Izotope's do-everything mastering suite expands again, with a new Advanced version offering even more user control. In Ozone 5 Advanced, the modules can be run within the main plug-in, as here showing the EQ, or as separate plug-ins, as shown in the other screen shots. Ozone 5 Advanced is the latest incarnation of Izotope's well-established mastering suite, and now comprises seven modules: Maximizer, Equalizer, Multi-band Dynamics, Multi-band Stereo Imaging, Meter Bridge, Multi-band Harmonic Exciter and Reverb.
All are now available as separate component plug-ins, as well as within the master Ozone 5 plug-in, which combines access, routing and control for all the individual processing sections, and for the new Meter Bridge. The standard version of Ozone 5 has no Meter Bridge and no way to use the components separately, but otherwise offers most of the same functionality. User-configurable meters provide additional display options showing spectrum, phase, vectorscope and level histograms, where you can, for example, see a history of compressor gain reduction scrolling. Even the loudness meters have been upgraded to show levels according to BS 1770-2, EBU, K-System and True Peak standards, as well as RMS, with the various types available from within the Options section of the plug-in, along with other key settings and preferences. Module presets saved in earlier incarnations of Ozone will open in the separate component plug-ins of Ozone 5 Advanced, so there should be no backwards compatibility issues. The designers also claim to have improved the processing algorithms, including their analogue modelling and the new IRC III limiter used in the Maximizer section.
The hybrid Reverb module has also benefited from an extensive makeover, with new room models added, while the Exciter can now emulate different types of analogue distortion based on tape, tubes and so on. Also on the upgrade list are new and easier-to-access presets, improved signal routing and additional controls. As the upgrade is so comprehensive, I'll look at each of the modules in turn. The new 3D scrolling Meter Bridge is only available in the Advanced version of Ozone 5. Perhaps the most visually distinctive upgrade is the Meter Bridge, which provides a real-time 3D spectrogram that includes Freeze and Zoom modes as well as a 2D option. The display is interactive, so that the user can, for example, inspect gain values by holding the mouse pointer over the relevant section.
It is also possible to monitor multiple audio stream spectrograms using Ozone Advanced's Meter Tap plug-ins. All you have to do is add Meter Tap plug-ins to the individual tracks or buses you wish to monitor, then select them for viewing in the Meter Bridge: each track's contribution is overlaid in a different colour.
You can also meter information relating to the stereo image and mono compatibility of your mix with Lissajous and Polar modes, a stereo balance meter and a correlation meter. Free download greek sheet music. The individual modules are mainly four-band processors, in which case the band boundaries may be adjusted by dragging them in the display.
Input and output level controls, along with metering, are found to the right of the window, with an overall processing horizontal slider below. This standardised layout makes the modules very easy to navigate. Small buttons may be used to switch between two alternative meter scalings, with further buttons to select L/R or M/S metering where appropriate. Lock buttons may be activated to prevent further changes in this section. Harmonic enhancers are by no means new. Aphex pioneered the concept with their Aural Exciter, where controlled distortion was applied to a filtered version of the input signal before it was dynamically processed and added back to the original dry signal. Ozone's take sees the audio split into four user-adjustable frequency bands that can be processed separately, using a distortion type selected from three tube styles (including a new triode emulation mode), tape-modelled saturation, or transistor saturation, with mix controls for each band.
There's also an M/S processing option allowing different degrees of enhancement to be applied to the middle and sides signals before recombination into stereo. In addition to harmonic enhancement, it's also possible to fine-tune the timing between the four bands, rather in the manner of the BBE Sonic Maximizer, which can help preserve the attack transients of low-frequency sounds. An Oversampling button employs more accurate processing at the expense of CPU overhead (any process that creates distortion without using oversampling runs the risk of generating aliasing artifacts, though these are not always audible). A meter at the top of the module shows the signal spectrum, or may be switched to display saturation: the spectrum is displayed in green, with the frequencies being affected by the saturation process shaded in black. Used carefully, this plug-in is able to add warmth, brilliance or density to a mix, although you have to take care not to overdo things and make the end result sound messy or harsh.
