The link i posted above is not working so here is the info, (sorry to flood the thread with my crap)
Very Deep Clinic: iZotope Ozone 3, Part 1
Learn how to get the most out of this mastering suite plug-in
By Bob DeMaa
© 2007 by Virtual Instruments magazine, and adapted for Harmony Central with the express written consent of the publisher
Mastering can be the most difficult and destructive part of the production process. It can also lift muddy, lifeless pulp to new heights, and turn an average sounding demo into a polished, professional sounding idea that really gets your point across.
Typical tools for the job can consist of limiters, expanders, equalization, Mid/Side encoding and decoding, multiband processing, dithering, and sample rate conversion. The order in which any of these processes are or are not applied can have a dramatic effect. Thousands of dollars can go into the analog and digital equipment necessary to pull off a good mastering job, and I would never have imagined doing it all in a single plug-in...until I discovered iZotope Ozone 3.
Short of having a mastering engineer show up to your doorstep with a rack of gear in tow, Ozone 3 sets out to provide just about everything most people would need to create an excellent sounding master. This is accomplished, in part, by not diluting any of the control. Everything from start to finish is designed for maximum versatility and quality, and it manages to make what could be an incredibly complicated process fairly straightforward and relatively easy to understand.
The goal of this clinic is to take you step by step through a process of mastering your mix, focusing on key areas within Ozone 3 which you can hopefully apply to any style of music. Furthermore, you can go to
www.VirtualInstrumentsMag.com and click on More Online to access a few presets and examples of what the different stages sound like.
GETTING STARTED...WITH THE MIX
Different people work in different ways, but when I mix a song, I focus on making it sound as good as possible without using corrective EQ or dynamics processing on the master fader. When I do use plug-ins on the master fader, I print two versions of the mix--one version with plug-ins, and a second version without.
One reason for this is so I can go back and master the song later with fresh ears. Another reason is to be able to master the music in context with other tracks it will wind up next to on a CD. Having an unprocessed stereo mix will also make it easier to control dynamics and use equalization without worrying too much about the bad distortion or clipping that can occur when working with music that may have already been over-compressed or equalized for the room as opposed to the mix.
Ozone 3 can be very processor-intensive--that's usually the price of quality processing--and for this clinic we will be using it to its fullest, which might not sit very well in a session with a lot of plug-ins and audio already placing demands on the CPU. For that reason it's a good idea to bounce your song out first. While I'll be using Logic Pro 8, Ozone 3 supports VST, AU, RTAS, MAS, and Direct X. Regardless of your DAW or platform, you'll be able to do everything in this clinic.
Before we get started, pull out a few CDs of music that you would consider to be in the sonic ballpark of where you want your mixes to be. We're going to be taking advantage of the Matching EQ feature a little later.
SET UP THE SESSION
Fig. 1: Click for full image and description.
Create a new session and import your mixes into it. Picking a sample rate might be a little tricky depending on the sample rate of the original mix or mixes you are working on. As a general rule, don't convert down to master, but converting up is fine. For example, if you have two mixes at 44.1k or 48k and another at 96k, create the mastering session at 96k and let anything that doesn't match convert up to 96k. Working at higher sampling rates tends to reveal a smoother, more natural sound at higher frequencies.
Take a moment now to bring in any tracks from the audio CDs you pulled out. Avoid using MP3s, as there is typically a brick wall filter at about 15kHz that will interfere with our matching EQ results.
Place your mix onto a track in the session, and insert Ozone 3 on the Master Fader (Fig. 1). Load the preset called "Default" to reset the plug-in, and turn off all the modules. Or you could load the VIMag_bobdemaa preset and use it to follow along and make tweaks with your song as we go.
OZONE 3 SET-UP
Fig. 2: Setting up an order of modules within Ozone 3.
We're going to re-order the modules first. Click on the Graph button to open the Filter Graph. Move the Multiband section to the far left. Be sure to re-order the modules within the Multiband section so that the Stereo imaging is first, followed by the exciter and then the Dynamics.
Next place the EQ after the Dynamics module, followed by the Reverb and the Loudness Maximizer. Leave the Channel Ops, Spectrum analyzer, and Phase Meter on the right side. . . (Fig. 2) I'll explain why I chose this routing as we move on.
Let's take a quick run through of the Options Module. Click the Options button and select the spectrum tab. Change the Spectrum Type from Linear to Critical. (This is one of those brilliant "why hasn't anyone done this before" type things that make you go ahhhh...) Click OK. Select the Multiband Stereo Imaging Module and play your track to see what I mean (Fig. 3).
