Question for Ozone Gurus and/or Enthusiasts

[Mind Riot]

Picked up Ozone 9 Advanced for a song recently, and I'm wondering if you gentlemen could give me a rundown on the characteristics and strengths and weaknesses of the Maximizer's various IRC limiting options. I know some of them have a pop up window with brief summation, but some don't and I'd like to understand things in some more depth.

Thank you all in advance for sharing your knowledge.

[Spring Goose]

There is this, from another thread:

2. Set your Mode to "IRC IV - Transient" - This will provided you with the greatest detail and clarity. You can also explore Classic and Modern and see how they sound to you. I would avoid the IRC I, II and III settings, as they tend to have more character to them (distortion, pumping, less detailed sound, etc)

viewtopic.php?f=62&t=541459

[telecharge]

The IRC modes are outlined here: https://s3.amazonaws.com/izotopedownloa ... index.html

[Mind Riot]

Thanks for sharing guys.

Do you have any personal opinions of any of these settings from your own experience using them?

[Spring Goose]

I make dance music. Personally i like the IRC I, II, and III settings, it sounds like 1990s!

But recently i was using TDR Limiter 6, then Newfangled Elevate, both of which i prefer the "flavour" of compared to Ozone. Later i'll probably return to Ozone for some of my songs. I'm quite prolific and i like to have a variety/choice of "flavours".

The aforementioned IRC IV setting, sounds posh to my ears.

[simon.a.billington]

The alternative is choosing IRC modes based on what they are doing aesthetically to the mix. Some productions work well with razor sharp transients, while others sound better with something more mellow, chill or lofi as an example...

Providing there is still some transients left to work with.

[telecharge]

Do you have any personal opinions of any of these settings from your own experience using them?

It really depends on the context of the audio you're working with and what you're trying to accomplish.

Here's an actual iZotope Ozone guru talking about IRC modes starting at 12:36...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ze-ZrAzu8uA

[Mind Riot]

Thanks for the opinions and links, fellows. Enlightening stuff, just the kind of thing I was looking for.

But don't let that stop anyone from continuing to share.

[discogsaddict]

Always going to be subjective. For what its worth i prefer IRC III and many happy clients.. Mostly working on the harder side of electronic\dance music.

For softer material i would say IRC IV is a better option. I never hit them very hard.. In fact 99% of the time better results come from loading 2 instances (doing less GR) rather than smashing just 1

[Mind Riot]

Always going to be subjective. For what its worth i prefer IRC III and many happy clients.. Mostly working on the harder side of electronic\dance music.

I'm working on what I would say is hard rock and metal, except no screaming or guttural crap. One might call it old fashioned, from the times when a song could be extremely heavy but still have someone singing over it. I guess I'm a '90's guy.

For softer material i would say IRC IV is a better option. I never hit them very hard.. In fact 99% of the time better results come from loading 2 instances (doing less GR) rather than smashing just 1

Now there's something I've never tried before. Of course, I'm not doing softer material (though I do have some). What happens when you layer two limiters on harder stuff? Explosion? Rape? General pandemonium? People screaming in the streets about the world ending?

[discogsaddict]

Hahaha
Well I actually meant to say stacking 2 works best for dance or electronic/hard music.
I can't say I've worked on metal but for genres like drum and bass, hardcore, hard techno etc I find it much better for reaching the loudness requested without the artifacts or pumping associated with heavy limiting. Experiment having different settings on each or even 2 different plugins

[Mind Riot]

I'll do some experimenting and see what I come up with. I'm also going to try some mastering compressors and clippers up front and see if I like the results.

[plexuss]

Learn the characteristics, strengths and weaknesses of each tool and how they work together. If you are starting from scratch or early beginner, start with utube videos etc. It will take some time because it comes down to knowing what you want to achieve and using the tools to get there vs the tools getting there for you (the tools wont get there for you).