You can probably afford to use more intensive processing on individual tracks such as drums, bass or electric guitar. I like having a choice of saturation options, though, and each has a distinctly different tonal character. Ozone's four-band Dynamics module is hugely versatile, especially in the Advanced version. Again offering a four-band approach to processing, Dynamics comprises analogue-modelled compression, limiting, gating and expansion. Once more, there's an M/S option to allow different processing to be applied to the centre and edges of a stereo mix and, of course, there's improved metering. Compression can be hard, soft or variable-knee (the last in the Advanced version only), and there's an Automatic Gain Compensation system that makes it easier to evaluate the effects of compression without being misled by level differences. The metering includes histogram options as well as the Gain Reduction Trace meter mentioned earlier.
Each band has its own set of controls, which can be viewed at the same time if you select the global view, though I found this left the screen looking too busy with very small text. Selecting the Band view and then using the four band buttons, or clicking in the display to navigate between them, felt more comfortable to me, but at least you have the option. Gain and Mix settings may be switched to global or per-band mode, and there's also a wet/dry mix control for setting up parallel compression.
A Linked Bands mode allows changes to be made across all bands by adjusting the settings of one band. The metering also includes a Dynamic Curve view showing both the input and output signals on two axes. Overall, I was impressed by the sonic transparency of this section used in a mastering context, as you can apply quite significant amounts of compression before the processing becomes in any way obvious. Operation was as straightforward as for any multi-band dynamics processor I've used before, and my overall impression was that it sounded very musical. Being a multi-band compressor, it is also useful for problem-solving such as reducing the level of popping or sibilance on individual tracks. No less comprehensive is the EQ module, which can emulate both analogue filters and linear-phase filters, with the flexibility to combine both types. Version 5 sees the addition of new filter shapes in analogue mode, including flat (Butterworth), low- and high-pass, 'brickwall' low- and high-pass, and vintage shelving filters, the latter inspired by the Pultec design.
In all, there are eight filter bands that can be set to bell, high-pass, low-pass, or high or low shelf, with a spectrum analyser available to view the stereo signal in L/R or M/S modes. Ozone 5 Advanced's digital mode now features three selectable phase modes: Minimum, Linear and Mixed. Linear-phase filters give rise to equal degrees of pre- and post-ringing on transients, while minimum-phase algorithms apply only post-ringing, like analogue designs.
Mixed phase mode enables each band to have its phase response adjusted between minimum phase (-1), linear phase (0), and maximum phase (+1). Note, though, that the maximum-phase filter places all ringing before the transient, making it the most obvious of the filter types. In addition to its comprehensive manual EQ facilities, Izotope's Match mode is also included, so that one audio signal can be equalised to match the spectrum of another, using up to 8000 linear-phase filters. It is also possible to use the emulated analogue EQ for matching, and to my ears this often sounds more musical. The procedure is to capture a couple of audio snapshots from your source and reference audio files, then you click radio buttons to show which should be made to match which. Press Match and a matching curve is overlaid on the EQ display alongside the snapshot spectra, but this display may be disabled to conserve CPU resources.
The Matching EQ works alongside the conventional EQ so it is still possible to apply conventional EQ to the matched sound, and as with most match EQ plug-ins, you can adjust the degree of matching and apply smoothing to the matching curve. One thing that had me fooled at first was that the Amount slider applies only to the conventional EQ settings, not the Match curve. I also experienced some odd behaviour in Logic when using the plug-in on a mono bus, where it still seemed possible to create different left and right EQ settings, which then caused the stereo image to shift — weird, as the bus was set to mono. Overall, though, this turned out to be a very capable EQ, with a very effective Match mode. The multi-band Stereo Imaging module offers the ability to apply different amounts of stereo image enhancement to up to four frequency bands, including adding different small delays to each band. Stereo recordings may be narrowed as well as widened, again with some visually impressive metering to display your results. My own Drawmer Masterflow mastering processor has a three-band stereo width page, and I find this very useful for narrowing the width of low frequencies that might otherwise sound wrong in mono, while subtly widening frequencies higher up the spectrum.
