The "Ozone sounds terrible. Or...does it.." Thread

[Frippertronix]

I'm waiting for a more opportune moment to install my Ozone shareware since I'm not ready to master at this point, so I have no personal experience, but it does seem like Izotope gets a lot of good reviews.

But...in light of some heartfelt comments posted here recently, I'm just curious about some other opinions. Ozone would be nice as a suite since it gives you the multi-band comp, the limiter, verb, tube models, etc.

If it's crap, though, then I guess the point would be moot.

What say you?

Obviously these things are pretty subjective. For instance, many people tout PSP but they really don't do it for me. I find their plugs "artificial" sounding. I liked the VW best, but even that started to sound "transistory" to my ears after a while.

[Spe3D]

Ozone is a master tool IMO and its friggin excellent at it, good support, excellent presets that work for common tasks.

Looks as good as it sounds - bit heavy on the CPU, but it does quite a bit in one package.

Best regards,

Spe3d

:O)

[Frippertronix]

FYI, here's the thread that prompted this question:

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=87081

I respect these opinions and, FAIK, I may agree with them. I'm very interested in TriTone's stuff, at the very least, so I'm glad I got involved in that discussion.

Just looking for more opinions.

Dave

[veseli koljac]

excellent presets that work for common tasks.

i don't think so,preset are not good.(from mine opinion),ozone is not terrible,but threre is so much better stuff from kjaerhus,sonalkis,waves,elemental audio,ik-multimedia(t-racks)...

[Spe3D]

excellent presets that work for common tasks.

i don't think so,preset are not good.(from mine opinion),ozone is not terrible,but threre is so much better stuff from kjaerhus,sonalkis,waves,elemental audio,ik-multimedia(t-racks)...

I use Voxengo stuff too

Elephant friggin great - but the original thread was not about what is best - its was what is not in the K-v-R database and what the sound of Ozone is like.

There are tons n tons of effects - all have a place in the market imo. some work better in some situations while others don't over-all I use Ozone, Voxengo (quite a lot of their fx) plus Elemetal EQ's

Best regards,

Spe3d

:O)

[Sepheritoh]

....Ozone shareware.....

[Spe3D]

....Ozone shareware.....

There are two versions of Ozone – one electronic download with challenge n response unlock based on computer ID – the other needs a hardware dongle EDIT: Key option for Pro Tools users http://www.izotope.com/store/authorization.html

Best regards,

Spe3d

:O)

[greendoor]

There are two versions of Ozone – one electronic download with challenge n response unlock based on computer ID – the other needs a hardware dongle.

To excellent reasons to stay well away. Kjaerhus and Voxengo and ArtsAcoustic rock.

[Spe3D]

There are two versions of Ozone – one electronic download with challenge n response unlock based on computer ID – the other needs a hardware dongle.

To excellent reasons to stay well away. Kjaerhus and Voxengo and ArtsAcoustic rock.

I used to think like that (still do with some companies) but Izotope is cool with their system.

I also use Tracktition (challange n Response Computer ID based), and Cubase (Hardware Dongle) as well as PhotoShop CS (challange n Response Computer ID based)

Best regards,

Spe3d

:O)

[Sepheritoh]

Yje Ozotope system is cool. I use the "dongle" for izotope. It is just a standard USB flash memory that I can use for whatever other purpose I want as well and it is fully transportable to another computer.

[kritikon]

Frippertronix...Ozone might be good for you, as you've already stated that the valvey stuff such as PSP is not really your thing. Certainly my opinion of the Ozone stuff is that it's for clear mastering rather than character, so probably more your thing.
Personally if I were ever to buy it, it would be more as a set of plugins to use anywhere, rather than as a mastering suite.

And here's why....

Mastering's a funny thing; you don't always want the same character and the same end result. It all depends on the track and the feel - sometimes you want crunch, sometimes warmth, sometimes volume, sometimes space and clarity. And no one specific set of plugins will do all of those things to a good enough standard. Just for that reason I'd rather have a large set of individual plugins from different companies all with different characters, so I can mix and match as desired. No reason you can't do that with Ozone as well, I suppose, but I suspect most people just use Ozone because it's all in one suite and ease of setting up etc. And that makes limitations I don't like. And I found I couldn't create much warmth or crunch without nasty artifacts with Ozone.