Click on the options module again. Select the EQ/Reverb/XOver tab. This is where some of that processor-intensive stuff I was talking about comes in. Set the Digital EQ size to the max amount, 16384. Also change the Crossover type to Digital. We are setting up Ozone to be as Transparent as possible. Don't worry if you're looking for color; there's plenty of time for introducing additional character to your mix.

Fig. 3: The Spectrum Analyzer at the top of the page now displays the audio in bands that correspond to how we hear and differentiate between sounds that are considered "similar" frequencies.
The last part of our set-up is going to be changing the crossover points. This is done in the spectrum analyzer section we were just looking at. Click OK and be sure you're still on the Multiband Stereo Imaging page. I've set the crossovers occur at 96Hz, 347 Hz, and 2.18Khz (Fig. 3 again). Just click on the line separating the Bands in the Spectrum View and drag to change.
MULTIBAND STEREO IMAGING
Fig. 4: One of Ozone 3's many functions is to provide a widening of the stereo spread.
Check out Fig. 4. Let's start by focusing on the stereo imaging of your mix. In many cases a mix can be given a greater sense of depth and be made to sound more exciting by widening the upper mids and high end of Band 3 and Band 4.
A little bit can go a long way here and it's important not to overdo it, because the wider you make the image the less mono-compatible it will be. You can use the Channel ops to test mono compatibility by clicking on the Show Channel Ops box shown toward the lower right of Fig. 4.
Activate the Module and move the Band 1 fader all the way down to -1. This will make everything below 96Hz mono. This is a great way to tighten up the low end of a mix, particularly if real mics were used on a drum kit.
Next, move the Band 3 and Band 4 faders up until you start to hear the effect and then back off. If this gets set too high it can really take the meat out of your mix, but just the right amount will add some separation from the middle to the sides in a really pleasant way. I've set Band 3 to 0.2 and Band 4 to 0.3. Note here that having this kind of mid/side control for each of the 4 bands is no trivial trick, and could just as easily have been a stand-alone plug-in unto itself. The ability to do what we have just done is awesome, and puts a modern twist on what I expect out of mid/side control.
The last thing to notice here is the Delay faders for each band across the bottom of the window. These will shift the left or right side of the band by a small amount of time, which can adjust where certain instruments (frequencies) sound like they are coming from in the mix.
In my example, I've delayed the low mids of Band 2's left side by 1ms, and Band 3 on the right side by 1ms. These are very subtle adjustments that continue to widen the image of the mix without making it sound hollow or losing punch.
Use the Bypass button to hear the difference -- you can also alt/control-click the Mute button in an individual band (this works in all the multiband processors) -- and don't be surprised that the heavens haven't opened up yet; there will be a cumulative effect as we go. Also, try to do this with speakers as opposed to headphones where the effect will not be easily heard.
MULTIBAND HARMONIC EXCITER
Fig. 5: Ozone 3's Exciter section can add sparkle to your master.
Please see Fig. 5. Exciters are often used to add or create additional harmonics and or distortion in musical amounts to make audio sound brighter or...more exciting. Ozone gives a few flavors of excitement in this module: a Tube setting that will provide an emulation for the effect of saturating tubes to generate even order harmonics (Dynamic, Transient, clean sounding); and Tape, which is a slightly more aggressive sound, generating more odd harmonics (saturated sounding). This module also features a phase delay for offsetting phase in the bands relative to one another.
Be sure to activate the Multiband Harmonic Exciter Module and set the mode to Tape. Turn the Amount fader of Band 1 up until the effect is a little much. Now adjust the delay amount until you hear the low end tighten up bit. Now back down the Amount fader quite a bit. Do the same thing for Band 2.
You should notice that some instruments in the low mids start to reveal some detail. It will depend on the mix, but oftentimes this is true. Go back to Band 1 and check that it still sounds right relative to Band 2. Leave the phase delay settings for Bands 3 and 4 alone for now.
Getting the amount and the Mix levels right will be tricky, and you'll probably wind up coming back to these settings once we start dialing in the Multiband Dynamics. Keep in mind that by the time we add compression, expansion, and limiting, a little bit is going to go a long way. It's going to be easy to overdo it at first.
See Fig. 5 for the settings I'm using today. Notice how I've dialed the mix to certain levels for each band? This is because I don't want to alter the character I've achieved with the Amount faders, but I do want to lessen the influence in the overall mix. Bands 3 and 4 are going to be really noticeable if they are too loud and can become annoying and tiring over time.
Keep checking your work with the Bypass Button. At this point the overall mix will probably not sound radically different, but it should sound like it is gaining clarity and definition. If it is wildly brighter or bottom heavy, you've gone too far with the adjustments.