A scrolling correlation trace is drawn in real time, in addition to the semi-circular vectorscope. A mono-compatible Stereoize effect is included in the Advanced version only, for processing mono or very narrow stereo sources to create an artificial sense of width.
Few details are given on how this works, but I suspect it uses the familiar system of complementary comb filters on either side of the mix. Being able to delay the four bands separately makes possible subtle realignment of the frequency bands and can add focus and definition to transients. This module is easy to operate and achieves the desired result with no fuss. It's only a single-band algorithm, but Ozone 5's Maximizer is nevertheless a very transparent limiter. As its name suggests, the Maximizer is there to make mixes sound louder while doing the least sonic damage.
This is not a multi-band process and has no M/S processing capability, although the output meters can still be set to read M/S levels. Its limiters are designed to minimise gain pumping on transients, and in the three IRC limiting modes a Character control (in essence, a limiter speed) helps optimise the Maximizer's response to the source material, while a Transient Recovery feature, available only in the Advanced version, protects transients when limiting is taking place. Five modes are offered to tailor the process to the material being worked on and to the tastes of the user. The first three (IRC, IRC I and IRC II) are digital processes that rely on psychoacoustic principles to preserve clarity and transient definition when the Maximizer is being pushed hard; Hard and Soft modes offer more traditional analogue-style limiting, with the Soft algorithm achieving a smoother sound at the expense of some overshoot. When the Maximizer is set to Soft or Hard mode, the release time is adjustable, while in IRC mode you can activate and adjust the transient recovery feature and the release slider is replaced by the Character slider.
An inter-sample detection option can be activated to avoid the possibility of inter-sample clipping. The psychoacoustic IRC processing modes are said to be quite CPU-hungry, although they don't make too much of a dent in a relatively modern computer's capabilities. My early Mac Pro coped fine, with plenty of power in hand.
Again, there's comprehensive metering, including spectrum and histogram views, with the option to work in stereo linked mode. Dither, when active, is applied to the signal independently of the Maximizer, and three dither types can be selected. There's the option to remove DC offset and even a dynamic display of bit usage. Although the limiter is fairly conventional in use, with the familiar threshold and maximum output level sliders, it certainly seems capable of hitting the peaks quite hard without causing any obvious detrimental effects. Reverb isn't an effect you'd always want to add when mastering, but it can certainly be a valuable tool. The concept of a mastering reverb is a strange one: in an ideal world, reverb would be added to individual tracks prior to mixing. However, you occasionally get a track that simply sounds too dry, and then you need a specialised reverb to add life without making the mix muddy.
Ozone's hybrid reverb combines convolution and algorithmic technologies; the early reflections are captured from real spaces using convolution, then married to an adjustable algorithmic reverb tail. In addition to a useful selection of room types, there's a plate mode based on the classic EMT 140 and an M/S option allows reverb to be added selectively and independently to the middle and sides components of a mix. This is particularly useful in a mastering context, as it allows the centre signals to be left dry if required, while still adding some 'reverb gloss' to sounds panned left or right. A Crossmix control in the Advanced version adjusts stereo spread by controlling how much reverb is fed to the opposite channel, and pre-delay can be applied to the wet sound. The reverb types on offer are Room, Plate, Hall, Theatre, Cathedral and Arena, the last three being unique to Ozone 5 Advanced. Because the reverb tail is algorithmic, its decay time can be adjusted — with controls for high- and low-frequency decay — without affecting early reflections. High and low EQ controls are adjustable using drag points in the spectrum display.
