Izotope Ozone 9 advanced or IK T-Racks 5 MAX

[WasteLand]

^ let's say for a moment that you can always get an update/upgrade for $100 ... Ozone gets a major version every 2 years = $50 yearly 'subscription' in disguise for just 1 piece of software! attaboy! .. not everybody will update for every single version, no problem for them... the updates are usually not $100 so they win more + they have many other products .. probably the most attractive price is their upgrade to bundles and they make that look sensational because they know... the user pays the price over and over again in the long run...

That’s a good point!

Do IK charge for upgrades each time a new version of T-Racks gets released?

they do, but beauty of it, if you install the free t-racks version, all your "processors", that's how they call them, plugins, are updated for free.
i mean i have the CSR collection (reverbs, great ones by the way) a version that is almost 10 years old.
you install t-racks 5 (free), you get the new versions, i.e. 5.

the only thing: the t-racks 5 free does not support plugin resizing.. you get a few new plugins for free..

i own all plugins of IK multimedia, for t-racks 5. it is a monster of frankenstein, old versions, bought here on KVR, and a group buy, that together create a full t-racks 5. of course i needed the t-racks 5 deluxe. only the tape machines i do not own. i have the leslie, that max doesn't have...

long story. but your plugins will update with every new version (in t-racks 5 free with a limitation, maybe in a next version with resizing.)

and i use t-racks 5 instead of ozone. a choice born out of the reverb collection, and that i like the plugins. the t-racks 5 standalone program isn't that "cool" like ozone, but it does the job, and you can make chains, parallel chains even. i like the sound. the stealth limiter is great, for instance (not for the sound, but it preserves dynamics in a great way, it can infuence the sound, but i only use as the last processor in the chain. but many times it is only one... i master in the mix, as i call it. o well everyone has its own way.)

it is what you like and want. ozone to me seems great, but i have the element versions (they were free, or for 10 dollar..) do not use them, except RX. i have iris 2 and trash 2 which i really like.

ozone has the advantage of working together with neutron, if am right.

but i have other solutions for neutron that serves me well (cubase.. meldaproduction..).

the assistance stuff can be usefull, me thinks, but it is nothing for me. especially because my music does not react well to AI stuff...

so no izotope hater, on the contrary, it seems to me great stuff.

but t-racks 5, i like. good metering by the way, also important.

[loungepanda]

That's exactly one of the reasons why I probably won't bother even checking out any iZotope news in the future ever again. They seem to always try to milk their customers for more and more money.

+ They made persistent bugs and intentional extra CPU usage part of their marketing campaign it seems.. to seem like the newer version will be always better, more streamlined and faster.... I also was duped by iZotope to upgrade my 5 standard to 8 Advanced for a 'crazy low' price.... but v8 remains VERY buggy/crashy and slow! Probably the best 'last' version is 5... before they started all these 'next level' marketing shenanigans. anyway, I'm currently disappointed with them and stopped using Ozone, although I must admit that I'm still using the tone balance control module from time to time as it's very useful, looking for a replacement tho..

Ozone is overall a good software... what a shame..

Id say instead of aiming for an 'all-in-one' solution. Learn as much as possible about mastering and carefully select individual pieces, in the long run, I think it's best as you end up with the best of tools and most suited for you and your workflow.

Same here- Bought the bundle primarily for Neutron (largely useless without the performance improvements, by the way) and Ozone. Now if I want to upgrade, to what I see as a point update (certainly in the case of Neutron), I have to pay 195$ (sales price). No option in my account to crossgrade/downgrade to the Tonal Balance Bundle either, so that's really great.

If I had to make the choice of mix/mastering suite now I'd pick T-Racks, Fabfilter, Waves or some combination of plugins from smaller developers like TDR, Toneboosters etc.

[dickiefunk]

Thought I'd post another update. I've decided to go with IK T-Racks 5 MAX as I could buy this for £112 saving me £67. I may end up using this to get the T-Racks Tape Collection.

[Calenberger]

Grapes or Raisins?

