How many of you are using Ozone's Maximizer?

[joeyluck]

I've heard it has quite a bit of latency and isn't as light on CPU as it could be...

I suppose it might not be an issue if only using one instance, last in the chain in the master section.

Has anybody asked iZotope about this? Is this something they can address and fix with an update? Or is it just the nature of Ozone?

Again, I "tried" this when it first came out. As in, hit "TRY" in my general excitement for all rack extensions, and never really had an opportunity to test it =\",1432441806"

[K1TTENM1TTEN]

Hello all! I saw that the Maximizer is on sale, and I have always kind of eyed it. To be honest I have never really liked the sound of the demos, but I did not want to trial this until I could buy it. At $25 is this a "must have" RE, or is it one of those you bought it and several months down the road you don't use it kind of things?

[Tincture]

I use it all the time. I think its fine. I use fast settings.

[pjeudy]

To be honest I have never really liked the sound of the demos

I'm no expert but I don't think that you actually heard the sound of it....Ozone is making the original track louder ..so if you didn't fancy the type of track then that might be the reason why you didn't like it.But it's a very clean Maiximizer .At $25....It's a nice alternative to the Mclass. this sale ends next week maybe Kratos will be released then,give it a few days just in case so can have something to compare.

[K1TTENM1TTEN]

So there is no coloration to the sound with Ozone? I suppose you may correct on my preferences not being geared toward their demos, but the drums that I heard overall sounded a bit more bright, although that could always be part of making the lower volumed high freqs becoming louder. But ultimately is this a "must have"? When I think of "must haves" that are in every mix they would include things like Selig's REs, Cakewalk's compressor and FET.

[submonsterz]

im not feeling the ozone at all I put it on trial last night did a few back to back tests against onyx and titan and mclass and also just for the fun of it revivals limiter which came out surprisingly good against mclass .
I have all the others already and seeing in my tests ozone has a bad delay to it so its only fit in my eyes in the master chain unless you wanna be doing lots of delay compansations if you use it on a few tracks in a session. I find onyx although colours a bit more on the bassier side of things handles peaks and rounds them nicely in a way that stops them hitting as high as the ozone on same settings it seemed to not round so well and got dangerously close to flattening the peaks at same input output as onyx and on loudness (perceivable) onyx won hands down in my honest opinion. I like titan seems very clean if used right but not as loud as ozone before distortion just a tad lower in perceivable volume and was just a tad better than mclass. surprisingly the limiter on the revival on what I was experimenting on across the board actually did as well as mclass and id say lay in between mclass and titan . so if you have not got onyx or ozone put them both on trial and back to back them and see what you like best try all settings try to match them as close as you can. I use onyx all over the place in lots of places with no problems that I could see happening with ozone to be honest, and can see with other things adding delay in the chain it can help mess things up if not just used in the mastering chain.

[gak]

I'm only interested in a mastering limiter.

If it's the only place you put it, does it matter about the latency?

What specific thing does ozone do (it's not full featured like the VST) that mclass does not?

[pjeudy]

So there is no coloration to the sound with Ozone? I suppose you may correct on my preferences not being geared toward their demos, but the drums that I heard overall sounded a bit more bright, although that could always be part of making the lower volumed high freqs becoming louder. But ultimately is this a "must have"? When I think of "must haves" that are in every mix they would include things like Selig's REs, Cakewalk's compressor and FET.

You will not be adding the Ozone on everything ! The latency alone will prevent that! Only in your mastering stage!
You can Push the OZONE way harder then the Mclass and still keep it sounding clean!
IMO the Ozone offers wayyy more options then the Mclass, 

Key Features:
2 Intelligent Release Control (IRC) limiter modes: IRC I and IRC II
2 low-latency limiting modes Hard (Brickwall) and Soft
High-precision threshold control with integrated gain reduction metering
Speed knob controls the character of the IRC Limiter from slow and transparent to fast and aggressive
Variable Stereo Link control for independent limiting of left and right channels
Inter-sample Limiting predicts when a digital signal might clip in the analog domain, preventing distortion
Margin control allows you to dial back the peak output level for better encoding to formats like MP3
iZotope MBIT+ Dither for exporting sessions to 16-bit audio files at the highest quality

As I'm writing this I'm AB OZONE against Mclass...to me they are night and day! The Mclass when I push it to hard stats to crunch the sound, The Ozone make it sound fatter or heavier and louder without killing the sounds...sure you can crunch the living daylights out of a sound also with OZONE but it's threshold for destroying the sound is much higher..!
Also when I try to simply crunch the sound with OZONE...it still keeps an clarity in the sound even when it's just destroying it.

I don't like to drink companys cool aid..so I read the manual and see for my self..and I agree that OZONE is a much more flexible option then The Mclass.
Even if it's old code (Ozone 6) is out..but it's still sounds great and at $25.00 it's like stealing candy from a baby ...!

I will try out Kratos when it's released ... but I really like the OZONE

[submonsterz]

I'm only interested in a mastering limiter.

If it's the only place you put it, does it matter about the latency?

What specific thing does ozone do (it's not full featured like the VST) that mclass does not?

back to back with mclass ozone is far better on loudness wars and distorts at a way higher lvl than mclass starts to. I can get titan to out class mclass and onyx in my eyes outclasses them all including ozone !!
ozone definitely more transparent or id say keeps it tinnier to my ears and eyes on scopes and sound wise. im sticking with onyx personally and I like its little bit of heavier colour its actually a nice warm colour I like a lot more than ozones tinnier colour. and on the vst front the main difference to me would be no irc 3 it only has 1 and 2 there.

[gak]

Thanks for the last two posts guys. 