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The window at top of the screen shows the signal spectrum by default, but there's a Reverb Character view that shows the shape of the reverb decay. The control setup is extremely simple, and the only omission I noticed was the lack of a separate level control for the reverb tail. This means you can have a tail with no early reflections, but not just the early reflections without the reverb tail — which I would have liked to try. Auditioning the various spaces shows that the tonality of the reverb tail has been matched to that of the early reflections, and, with the exception of the plate, which has quite a subtle early reflections contribution, room character comes across strongly when the early reflection level is close to maximum.
Used in moderation, the Room and Theatre settings add a welcome degree of life to a mix, although I suspect that most convolution reverbs would be capable of doing the job just as well. I do, however, welcome the M/S feature, as that allows a useful degree of control over which parts of the mix have reverb added to them and which don't. This module is particularly CPU-intensive, taking almost half a 'core' of my dual quad-core Mac Pro running at 44.1kHz. The Stereoize option in the Imager process is new and exclusive to the Advanced version. Ozone 5 Advanced certainly provides a powerful set of mastering tools, made all the more useful by the multi-band and/or M/S capability of some, although many users will find the basic Ozone 5 perfectly adequate, given the price differential. The 3D metering is nothing if not eye-catching, while the consistent layout of the modules is designed to make the user very familiar with the controls in the minimum of time. Izotope have a reputation for effective and good-sounding plug-ins, which Ozone 5 upholds, and they've included very useful tools that are often missing from competing mastering software, such as multi-band stereo width control and multi-band saturation.
There are many good mastering products on the market today, but few offer so many facilities in such an approachable package, and the additional features and improvements will be welcomed by users upgrading from earlier versions. Izotope Ozone 5 Advanced £669 $999 pros. Extremely comprehensive set of mastering tools. Multi-band and M/S capability available where relevant. Plenty of user options to cater for any musical taste.
Cons. Some of the processes are fairly CPU-intensive and so may not be best suited to older computers. Big price difference between Ozone 5 and Ozone 5 Advanced. Summary If you want to get really forensic about your mastering work, Ozone 5 Advanced provides all the right tools without making things over-complicated. All contents copyright © SOS Publications Group and/or its licensors, 1985-2018. All rights reserved. The contents of this article are subject to worldwide copyright protection and reproduction in whole or part, whether mechanical or electronic, is expressly forbidden without the prior written consent of the Publishers.
Great care has been taken to ensure accuracy in the preparation of this article but neither Sound On Sound Limited nor the publishers can be held responsible for its contents. The views expressed are those of the contributors and not necessarily those of the publishers.
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Spectral Shaper Smooth and sculpt problematic and harsh frequencies with the new Spectral Shaper module. Mold your audio by applying frequency-specific dynamics, surgically or creatively, to create smooth, balanced audio. Fantastic for taming percussive transients, Spectral Shaper can tame sibilant hi-hats, harsh vocals, plucky acoustic guitars, and other overly bright mix elements. For a creative twist, use Spectral Shaper across any frequency band to experiment with timbre, resonance, and transient information without affecting other elements of the source audio.
It’s long been held that iZotope Ozone is a tool of the mastering engineer, a person steeped in arcane audio lore who exercises some kind of voodoo over final mixes in order to take them from passable to ear-gasmic. In doing so, obscure outboard (kit you could never afford) and in-box esoterica is brought to bear, its function beyond the ken of mere mortal project studio pilots. Mastering is, after all, the domain of an elite breed of engineer, scientist and audio wizard who, in another life, was a bat. What use, therefore, is a suite of mastering tools in the creative pursuits of tracking and mixing? The answer, in the way iZotope has engineered things, is: Lots. Ozone 5 Advanced breaks down into six processing components, each of which is as legitimately employed in the composition, arrangement, recording and mixing stages of music production as in the final meltdown prior to distribution. At launch, announced last October 2011, iZotope’s Nick Dika spoke of Ozone 5 Advanced as offering: “mixing and mastering engineers an even higher level of flexibility, precision and control.” Nick did not, however, mention muzos who are never happier than when appropriating whatever comes to hand and slapping it capriciously onto the audio canvas, our muses to indulge.
