KVR Audio

nth1739 · Post by **nth1739** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 1:34 pm

Hey everyone,
I purchased Ozone 3 a few months ago and am really enjoying thus far, but I have a feeling I am not utilizing all aspects of Ozone to their max potential.

Can anyone offer any tips specifically refering to the Harmonic Exciter module and the Multiband Stereo Imaging modules?

I notice each of those two modules have delay controls underneath the gain sliders, but are those useful? I mixed and mastered a heavy rock track I was working on last night and added some delay using the stereo imaging module and it sounded GREAT through my high-end headphones. However when I played it in the car stereo the delay seemed to introduce a phase like hollow effect. I just put a small amount of delay (12ms) on the dist gtr band and an even smaller amount of delay on the high/cymbals band (8ms). Was this the wrong thing to do?

Any input would be appreciated, also if you have tips on how you use Ozone to master your rock tracks that would be great too

Thanks

BRIGGS · Post by **BRIGGS** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 2:37 pm

sounds like too much isolation...

instead of headphones for mixing, I would recommend some good near field studio monitor speakers.

although, headphones are good for tracking, monitoring and listening.

Briggs

nth1739 · Post by **nth1739** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 3:24 pm

Thanks Briggs,
You are right about the monitor speakers. Using headphones each ear is isolated from the other ears speaker so it sounds totally different when using regular speakers. I havent given up on the delay yet though. I have been reading the Ozone Mastering Guide on www.izotope.com and am going to try some it's suggestions.

kylen · Post by **kylen** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 3:38 pm

I think you can probably detect the situation you discovered in your car via your headphones if you put Ozone into mono mode. In the MB stereo imaging section there's a box to check "show channel ops". If you check your mono compatibility there you'll probably note a few notches in your sound. If you can't hear it very well in the phones then hook up SPAN and you should be able to see a "V" or 2 in the spectrum due to the phase problem you introduced. Just a guess...

mikehattem · Post by **mikehattem** » Sat Jul 22, 2006 2:59 am

I've had Ozone for over a year and have "mastered" my last two records with it (the first solely with Ozone and the last one with a combination of things) and I have NEVER used the delay settings on either of the MB modules. I can't even imagine any instance where I would do that. I find myself now using Ozone mostly for the Harmonic Exciter (and I might use it on a band from 650hz-3khz at a setting of 1.1 and maybe 10-15% - very minimal) and the Multiband Comp just to get about 1-2db of GR on the bass. The EQ is good for setting it to INFINITE and getting to see what the frequency spectrum looks like overall.

Mike

nth1739 · Post by **nth1739** » Sat Jul 22, 2006 5:43 am

Hey Mike, I was just playing around with using the RQ matching in ozone. I loaded up a good sample and set the spectrum to hold INFINITE, then took a snapshot to channel A and assigned it as a "target". Then I repeated the procedure with my target sample and took a snapshot to channel B. Setting the EQ to matching mode and playing around with the match perc and smoothness gave some pretty good results. Now you can see what your mixes sound like with other people EQ settings, not bad for experimentation, but I always seem to prefer my EQ settings a little bit more

mikehattem · Post by **mikehattem** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 1:23 am

I did that too in the beginning and then I was able to understand what an "average" freq. spectrum looks like. The best thing to do is load up a song as a target that is similar to yours. When I've used the matching EQ I found that usually its a case of boosting highs and sometimes a little lows. What I do then is take "matching" off and use another EQ plugin like RenQ. I use the matching as a guide. Obviously the matching setting can get crazy so your best bet is to set it around 25-35% and a smooth factor of around .5 - Good luck man.

Mike

fabi · Post by **fabi** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 2:19 am

also to be taken into account with other people's tracks is, that they show the spectrum after (most likely) eq + multiband compressor, which means that not all of 'our' job with regards to 'matching' other people's tracks has to be done at the eq stage, either.

kylen · Post by **kylen** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 3:16 am

fabi wrote:also to be taken into account with other people's tracks is, that they show the spectrum after (most likely) eq + multiband compressor, which means that not all of 'our' job with regards to 'matching' other people's tracks has to be done at the eq stage, either.

Agreed (if I follow you correctly) - when I "look" at a commercial reference track in SPAN at times I can see obvious Low/Mid/High multiband compression artifacts meaning that the difference between the peak and average spectrum appears much tighter on the lows (<300Hz) and highs (>4KHz) than on the mids, for example. MB limiter is what I think it is at this point in time anyway (in addition to being a great mix by some engineer). If it's not MB then it's just excellent bass/mid/high dynamics control of the mix - either way the dynamics in those bands need to be accounted for otherwise punching up 500Hz 3db to match a commercial master doesn't work well over here...

In general copying an average EQ curve of a commercial release just hasn't panned out for me - it was highly educational though and made me get my EQ chops together mo' better!

Copying an EQ curve when comping together several takes of a vocal track, for example, works a lot better I think.

nth1739 · Post by **nth1739** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 1:11 pm

Thanks for the good advice guys. Over the weekend I realized what you have been mentioning. The EQ matching essentially just turned my highs way up and cut the lows a bit (my lows were a little high :/) But in the end I didnt really like the result, so I went back to using the regular analog EQ settings in Ozone.

Can I ask one more question? For those who use Ozone to master, do you use it solo or in combination with other plug-in tools? It seems like in all-in-one package, but everyone has their personal preferences. If you use additional plug-ins, which ones? I also have the PSP MixPack which has some good tools http://www.pspaudioware.com/indexen.htm ... s/mix.html;

fabi · Post by **fabi** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 3:26 pm

hm... one other idead might be to take a look at something like aams (i think its url is http://www.curioza.com ) - it takes 16bit 44.1khz files, analyses them chunk by chunk and gives you great suggestions for eq, multiband compressor etc. the programmer likes ozone, too, so the suggestions can be made to match ozone a little.

so far i've only been demoing it, but really like the results. it also has inbuilt dsp for when you get really lazy.

nth1739 · Post by **nth1739** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 4:26 pm

wow that program looks really interesting, im going to try the demo when I get home

It almost sounds too good to be true. I wonder how to catagorize the style I should try?

Maybe you could listen and give a suggestion of the style to try fabi since you have been using AAMS some already: http://pages.sbcglobal.net/sholden/uplo ... 072206.mp3

Also feedback about the current state of the mix would be appreciated as well, no vocals have been applyed as of yet

fabi · Post by **fabi** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 5:13 pm

i will try to give some suggestions when i have the time, but i'm on the way out the door, right now.
i think bduffy also uses the program. might confuse him with someone else, though.

Spyro · Post by **Spyro** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 2:27 am

A tip:

Put the CD Master preset, tweak a bit the highs on the eQ, tweak a bit the multiband limiter then try to get a good volume with the Master Limiter.

nth1739 · Post by **nth1739** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 5:21 pm

thanks for the tip Spyro, Ill try that. I must say using AAMS is teaching me alot already just about proper EQing. My mix has to many low rumbles and WAY too much super high trebs. Its a cool tool to help teach yourself what your spectrum should look like and how to get it there. Thanks for the recommendation fabi.

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