DIY Mastering: Izotope Ozone or T-racks?

[Herkimer]

I'm ready to spend some money in an "all-in-one" mastering suite. I had been doing it myself with individual plugs on the master fader - but now I've got the money and the interest in a single suite.

Ozone is $199 and T-racks full is $219. That's an insignificant price difference so let's consider them equal.

Can anyone make a reasonable recommendation with a thoughtful critique? Does T-racks insert as one insert or as individual inserts for each component? How about Ozone? Do they both offer similar effects: eq, compressor, limiting? How about stereo imaging? I started to read about the benefits of subtle reverb on the Master fader. Do these do that as well?

I've tinkered with T-racks full in the past. (like several years ago!) I noted that it does offer a lot of coloration and personality. That's fine as I recall it was all good. How about Ozone? Similar analog type colorization?

Any input helps. Thanks in advance.

[Stiff]

T-racks was very popular in a few magazines I used to read when it was released, but honestly, I never liked it one bit. never thought it sounded "analogue" either (I know this wasn't your words, just referring to the magazines). It did have a bunch of presets which are always good if you first start out mastering.

I remember trying Ozone and think I liked it, but that was long ago so I couldn't really say much about it.

Check out Flux Solera if you can afford it... It beats the crap out of all the competition on the LE side IMO. Can't speak for HD as I have never mastered on it.

[mindnoise]

HI,
You must be joking, they are NOT EQUAL, in now way!

T-Racks is a toy compared to Ozone. How IKM can hold themself on the market with their inferior products is a mystery to me.

Coloration:YES, but not like a URS or McDSP do. T-Racks is lightyears away from sounding ´analogue.
Maybe it does, but there are a lot more plugs sound a whole lot more analogue than this.
Personality, well if you consider e.g. a 60Hz AC humm as in a recording as character sound, too
then you can say that.

Ozone does not, or far less tend to colorize. Adding color is not really the job of a mastering
suite. Where T-Racks starts to muffle your sound with it´s quirky ´analogueness´ Ozone stays clear
and tight.

Honestly, get Ozone if you want quality results and not just a FX sound.
was this thoughtful enough ,
best: try the demos and see yourself.


regs

[southboundloco]

if u want hi quality results,i suggest u just buy individual mastering plugins i.e. massey L2007 limiter- for ur mastering limiter(very nice limiter,really high quality for less than $100,i actually suggest buying all of the massey plugins, they're that good i swear!). PSP stereo controller- for stereo widening(bundled in PSP stereo pack), PSP vintage warmer- for ur multiband compressor, or the McDSP one, roger nichols have a very good mastering EQ. and if u wanna join the loudness war then u might wanna add a sony oxford inflator in ur bag.

but before u go master ur mixes in pro tools eq it first using HAR-BAL

just my 2 cents...

[bugnut]

As a complete mastering tool I would say Ozone is far superior to TRacks. Ozone is worth the price just for it's sample rate converter alone. That being said I frequently use TRacks on my master buss. With TRacks you can call up each individual component or you can plug-in the entire suite. When I use it on the master buss I use the whole suite in it's default order BUT I generally only use the compressor which definitely adds color that seems to work with a lot of the guitar-oriented stuff I work on. Very occasionally I will also use the soft-clip. I wouldn't use the TRacks EQ for mastering though. Maybe the HPF but, usually not.

[mindnoise]

if u want hi quality results,i suggest u just buy individual mastering plugins i.e. massey L2007 limiter- for ur mastering limiter(very nice limiter,really high quality for less than $100,i actually suggest buying all of the massey plugins, they're that good i swear!). PSP stereo controller- for stereo widening(bundled in PSP stereo pack), PSP vintage warmer- for ur multiband compressor, or the McDSP one, roger nichols have a very good mastering EQ. and if u wanna join the loudness war then u might wanna add a sony oxford inflator in ur bag.

but before u go master ur mixes in pro tools eq it first using HAR-BAL

just my 2 cents...

Hi if you´re looking for other options I´ll support the above 100%

esp. Sony Inflator made me drop all that hard Limiter stuff for making things loud, regardless.

[Mr.BossPlaya]

I have and use both...in my opinion I think that t-racks adds a nice warmth to my tracks, and o-zone seems to sound a little hollow, that is why I uses t-racks about 80% of the time.

[GORILLA]

They're both decent. But, if you have to finish/ master your own stuff..... don't skimp out on the cheapest solution. I have Ozone.... rarely use it. Only thing from T-racks I own is their EQ.

We use on the Master buss;
Waves SSL Comp
Bx_Digital EQ
Sony Oxford limiter.

Checkout the Brainworx EQ! It rocks. The M/S Mastering mode is worth the price!


GORILLA

[Herkimer]

Another driving factor is the number of inserts available on the Master Fader. I can currently insert FIVE plugi-ins. I typically do the following: Tape simulator, EQ, multiband comp, stereo imager, and finally limiter.

I would hope that an "all-in-one" suite would only occupy one insert slot thus allowing more freedom to add other stuff (reverb, dither, spectrum visualizer, etc.)

From what I've seen, it looks like Ozone is that "all-in-on" application - although I'm a little concerned that someone mentioned a "hollow" sound. I know from experience that T-racks does color the sound with their unique feel. I was curious inf Ozone does as well.

So, if you don't use an "all-in-one" suite, how are you guys getting beyond the five inserts limit? I'd probably be more interested in T-racks if it didn't use all the inserts for each component. I'd love to start adding more inserts for things mentioned above - visualizers, reverb, multiple limiters for softer limiting, etc.

I'm also a fan of presets. I know most people hate them - but I find them invaluable as a starting point. I thought I read that Ozone has quite a large number of presets. Are they any good? How about T-racks presets?

[Mr.BossPlaya]

I find the Tracks presets to be gold. I love them. I usually open one up that is closest to what I want to achieve and then tweak till I get there (try the regular#2 preset under the mastering suite, works just about all the time).

Ozone also has a great number of presets, but they don’t appeal to my ears like the Tracks ones. Ozone seems to sound “empty”-“hollow”, but that is my tastes.

I get much better results using Tracks over Ozone.

Tracks uses only one insert slot -or- you can use them individually.