The UK print press seems to have taken to this 5th incarnation, speaking of it “keeping apace of today’s best mixing and mastering software” ; offering “a dazzling array of options for making your mixes sound great”; and toting “a feature set and performance that makes it a truly professional product”. OK, I’m going to keep the technical briefing brief - iZotope’s product page has the tech data you need to assess this upgrade to Ozone 4 (along with 10-day demo downloads), and direct existing v4 owners in the UK to distributor for details of upgrade deals in £Sterling. Talking about money, hmmm You could by a 64GB iPad with Wi-Fi and 3G for the price of Ozone 5 Advanced, so it may come as some relief that a ‘lite’ version is available offering a cut-down feature set at a more recession-friendly £169 (a feature comparison chart can be had on iZotope’s website). A quick tour of Advanced’s key features reveals analog-modelled processing (the means to imbue audio with warmth and bite) all adding to a mix’s punch and notional space, a revamped reverb, mid/side processing so you can tweak the centre and edges of a stereo panorama in isolation, and loads of visual feedback. Bounding through the modules, let’s first alight on the Maximizer.
Yup, it’s a limiter and features IRC III, aka Intelligent Release Control. The problem with limiting (a means of compressing peaks in a signal to bring up the surrounding quietude) is that it can introduce ‘pumping’, a rhythmical phenomenon that can interfere with, or sometimes contribute to, the beat of a track. Call On Me Mr Prydz, indeed. IRC III artificially intelligently picks the right algorithm for the programme material so as to introduce minimal artifacts and, in use, it does a splendid job. I was working on some old rock mixes that needed floor-filling oomph overall, but it being prog rock there were numerous tempo changes.
Ozone 5 Advanced copes admirably in a whole-mix scenario. However, thanks to the modular nature of the software’s design, I could take just the Maximizer and insert it on the kick drum and snare channels without invoking the entire suite. Placed on a single audio source, Maximizer makes it possible to add mucho beef to undercooked sounds, and is even good at the tracking stage. If you’ve a dynamically deranged vocalist, slap him or her through Maximizer and track a much richer-sounding source. With Advanced, meanwhile, there’s Transient Recovery, which emphasises transients and so preserves rhythmic detail when upping loudness, potentially transforming a TR-808 pattern into something that sounds far more wholesome than pathetically insipid. Ozone takes a twin-barreled approach to EQ with dual paragraphic equalizers combining eight bands of adjustable bell filters and a number of additional filters, including high-pass, low-pass, high and low shelving and flat.
So, you can get the initial signal shaped, pass it through additional processes and EQ the result later on. We’ve analog modelling if desired, or pristine digital linear-phase filtering, the effects of which are displayed in a real-time or snapshot spectrum analyzer. It does make your desk’s EQ functionality look a bit weedy. If ever you wanted to take a forensic approach to a mix, ensuring each component sits in strictly defined frequency bands in a given stereo position, this is the tool for the job.
It also makes that old mixing trick, the Q-sweep, a breeze. Reduce the volume, set a boost with a very narrow Q, play the source and move the boost from low to high. Anything overbearing will leap out at you suggesting notch reduction in the offending frequency band. Report on banking system. Ozone’s Reverb offers Plate, Room and Hall modes, while in its Advanced form presents Theater ( sic), Cathedral and Arena - all modes you’d expect from a capable ambience applicator.
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High and low-frequency decay times are individually adjustable and a cunning Mid/Side option enables you to ‘dry’ the centre of the mix while spacing out the edges. Again in Advanced, there’s a shiny new Early Reflections setting for finer control of that important third dimension of a mix, depth. If new to this mixing malarkey, it’s useful to think of a mix in three dimensions (we’ll ignore time as a fourth dimension - even Electro Harmonix hasn’t come up with a quantum stompbox. We’ve stereo positioning in, say, the X axis and frequency in the Y. Applying echo and/or reverb makes for yet another dimension (Z, perhaps), encouraging the human brain to perceive sound sources as right up close (very short, immediate reflections), or far away (a delay before the reflections begin to sound, then a long tail). The Early Reflections setting enables you to exercise fine control over suggested distance.