Sound quality...I really liked the enhancer - it stands up well against any other enhancer on the market at low levels. Limiter - OK but nothing amazing. Compressors - it's a while ago since I tried the Ozone stuff (so it may well have improved since then) but I thought the compressor was bog standard - tending even towards muffled (as in a cheap h/w VCA compressor). I wouldn't have touched it with a bargepole - compare it to stuff like the Kjaerhus Golden compressors and it pales into insignificance (and the Kjaerhus ones are wideband only!). Crap compressor, basically - and compressors are absolutely crucial to any kind of mixing/mastering.
Reverb - well best to say as little as I can about that one....
Eq - OK, but again nothing special whatsoever. It's probably a decent choice of Eq for Ozone, as they are after clear rather than character. I just don't like bland Eqs, that's all. And Ozone's Eq is bland (not bad, just bland).

GUI. Again, this should hopefully have improved since the version I demoed. It bloody well should have because it was almost unusable!
First off - I'll state the reason is because I have my screen set to higher resolution than the standard (can't remember which setup, but it's the next one up from the way everything is out of the box ?1200 by something?). Ozone just was useless at that resolution. No way of increasing the screen size, and some of the readouts were literally unreadable. I had no idea what was what, and you cannot have that for crucial mastering. I also could not increase things in small amounts - seemed like there was no shift click etc like you normally have for fine increments - surely to god they have fixed that by now, so hopefully that ain't an issue now - but it used to be and it made it absolutely unusable. That's just bad design in my books. I can't be the only one to have increased screen resolution so I can fit in more of my host on-screen - and with Ozone you had to decrease it and reset every time you wanted to use it. Sheer madness.

Having said that, it's great value. Especially when you add up the total cost of getting a full suite of other plugins for mastering. A good Eq will be minimum of $100, and usually at least double that. You can pay several times more than that too. A good comp such as a Kjaerhus one will normally be $100 or so (unless you get one in a group buy). A good multiband?...haven't really come across one as yet. There are Waves, but I'm not going to pay that price for something that I don't necessarily need to use. PSP - like you said, it's a distinct character, and not really set up fully for a truly flexible multiband comp. Reverb...well, you know how much that can cost to get a decent native one (not that there are many that are even getting close to mastering quality ), although there is cheap and even free convolution reverb available.

So, it can be a good buy. As long as you remember it is simply a set of individual plugins that comes in its own single GUI. If Ozone plugins were available individually though, I don't think many of them would sell that many, because individually most of them are not stellar quality. As a bundle is where the value comes in. And then they almost cornered the market by having them marketted as a "mastering suite". But I don't think of Ozone as much different from buying a bundle of Blue Tubes FX or a bundle of DSPFX etc ...slightly more tailored towards mastering, sure.

My take is this - if you split them up into individual FX, is there one single FX in there that you would say to yourself "I absolutely cannot get this anywhere else, and I have to have it for mastering?". .........For me, there are none in there. If there is one in there for you...also remember you are forced to buy the full set of other bland plugins as well as the one(s) you need.

But the other question is "for this price, would I use it often and get halfway decent results?". If you answer yes, then buy it.

There are lots of happy users of Ozone, and good for them. If functionality is what you want, you don't want distinctive character, then why not?

If distinctive character is what you want, then Ozone ain't the one. And price really shouldn't be an issue anyway...if you're serious about your music, then $100 for a quality plugin should be considered cheap by any standards. And you can get quality compressors, limiters, almost quality Eq, and convolution reverb for less than $400. Whereas Ozone tempts people by charging less, but they really are bland. I'm not saying they are bad - they aren't. but they really are characterless - which, by the way, might actually be exactly what you want.

Just don't be fooled into thinking it's the only mastering option because it's a suite. As with everything you should let your own ears be the judge.

That was an essay, eh

[sleepingsword]

Ozone Rulez!!

[Frippertronix]

Thanks to everyone for the input (including the essay ). No reason for me not to try the demo, but I finding myself so happy with some of the Voxengo/Kjaerhus/TriTone things I've worked with, Ozone would probably be redundant, except for the reverb, which doesn't soud that great, so...

Thanks again!

Dave