format or you are going to get cpu spikes, aae, dae errors and "freeze-ups if you are using a PC".

From there go ahead and start up a fresh empty session and import your bounced unmastered wav file into a new stereo track.
MAKE SURE your unmastered bounced file isn't clipping in the red and preferably well below 0db. You can determine this by creating a master track back on your full session that you want to bounce down and see where the master meter is hitting. If its clipping in the red, pull down the master fader until the music is soft enough to bounce down and be ready for a master plug-in application. OR you can create a group of all of your tracks and pull down the mix all the way across the board...which I love this feature in PT and your mix will remain the same.

From there set up a stereo master fader in back your new session as this is where you will place Ozone. You will find that there are a bunch of pre-configured set-ups that will more than likely be a great starting point to work off of.

Bear in mind that Limiting is not compression and so on. I would do some research on mastering and how limiting, compression, ducking, master eq, frequencies and master reverb can be utilized with your mix.

The main thing to focus on is NOT compressing or squashing your mix to bits. If you do this, all of your punchy dynamics will be washed out in the mix and won't be felt or heard. You want just enough compression and limiting to be nice and loud but still have nice dynamics in the mix. This is why you start off with a moderately quiet unmastered stereo track. Ozone will pull up the overall volume for you to the radio standard db level.

I recommend during the unmastered bounce and the mastered bounce giving yourself at least an hour of silence from the session for "fresh ears". Your ears start to focus in on certain frequencies and you lose a fresh perspective over long mixing periods.

Always compare your mix in as many different sound set-ups as possible and also compare your mix with the most similar artists who are in the big leagues in the music industry as well.

I hope this helps you out for getting started with Ozone and you dig a little more deeper into even more technical mastering features that Ozone has to provide.

[gives]

Latency can be a lot if you don't turn off a lot of things that you may not even need in the MAIN plugin. I was on a TDM system with only had like around 8000 of delay Compensation. I have a whole new system now that does not have those issues. I have not had crashes, but there are a few tips on the Ozone 5 website.. Also get the latest updates. Works WAY better in PT 11 with no latency issues.

Good Luck

[mmk]

Originally Posted by kchandlermusic

I want to start learning and doing my own mastering. Good or bad idea? I keep reading that Ozone 5 is the place to start.

Is it easy? User friendly? Anything I should expect or not?

All help and advice would be awesome.

Good idea in a way. Bad Idea in a way too.

First the good.

You will save money. and if your dedicated you will learn a lot.


Now the bad.

Chances are with Ozone you will mess up your mixes when you first start. I ruined many many mixes using Ozone presets. It really fools you. Because you think it sounds a lot better because it really pumps up the song. But the Eq and compression do way too much 9 times out of 10. When you come back to it after growing tired of the song, you realize how bad of a job it did.... But, if you take the time and learn proper techniques, many years of practice, months at the very least... You might get something pretty decent, It still wont beat a professional master. But it will be good enough to where most people won't be able to tell...

At the end of the day... Ozone is a Very good plugin for mastering... I use it in combination with other mastering plugins because It has its strengths and weaknesses like any other plugin... Just be careful, with great power comes great responsibility... more important is to get that mix right... Throwing a low quality mix into ozone isnt gonna do much to help you... Not sure what level your on right now but practice makes perfect.. If you feel like getting ozone get it... but learn it

[GregV]

+1 for mmk

If you want to LEARN mastering, a "one size fits all" plug in is a BAD place to start.
Start with separate components so that you can learn each one, and how they interact.
EQ and Compress. Compare it to reference tracks. Repeat.
If you want to "cheat" you could use an analyzer to compare as well. But even with the analyzer, you will still be doing all the work "manually".

It's a great idea to learn... But learn the "whys and wherefores" before deciding that an all-in-one will be your weapon of choice.
Just my two cents... (for what it's worth)

[nst7]

whether you use Ozone or not, the company has a good mastering guide you can download for free, that has a good overview of mastering and many good suggestions. You might check it out, and you will get more out of whatever plugins you decide to use.

You can find it here (scroll down the page):

https://www.izotope.com/en/support/s...ources/guides/

There's other good guides on that page as well.

[kchandlermusic]

Thanks everyone!

Seems a little daunting but doable. I think I'm more worried about space usage than anything because I'm already running on a laptop with some Glyph drives.

Thanks again everyone.

[rgconrad1]

Don't let anyone tell you can't learn from trial and error or scare you from getting this plug-in. Yeah you might botch a few mixes but in the long run, learning mastering is an essential part of being a well rounded engineer.

Like I said before, if you will bounce down your unmastered mix and open the bounced file in a brand new session, you will have no problems with CPU performance.

best of luck!

[bradch00]

Originally Posted by rgconrad1

if you will bounce down your unmastered mix and open the bounced file in a brand new session, you will have no problems with CPU performance.

+1
This is initially the way Ozone x was meant to be used. More powerful processors have given us the ability to put Ozone 5 full sessions, but YMMV.

I have Ozone 5 Advanced with lets you mix and match other plug-ins with Ozone's. Sometimes I use PSP Xenon with Ozone's EQ, Brainworx refinement, etc, etc... I do this mostly for when I am sending demo's back to collaborators....

Final mastering I still get done by a 3rd party. Mostly because by the time a piece is ready for mastering my ears are tainted and I find it difficult to be subjective.

[mmk]

Originally Posted by GregV

+1 for mmk

If you want to LEARN mastering, a "one size fits all" plug in is a BAD place to start.
Start with separate components so that you can learn each one, and how they interact.
EQ and Compress. Compare it to reference tracks. Repeat.
If you want to "cheat" you could use an analyzer to compare as well. But even with the analyzer, you will still be doing all the work "manually".

It's a great idea to learn... But learn the "whys and wherefores" before deciding that an all-in-one will be your weapon of choice.
Just my two cents... (for what it's worth)

exactly

Originally Posted by nst7

whether you use Ozone or not, the company has a good mastering guide you can download for free, that has a good overview of mastering and many good suggestions. You might check it out, and you will get more out of whatever plugins you decide to use.

You can find it here (scroll down the page):

https://www.izotope.com/en/support/s...ources/guides/

There's other good guides on that page as well.

I have read that mastering guide many times. while it helps. it won't make you good. although it's nice to have.

Originally Posted by rgconrad1

Don't let anyone tell you can't learn from trial and error or scare you from getting this plug-in. Yeah you might botch a few mixes but in the long run, learning mastering is an essential part of being a well rounded engineer.

Like I said before, if you will bounce down your unmastered mix and open the bounced file in a brand new session, you will have no problems with CPU performance.

best of luck!

I'm not trying to scare him from getting it... im just trying to help him before he ends up like I did after years and years of ruined mixes from ozone... Years... not months... It took me a long time to figure out that was one of the main things ruining my mixes.... It can really fool you which is why I decided to warn him beforehand... Don't get me wrong though its a great tool it's just very easy to let it do all the work (and ruin the song)

Originally Posted by kchandlermusic

Thanks everyone!

Seems a little daunting but doable. I think I'm more worried about space usage than anything because I'm already running on a laptop with some Glyph drives.

Thanks again everyone.

Go for it. Good luck