Also, in Advanced, we’ve a Crossmix control by which left and right balance can be adjusted. In all, Ozone 5 packs a highly tweakable reverb with a healthy dose of analog colour if required. On which topic. Dynamics is possibly the most alluring of the modules. It’s a four-band device giving you analog-modelled linear-phase and hybrid crossover filters for a compressing, limiting, expanding, gating armoury of gadgets that’ll doubtless find their ways into many an insert point. The bands are colour coded to help navigation and a Gain Reduction Trace view shows what is going on in all bands as the material plays. There’s even a Learn mode that’ll automatically set crossover frequencies in response to the incoming signal.
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The well-heeled opting for Advanced can also enjoy alias and artifact prevention technology, pump-reduction via a Detection Circuit Filter and a continuously variable knee control. If you’re a little lost at this point, let’s just say that Dynamics adds beef to lousy sounds and doesn’t introduce unwanted elements. It’s highly controllable, gives a lot of visual feedback and edges Ozone 5 further into must-have territory. If you need yet more oomph, it’s time to engage Ozone’s Harmonic Exciter. It adds bite or warmth to a signal by generating harmonics.
That’s also what a tube amplifier does and you’ll have noticed that guitarists are loath to part with their phat-sounding, valve-driven heads and combos. Also, a good many producers like to mix to analog tape to take advantage of its tonal characteristics.
Retro, Tape, Warm and Tube models feature in this multiband processor, and there’s a multiband time-offset facility to get bass elements biting. Advanced users can take analog modelling a stage further with Triode and Dual Triode modes - essentially, digital recreations of tube technology designed to subtly (or otherwise) distort the signal, but in a warmly pleasing way. Working with some lacklustre mixes of yesteryear, I’ve been using the Harmonic Exciter to liven things up, artificially adding harmonics to make the mixing equivalent of a silk purse. If you’ve a load of old tapes that just do not cut the mustard, this is the module for giving them an edge. And so we come to Stereo Imaging, a four-band processor offering control over stereo width by frequency.
The usual practice is to go wide with higher frequencies and narrow with lower, the latter being perceived as less directional (and if overloud, they can knock the stylus out of a vinyl groove). Having control over such a process, and the facility to monitor what precisely is going on in the stereo panorama, is a Very Good Thing. Potential phase cancellation problems can be headed off thanks to a Phase/Channel meter display, and there’s Antiphase Correction by which width can be added to any frequency band without you getting stumped by mono compatibility woes. In fact, in Advanced there’s a Stereoize Mode by which mono sources, or very narrow stereo, can be widened, again without compromising mono compatibility.
So that’s the majority of your radio audience serviced. And a few more width-lacking tracks from the archive (we’ve all got ‘em) hauled screaming into the 21st Century. You’ll have gathered by now that I’m something of an Ozone fan. Well, I have been using the product since v3 and it’s splattered all over everything I’ve produced in the past few years. My main concern with v5 was that iZotope may have broken too many eggs into the pudding and stodged it (some developers have been known to bloat their wares into near unusability, my Word).
To my ears, and preferred methods of workflow, such is not the case with Ozone 5 Advanced. This latest Ozone is a substantial improvement on what has long been a substantial processing package. Its modular presentation means you can instantiate just the elements needed on any particular channel or bus and become a lot more adventurous in sound sculpting. The question for most will hang over the price. At £669, it ain’t cheap.
Then again, you can get the altogether more svelte Ozone 5 at £169, which does pack a powerful punch. However, you’ll miss one of the best bits - the Meter Bridge.
It’s a collection of audio analysis tools that gives educative insight into what is wobbling your tympanic membranes. To see what I mean, cop for this. A real-time 2D or 3D spectrogram of your sound that uses the graphics card efficiently so as not to disturb the computer’s CPU.
