Ozone wrecks my daw workflow

[AdvancedFollower]

As machinesworking mentions, Render your mix as a stereo file without Ozone on the master buss.
Then open it in Ozone and use it as it's meant to be used.

You might want to watch a few video walkthroughs to show the workflow.
Good luck, it's a game changer when used correctly.

Wait so you are meant to mixdown the project to a wav, add the wav to a new project, and then use Ozone on the master for that one wav audio track?

that is how mastering should be done, over the the mixed down mix. If you are still tweaking the mix you are well.. mixing. separate the two.

I agree, however with the AI "feedback" in Ozone I find it can actually be beneficial to go back to the mix to fix some things. For example, the Dynamic EQ suggestions give you a good indication if some particular frequency is poking out (Ozone will go crazy trying to turn down those particular frequencies). While you can certainly fix that using the tools in Ozone, it might be more effective to simply go back to the mix and turn down the hihat that's causing the Dynamic EQ in Ozone to trigger in the first place. It's almost like having a second pair of ears when you can't get feedback on your mix from an actual human, as long as you read the AI clues correctly.

Of course if you're an experienced mixing/mastering engineer that step is completely unnecessary and probably counter productive.

[imrae]

A useful REAPER feature for this kind of thing are "subprojects" that let you put another mixing session into your mastering session like an audio clip. It will automatically re-render when changes are made.

Personally I lean more towards the "rock album" format than "beatport single" so for me mastering is all about helping several mixes sit together nicely and the two-step process is necessary.

I can see how if one's music all sounds roughly the same and is supposed to sound the same as "competitors" then it might make some sense to "master" in the project.

[maanga]

It is better to mix without any effect plugins in the master.
Only for mastering, use the required plugins and at a higher buffer size
Regards.

[SomethingSomeone]

I don't know, this project I'm doing now (which is smaller/less midi/cpu), I'm really enjoying the fullness of everything having ozone on while I'm doing the song. Everything comes out more and I feel like I can really get a feel for the sound of everything. I wouldn't start the song with it, but now that it's well established and 80% done, it feels like that final 20% push I want to have the feel and vibe of the final mix sound going while I'm still tweaking and writing. As long as it's not killing my cpu and ram and everything moves fine, which it is now in a smaller project, I like using it.

Also my daw has a "freeze" option where you can sort of mix down a track so it's just audio i suppose, or at least not actively using any plugins. If i want to make edits to the track then I need to unfreeze it. Works well overall and helps with cpu workflow