(Next issue, part 2 covers Multiband Dynamics, EQ, mastering equalization, and much more. Stay tuned...)
Very Deep Clinic: iZotope Ozone 3, Part 2
Learn how to get the most out of this mastering suite plug-in
By Bob DeMaa
© 2007 by Virtual Instruments magazine, and adapted for Harmony Central with the express written consent of the publisher
The goal of this clinic is to take you step-by-step through a process of mastering your mix, focusing on key areas within Ozone 3 which you can hopefully apply to any style of music. Furthermore, you can go to
www.VirtualInstrumentsMag.com and click on More Online to access a few presets and examples of what the different stages sound like.
In part 1, we covered setup, multiband stereo imaging, and the multiband harmonic exciter. We'll conclude with dynamics control, EQ, and mastering reverb.
MULTIBAND DYNAMICS
Fig. 1: Ozone 3's Multiband Dynamics module.
Referring to Fig. 1, multiband dynamics is probably the most complex module Ozone 3 has to offer in terms of the sheer number of controls. Each band has controls for Limiting, Expansion, and Compression with adjustments possible for Threshold, Ratio, Attack, Release, and overall Gain of the band.
I'm going to ignore the limiting in this section, and focus on the compressor and the often-misunderstood expander. The way Expansion works in Ozone 3 is by bringing up the low-level signals of your mix. It's the inverse of what we do with a compressor in that everything below the threshold is going to come up in volume.
Start by setting your session to loop through a softer section of your song. Enable the Multiband Dynamics Module and go to Band 4's Ratio: Exp fader. Slide it to the left (negative values will show in parentheses). You should immediately hear the mix get brighter.
The Threshold: Exp setting is next, and it's going to play a role in determining what level of signal will be boosted. It also relates to the compression threshold as they will not overlap. Before getting to compression, though, let's set our expansion ratios for Bands 4, 3, and 1 while looping through the quiet section of the song.
It's important to note that when using negative ratios, the attack and release must be set to zero or you will hear some nasty pops as the circuit kicks in. You can do this by pushing the Show button under the Range Graph to reveal the attack and release settings. In general, setting the ratio between -1 and -3 is plenty, and the threshold may lie somewhere between -10 to -50.
Once the expansion setting is good, move your session loop to play over the loudest section of your piece to begin working with the compressor. If there were a battle cry for this part of the process it would be "nice and easy." Squashing the bejeezus out of our mix in an effort to make it as loud as possible is not what we're after. What we're going to do though is add some punch and level control, further refining the details in the mix.
To see what I mean, set the Ratio: Comp settings between 1.1 and 2.3. Then bring the Thresh : Comp down between -11 and -30 - just enough to start seeing anywhere from 1 - 4dB of compression in each of the bands.
Finally, use the Band Gain Fader to adjust the balance of the bands to one another. We still have EQ to look at, so try to not adjust the band gain by radical amounts. Instead, focus on changing the level just enough to compensate for any of the compression that may be happening now.
All these little changes should start sounding like they are adding up, and you should hear now a more pronounced difference when bypassing.
PARAGRAPHIC EQUALIZER
Now look at Fig. 2. As mentioned earlier, we're going to take advantage of the matching EQ. I prefer to place the EQ after the Multi-band section, and here's why: the songs you've loaded in off your favorite CDs have already been processed, so the idea is to apply some processing of our own first; that way our snapshots will be more like comparing apples to apples.
Fig. 2: Ozone 3 can compare the EQ of two different files, and match one to the other.
Before we begin taking snapshots we'll need to change the Spectrum Analyzer setting. Click the Options button and select the Spectrum tab. Change the Spectrum type to Linear, the Average Time to infinite, and click on the Window Size until it reads 8192. Click OK to save your changes, then close the Options window.
Do not activate the Paragraphic Equalizer module yet. Select it for editing and push the Solo button at the bottom of the panel to bypass all the modules. As our first snapshot is going to be one of the tracks you've pulled from a CD, we don't want it to be affected by any of the previous modules.
The default EQ type is Analog. Click on the Analog button until it reads Matching. Now open the Snapshots window by clicking on the Snapshots Button. Ozone 3 allows us to take as many as eight snapshots at a time, in addition to importing and exporting them for later use.
Put a CD track you pulled onto a track and play for about 15 seconds. While it is still playing, click on the purple A. Click the Show button under Snapshot A to see it in the analyzer. If you want to take any more snapshots of other tracks you pulled in, now is a good time. Be sure to write down which snapshots belong to which songs so you don't forget (like I always do); you could even save the snapshots for future use. Finally, make one of these the Target by clicking the Target button.