And get those meter taps for yet more insight into how the audio is behaving. It has to be worth budgeting for Advanced just for that lot, perhaps starting out with the cut-down version and taking advantage of an upgrade deal when budget allows. It’ll also give you chance to smarten up your processing chops, such is the flexibility and sheer wealth of advanced options available.
There are numerous presets already on board to get you started, and much can be learned by delving into the editing options for each. One thing is for sure: Ozone 5 Advanced is going to be a go-to processing suite for many, from tracking and mixing to drumming up rough masters. I’m of the view that mission-critical mastering should be a task given to a disinterested third party and not embarked upon by whoever mixed the material.
That said, I personally would rest easy knowing that such a third party is using Ozone. Ozone Advanced 5 iZotope has been in the mastering game for many years and has had a competitive offering, but this latest release leapfrogs it beyond the competition in both sound quality and functionality. The Basics iZotope Ozone 5 is an all-in-one mastering plugin that offers EQ, harmonic excitation, stereo imaging, reverb, dynamics, maximizing, dithering, and metering. You can control the order of these effects and the exciter, imager, and dynamics modules can all have up to 4 bands and can share the same crossover matrix or use their own. New for Ozone 5 is the ability to put just about any module into mid-side mode and process the two completely separately. The Advanced version of the plugin allows each of these modules to be unbundled and used individually.
In my most recent project I’ve been able to successfully use dozens of these component plugins on individual tracks and busses. This greatly increases the value of the offering, as these plugins are so precise and flexible that you will find that you can use them in place of many other plugins. You’ll understand why as I go into details about each plugin. Maximizer Probably the crown jewel of Ozone 5 Advanced is possibly the best maximizer on the market. With the new IRC III (tweaked in 5.02), transient recovery, and stereo link, this maximize will give you all the punch you need with incredible clarity. Paired with the dynamics module you can be as loud as you want without turning your track into a sausage.
Dithering Ozone 5 has three types of dithering and several noise shaping modes. EQ The 8-band paragraphic equalizer is possibly the most powerful single EQ module I’ve seen. You can use it in analog mode (with “soft saturation”), digital linear and mixed phase mode, and a “surgical” mode that allows you to have the precision of digital but the saturation characteristics of analog. You can even control the phase of each filter. Additionally, a deep matching EQ allows you to sample the frequency characteristics of a target piece of music and apply them to your own tracks or master buss. Reverb The reverb includes several modes: room, theater, plate, hall, cathedral, and arena, and allows you to control pre-delay, ER, decay, low and high decay. You can even choose how tight the stereo field of any reverb is with their cross-mix and width controls.
The crossovers Before I get into the multiband modules, it’s important to note that iZotope spent a lot of time making the crossovers work. You can choose from analog modeled, linear phase, or hybrid (mixed mode) crossovers that can be fully adjusted including the Q of the crossover. You can also right-click on the crossover module and tell it to “learn” the music as it’s playing and it will choose the proper bands for you. Exciter The multiband exciter is essentially every analog emulation plugin you need bundled into one. This module is a sleeper because it comes clad in iZotope’s techy UI and doesn’t look like a classic piece of gear with a VU meter slapped on it. But if you dig into it, you can emulate just about anything. It has 6 saturation modes: Warm, Retro, Tape, Tube, Triode, and Dual Triode.
You can apply the saturation at different levels to up to four bands. Dynamics In one module, you have up to 4 bands of gating, compression, expansion and limiting.
This thing is infinitely twaekable. You can control attack, release, knee (hard or soft mode), and makeup across each band.
The visualization is particularly useful here, as there are several ways to monitor how gain reduction (or expansion) should be applied. My favorite is the histogram mode which iZotope inexplicably did not make the default for this version. Stereo Imager The stereo imager allows you to increase or decrease the width of any band. There is also a global delay and stereoize function.
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I have found this effect incredibly useful on tracks much more than the 2buss, as it helps me take sounds I want spread across the stereo field out of the way of the center channel instruments.