How do you like to set the loudness maximizer yourself, Nate? And what kind of stuff do you do with the exciter?
I do too.
Usually I run 2 instances of Ozone when mastering. The first instance is usually the exciter, limiter and EQ (if I use all 3)...The limiter is usually not doing a lot, perhaps adding volume. In this instance, it's usually 2nd or 3rd in my chain (after the audio being compressed with an SSL master bus comp and then a tape or tube saturation type plugin), and there isn't a ton of volume going into it. I usually set the threshold to maybe -2 or -3dB and I'm getting AT MOST
maybe 1dB gain reduction set to like 2 -4 on the horizontal slider underneath the vertical threshold slider (usual gain reduction is around .5dB). I usually don't run any of the bands of the exciter more than 1.3dB, either. From there I sometimes run into a clipper and then into my final instance of Ozone using just the limiter with the MBIT dither, with at most a threshold of -3dB with the horizontal slider set to 1 or 2. At this stage I get 1-2dB gain reduction. If the mix can take it, sometimes I'll run everything a little bit harder, but I don't usually try to push a final product past -10dB RMS in my mastering. And, sometimes I don't use the limiter at all in the first instance, instead relying on clipping and the last limiter to accomplish the same task.
I haven't used Ozone on a lot of stuff lately, simply because I had a Finalizer I used instead.
Rex, if you heard the Decimation Theory mix I did and/or the World of Shit mix I did, those were really the most recent mixes I used Ozone on, but those were both limiter and exciter only. And, it was my old Ozone 3. Since I've upgraded to 4, I think it sounds better overall (the EQ's, MBC, etc.), but I've not done any "finished" work using Ozone 4...Just demo stuff you've heard is all I have with Ozone 4 on it.