[escalona]

Thought I'd post another update. I've decided to go with IK T-Racks 5 MAX as I could buy this for £112 saving me £67. I may end up using this to get the T-Racks Tape Collection.

I've owned every izotope product until the last version (ozone 8 / neutron 2). I found uses for it here and there, but overall, I realized I would stop using them in favor of other, more known-to-me tools (I grew up working with all analog stuff and a million patch cables). I'm sure izotope's new stuff is great and you don't even have to worry about mixing, as it seems like it will now do it for you. Great stuff, but not for me. So I will not be upgrading any time soon (or at all).
On the other hand, as old and tacky as the IK stuff is, I actually love getting an eq here and a compressor there every now and then, and compare to some of my newer, fancier tools. Sometimes, they still give me that "je ne sais quoi" that happens to work well for the task at hand.
If you're thinking to use one or the other exclusively, I would go with the IK -somewhat reluctantly- possibly just because I'm an old timer, but honestly either one will give you all you need to do a decent job. And you don't always have to upgrade to the latest izotope version.

[AdvancedFollower]

I use Ozone 9 Standard for mastering and a lot of T-Racks for mixing. Works well for me since O9 is optimised for mastering while T-Racks is a great varied collection of mixing plugins.

[Ploki]

those two look completely different tho. izotope has some pretty unique tools and less "vintage" shit, and Tracks looks like bunch of vintage modelled units.

I bought Ozone 9 for completely different reasons i'd buy T-racks5 for, if i had the need for it.
I love the Maximizer, the Imager, and Exciter.
Everything else doesn't phase me. It's good, i just don't need it.

[Symphony Sid]

Les Paul or Stratocaster?????

[dickiefunk]

I have been working with T-Racks during the past few days and have to say I am loving it so far. Whilst I liked Ozone 8 advanced a lot I prefer the sound on the final results I’m getting with T-Racks.

[skyman88882002]

I know this is an old thread but I appreciate the discussion. You all helped me outa lot in deciding between isotope and T-racks.

[dickiefunk]

I've been working with T-Racks 5 Max for almost a year and a half now and I'm appreciating it more and more! Also, the newer modules are even better. I'm loving Sunset Sound Reverb, Tape Machines and the Space Delay addons plus the demo of their latest Comprexxor is great as well!
I am really glad I decided to invest in T-Racks 5 MAX and look forward to seeing how it will continue to grow

[Burillo]

i would honestly pick Ozone, even though i do own the majority of T-Racks modules, love them and have been using it since version 2. Ozone just seems like a better and more focused package - T-Racks is just a bunch of analog emulations thrown together. multiband stuff is better in Ozone, there is a dynamic EQ which isn't in T-Racks, and although i like T-Racks compressors better, it's not like Ozone's compressor is bad. OK, T-Racks has reverbs, but i rarely use those anyway. all in all, if i were to forced to give up either entirety of T-Racks or entirety of Ozone, i would rather do without T-Racks than without Ozone.

iZotope have royally shot themselves in the foot with their subscription model, but as it stands, Ozone 9 Advanced is a fairly complete package that stands on its own and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

[AdvancedFollower]

Love T-RackS 5 Max for mixing. That's when you really just want an assorted collection of analog emulations, so you can load up what best suits each track. While I believe T-RackS started as a mastering package, it feels more like a set of mixing plugins these days. It's what I switched to after dumping Waves

I use Ozone 9 Standard for mastering. I agree with the above, they have reached a dead-end as far as my continued loyalty goes (I refuse to rent 1's and 0's), but I will keep using O9S for mastering as long as it works (OS updates breaking stuff or whatever). Why fix something that isn't broken? Since I don't use it for mixing, I don't need access to the individual modules as plugins, so the Standard version works fine.

[crickey13]

I've already replaced Ozone with Voxengo plugins. Maybe I should part with my Ozone license, I just don't care about them or their products anymore.

[Ploki]

i did just that.
you can pry voxengo from my cold dead hands tho