iZotope Ozone 4 (Mac/Win) Review

Jun 1, 2009 12:00 PM, By Michael Cooper

           
 

A FEATURED-PACKED MASTERING PLUG-IN AT A MODEST PRICE

Ozone's Multiband Stereo Imaging module can make your mix's stereo width either wider or narrower in each of up to four frequency bands. For example, I could collapse the bass frequencies to mono to add focus to a mix's bottom end and simultaneously widen the highs for a bigger soundstage.

The Loudness Maximizer module gives you a choice of four different types of digital and analog-modeled limiters. Adjust the threshold, margin, and release controls to reduce peaks and increase the average loudness of your mix (see Web Clip 1). Ozone provides an assortment of dithering and noise-shaping options, too.

Reading the Meter

No mastering program would be complete without a full arsenal of meters and analysis tools. Ozone 4 offers far more than just traditional I/O and gain-reduction metering.

The plug-in's I/O meters can be switched to show either stereo or mid-side levels. You can adjust or completely defeat the peak-hold time. The meters can be made to detect intersample peaks that might otherwise go unnoticed on traditional, digital peak meters and therefore cause distortion.

Choose RMS or peak ballistics, or have the meters show both levels at once. Alternatively, you can choose K-System metering with simultaneous peak and RMS displays. K-System metering offers three different scales and associated headroom references that are tied to standardized monitoring levels (that is, for use with monitors producing a known, fixed SPL at the mix position). Its purpose is to provide consistent perceived loudness and preserve dynamic range in music produced for different applications (such as CD release, film, or broadcast).

Ozone's dithering section allows you to filter out headroom-robbing DC offset and see on a dedicated meter how many decibels of DC signal have been removed. A separate bit meter alerts you when unwanted word-length truncation occurs upstream of Ozone and confirms you are dithering properly for your destination format. (See the online bonus material for more about Ozone's metering and spectrum-analysis tools.)

Kudos and Dings

Ozone's paragraphic EQ sounds excellent. However, the type of filter chosen for each band and its active or bypassed state must be the same for both mid and side channels. This limitation makes it impossible to prevent an activated highpass or lowpass filter in one channel from altering the response of the other. (Other filter types can have their gain settings nulled as a workaround.)

In addition, Ozone 4.03 doesn't provide master level controls for mid and side signals. Instead, you must rebalance the mid and side channels (if desired) by using processing in one of the M-S-capable modules to effect gain changes. I found the most transparent way of doing this was to null all the controls in the Multiband Dynamics module and then adjust the separate global gain controls for that module's mid and side channels.

The mastering reverbs, stereo imaging, and harmonic exciter all sound great. The latter, when used frugally, can add wonderful size and luster to a flat, dimensionless mix.

In addition to mastering, you can also use Ozone to process individual tracks or subgroups on buses. The plug-in is a CPU hog, however, and drained 55 percent of my 8-core Mac Pro's CPU resources with all of Ozone's modules and displays in use. I could reduce that drain to just under 25 percent by using only three modules at once, limiting multiband processors to just one band, and disabling all dynamic displays except the I/O meters. Anyone who uses all six modules at once is probably going overboard and ruining his mixes, anyway.

Ozone's learning curve is steep, but anyone who ventures beyond the presets will be rewarded with sophisticated mastering capabilities. Thankfully, the HTML-based owner's manual (the only available documentation) is very thorough. Ozone 4 offers high-quality sound and a boatload of features at a bargain-basement price.

EM contributing editor Michael Cooper is the owner of Michael Cooper Recording in Sisters, Ore. Hear some of Cooper's mastering work at www.myspace.com/michaelcooperrecording.