Ozone 8 Advanced vs FabFilter Mastering Bundle

[aparkerm]

I have an offer to crossgrade to Ozone 8 Advanced for $199 right now. I'm temped but I could also just wait a few months for FabFilter to go on sale, thoughts?

[hlecram]

Matter of taste imo. Personally I would go the fabfilter route because you get a specialized plugin of every kind, makes it easier to work with in the mixer. I also think the usability advantage goes to fabfilter as well. You should keep in mind, that if you are going the ff route, new plugins get even more affordable thanks to their friendly „custom bundle discounts „ , izotope doesn’t have a good reputation in this regards - talking bout update prices for loyal users... when it comes to sound, both play in the same league, just with different tastes.

Edit: oops... I didn’t realized that you get the modules as separate plugins in o8 advanced, so makes my first argument kinda pointless

[mrj1nx]

Maybe someone who has ozone advanced can comment regarding the latency of the individual plugins in latest Ozone Advanced. Back with Ozone 6 adv i recall those came with quite a bit of latency, so I judged them to not be usable during production. May have been that there were settings I missed that caused the latency. I still have O6A but only using Insight. I use the ff bundle when mixing/producing.

[generaldiomedes]

Its nice having presets which pull in the whole mastering chain at once in Ozone, and the tonal balance control does speed up workflow. However, it is a resource hog, and individually the FabFilter plugs stack up better IMO - nicer looking GUI, re-sizable, more options.

I own Ozone and have only demo'd Fabfilter plugs. Actually will probably sell my Ozone license as I just don't use it.

[Yorrrrrr]

FabFilter

[vitocorleone123]

In my experience:

Ozone = great and very comprehensive, but you're probably going to live (and die) inside it's comfy walls, even though you can use the plugins separately.

Fabfilter = fantastic, but you need to have a better idea of what you're doing as the plugins don't really talk to each other like Ozone (Q3 has started a side conversation, though).

[lwj]

How is this even a contest.
It's not that Ozone is bad.. it's really not. It's just that Fabfilter is much, much better. And are a much nicer company to deal with. Izotope has a complex business model revolving around staggered bundles and pricing, extensive marketing. They're not selling you a set of tools, they're selling the dream of mastering with the masters, channel strips that'll do your mixing for you.. and even have all of that analog mojo at the press of the button. They also have a habit of abandoning products (stutter edit, breaktweaker, trash (?)) or releasing really half-baked ones (Neutron, Vocalsynth) only to quickly follow them up with slightly improved versions..

Fabfilter's business model just seems to revolve around happy customers. There's the dynamic discount, referral discount, sales. The plugins don't become obsolete and when they do upgrade you get a cheap offer. You feel like you're getting something that's as good as they can make it, they're not holding back for the 'advanced' version or next years upgrade. So in the long run I think even the price-argument falls apart.

Aside from that, I think the plug-ins are just better. But that's where it gets subjective.

[Elektronisch]

1. Set your goals what you need
2. Test the demos

I dont have ozone, but i did test it, its great, for mastering id pick up ozone bundle myself (but i like t-racks more so i got t-racks max), main reason it comes with standalone application and if you are rendering the same track multiple times during mixing its really useful. But if you dont have such workflow and dont do alot of renders in the final mixing stage process just look what you feel comfortable most.

[enCiphered]

Excellent points from everyone so far. I would like to add that if you are about to master at 96kHz, Ozone is almost inapplicable and will likely not work for you, unless you have a very good computer or workstation.

[dandezebra]

Fabfilter for me too. I've not tried Ozone much but I have zero complaints about FF products, the company, pricing, or fantastic tutorials. The pdf manuals' font is a shade too light - there, a complaint. Ha!

[_ZzaJ_]

Fabfilter for sure.

I have Ozone 8, neutron 2, nectar 3 and Vocalsynth 2. However, as my project is getting larger, I tend not to use any izotope product at all. It is cpu heavy, too comprehensive, the tonal balance thing is not that good when you really realize how to balance all the frequencies.

[SoundPorn]

So are we comparing the price range of what you get right? So Ozone 8 Advanced for $199 compared to one FF plugin for $199 isn't a competition at all. And no Izotope isn't selling the dream of mastering like a masters engineer, FF is doing that, Izotope is selling you a product that will master it for you lol. Big big difference. And for online uploads its more than good enough. Ozone is better than most of the online mastering services.

[drdriller]

Izotope plugins are cpu hog for no reason except bad development.

[WasteLand]

1. Set your goals what you need
2. Test the demos

I dont have ozone, but i did test it, its great, for mastering id pick up ozone bundle myself (but i like t-racks more so i got t-racks max), main reason it comes with standalone application and if you are rendering the same track multiple times during mixing its really useful. But if you dont have such workflow and dont do alot of renders in the final mixing stage process just look what you feel comfortable most.

i fully agree. i have also t-racks 5, a monster of frankenstein "max", all processors, but from different places. that has become my mastering suite. it sits well with the music i make, ozone is great, but t-racks works better for me. personal. so demo! as always. but some guidance, i ask it too, is sometimes helpfull. for the different options, especially.

EDIT: and i remember now that Elektronisch was the firestarter for IKM t-racks, but that is beside the point.

[HighEndMastering]

To each their own.

I find little use in Ozone beyond some simple utility here and there.
Fabfilter arguably has better versatility overall and in my opinion better quality.