Fig. 3: The red line shows the EQ curve being applied.
Now we're ready to take our Source Snapshot. First, turn off the Solo switch. You should notice the active lights for the Multiband modules going green. Leave the EQ in bypass mode for the moment and play the piece we're mastering. Create a snapshot for and mark it as the Source.
To keep things simple for now, we'll set a conservative matching amount to about 20% and the smoothing to 0.5. Feel free to play with these if you want to adjust the amount and precision of the matching EQ Curve. When working in Ozone's EQ, control- or alt-clicking at a point will temporarily boost frequencies at that point to aid in setting the EQ.
You should be seeing something similar to Fig. 3. The Red line represents the actual EQ curve being applied. Take the module out of bypass mode and you should now be hearing quite a bit of difference.
Fig. 4: Not only can you use matching EQ, but you can make additional tweaks if needed with the 10-node parametric EQ.
If you don't believe the tiny adjustments we've made in the dynamics modules are doing anything, just solo the EQ. The difference with and without the Dynamics should be quite striking. This is a good point to go back and make any tweaks to the dynamics sections if you overdid anything.
It's worth mentioning that there is still a 10-node parametric EQ available on top of the matching EQ. If you needed to pull any annoying frequencies out, this is a good time to tweak. Each of the little up down green arrows represents a node, and if you click on show info, a table with the EQ type, Gain, Freq, and Q becomes available (Fig. 4).
MASTERING REVERB
Fig. 5: Ozone 3 includes a reverb that's optimized for mastering applications. Please see Fig. 5. You may be wondering if and when you would ever bother to use reverb in a mastering situation, especially when dealing with virtual instruments that haven't been bounced to disk. Well I'm here to tell you (again) that a little bit goes a long way.
Activate the Mastering Reverb Module. I find it helpful to solo the reverb and dial in something that sounds "right." My settings here are Room Size 0.5, Room Width 2.0, Room Dampening 0.8 and Predelay 9.1. Set the wet amount up to 10.5%.
Unless your song was already awash in reverb, you should hear some very nice, subtle space being added to the mix. This won't work in all situations. Loud, compressed rock that already has plenty of compressed room in it is one example of when this tool doesn't have the desired effect, but most of the "bedroom studio" mixes I've mastered have benefited from a dash of this reverb. The first few times I heard this I was really amazed at its usefulness.
LOUDNESS MAXIMIZER
"Now can we make it Loud? Pleeeeease!"
Yes. Referring to Fig. 6, this is where you can lower the threshold and get an equal amount of loudness right back at ya. I'm going to make a couple of recommendations for today, though, to send you on a continued path of transparency.
Fig. 6: Ozone 3 has a loudness maximizer, but be careful to use this power only for good.
I see mastering as a way of extending the original idea into new realms of clarity, NOT bludgeoning it to death with as many compressors as possible. The other reason I stress transparency is so you have a starting point of reference with little extra color. As you get familiar with all the components of Ozone 3 it will become easier to distinguish the various options throughout.
Activate the Loudeness Maximizer. Set the Margin to 0.3 to prevent any clipping on the output. Below the Margin fader is the Character. Start with it at Transparent. Enable Prevent inter-sample Clips - an amazing feature that makes sure that no distortion is introduced when the audio finally reaches the D/A converter. Set the Mode to Intelligent, which again is the most transparent model. Now adjust the threshold down to bring up the track's level. I usually go for between 1 and 4dB of limiting on the peaks.
Now's the fun part: bypassing the entire plug-in. Take a minute and see what you've done. Bypass the different sections and notice the effect they have on the rest of the chain.
The very last step of our process is preparing to bounce for CD or MP3 by addressing the Dithering. Turn the DC Offset Filter On, Set the Dithering type to MBIT+, Noise Shaping to Ultra, Bit Depth to 16, and Dither amount to Normal. Whew!
You are now prepared to bounce your CD-quality mastered piece. When exporting, if you are presented with options to Dither, be sure it is disabled (we already did it within Ozone), and bounce to 44.1kHz/16 bit for CD. Or if you're delivering music for video, use 48kHz.
It's important to note that no other plug-ins should be inserted after Ozone 3. You may also want to consider bouncing twice: one version with the Dithering options on, and another at 24 bits with no dither, in case you or someone else needs to edit it in the future and wants to add their own dithering.
THE OZONE
Hopefully this will encourage you to use some of Ozone's more powerful and less-used functions, like Expansion and Matching EQ, as well as giving you an understanding of the different possible uses for the Spectrogram. Honestly, I'm amazed all this great work is done at such a high quality in a single plug-in. Ozone 3 has definitely stormed to the top of my list of favorite tools.