I think for me, I'll go ahead and DL the demo with the idea that if it's even decent, it'll be worth 25 bucks. I've got 85 million things for sale in the vst/host department (not reason of course!) so I think I can afford it  

[Digitus]

Just out of curiosity, how much did Ozone Maximizer cost when it first hit the shop? 

[EnochLight]

Ozone has been an industry standard for years.  What you get in the RE is no (very little) different than than the maximizer portion of the entire Ozone suite.  Personally, I find it much easier to coax a pleasurable mix out of it compared to the stock MClass, and everything that has been released to date is just "meh" in comparison.  iZotope's Ozone FTW!!!!

[ScuzzyEye]

Just out of curiosity, how much did Ozone Maximizer cost when it first hit the shop? 

I paid $79 for it. (And it was totally worth it.)

[ScuzzyEye]

I've heard it has quite a bit of latency and isn't as light on CPU as it could be...

I suppose it might not be an issue if only using one instance, last in the chain in the master section.

Has anybody asked iZotope about this? Is this something they can address and fix with an update? Or is it just the nature of Ozone?

With inter-sample limiting, and a high amount of dither shaping, it does use a lot of CPU.

The IRC modes also have a huge amount of latency (II more than I).

But neither of these things are problems. You don't need to turn on inter-sample limiting, or dithering until you are ready to export. The IRC modes need the latency because they need to be able to look forward in time to find out how the signal is going to change so they can be ready to limit correctly. Again this isn't a problem, all it does is add a few ms of silence to the beginning of your exported track. If you're only wanting to keep your clip light off while tracking set it to the hard or soft clip modes, as they don't require as much look ahead.

Ozone isn't designed to be a creative effect, it is a mastering tool. It works incredibly well for that purpose.

[gak]

I've heard it has quite a bit of latency and isn't as light on CPU as it could be...

I suppose it might not be an issue if only using one instance, last in the chain in the master section.

Has anybody asked iZotope about this? Is this something they can address and fix with an update? Or is it just the nature of Ozone?

Again, I "tried" this when it first came out. As in, hit "TRY" in my general excitement for all rack extensions, and never really had an opportunity to test it =\

When I used to use the VST version, it was always really hungry (and that was likely 3 computers ago) and it was assumed that you would bounce the tracks to a two track audio track to master. 

Quite frankly, that ideology still applies today. I really have no need for a limiter until I have a well mixed track (not one with a bunch of limiting already)

[Digitus]

Just out of curiosity, how much did Ozone Maximizer cost when it first hit the shop? 

I paid $79 for it. (And it was totally worth it.)

Thanks ScuzzyEye, for some reason I was thinking it was like $99.00 or more when it first came out. When it comes to rack extensions, I definitely subscribe to the never pay retail approach.

[ProfessaKaos]

Before I bounce/export I always place a Ozone Maximizer on the Master because it's predictable in how it will sound which is very transparent in comparison to the other Maximizer/Limiter devices available in Reason.

[Faastwalker]

Bought it today at the amazebot sale price of $25. Wanted to buy this for ages. Tried it ages ago & it worked a treat. No fuss, magic button maximizer.

Anyway, my instinct was to stick it between the Master Outputs & main audio outputs (1/2). Then have it bypassed until I want to export a track.

[pjeudy]

Another Cool one I'm trying out is the Mutagen Multiban distortion device...very cool...I'm looking at that Distortion unit from Rob Papen also!

[submonsterz]

Another Cool one I'm trying out is the Mutagen Multiban distortion device...very cool...I'm looking at that Distortion unit from Rob Papen also!

rp distort is the dogs nutz very good . its very versatile and also it don't have to be used as a distortion unit either lots of other flavours to play with on it via inputs etc. one of the better buys I made when it came out.

[Faastwalker]

Anyway, my instinct was to stick it between the Master Outputs & main audio outputs (1/2). Then have it bypassed until I want to export a track.

I ended up doing this; Is this about right? Or should the Ozone actually go between 'Master Out' on the Master Section & the main Audio outputs? Or does it really matter as long as it's basically the last device in the Master chain? Post Ozone I've got no audio devices that do anything to the signal. Just an RE-60 SA & a Loudness Meter.

[pjeudy]

I don't really see people using the control room out option!? I never use the master fader out....I haven't touch the master the fader on the SSL mixer for years. I only use the control room out as My master Fader.
@Faastwalker the way you have it is cool...nothing is affecting the sound after the OZONE so your good!
 
 

[Photoindra]

I don't really see people using the control room out option!? I never use the master fader out....I haven't touch the master the fader on the SSL mixer for years. I only use the control room out as My master Fader.

Pjeudy, can you please tell a little bit about your approach (workflow)? And why "control room" is useful? Never used it myself.

[pjeudy]

I don't really see people using the control room out option!? I never use the master fader out....I haven't touch the master the fader on the SSL mixer for years. I only use the control room out as My master Fader.

Pjeudy, can you please tell a little bit about your approach (workflow)? And why "control room" is useful? Never used it myself.

I only use the control out option.when I want to boost or lower the volume of the entire session without ever having to touch the master fader within Reason ! It's my default set up.Now another Reason to use the control room option is more involved then that But I use for this one simple reason. Also ever noticed these:
 
It's by only using the control room option that you can listen to your Fx sends dry/wet only  IT'S PRETTY COOL!

Try it, flip the Rack, remove the master out and connect the control room out instead, then use the crtl room knob to raise and lower your entire session and see the level meter on your master not get affected.Take a listen to your fx send wet only!

*Now the fun part*
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/dec11/a ... h-1211.htm

[ambeant]

im not feeling the ozone at all I put it on trial last night did a few back to back tests against onyx and titan and mclass and also just for the fun of it revivals limiter which came out surprisingly good against mclass .
I have all the others already and seeing in my tests ozone has a bad delay to it so its only fit in my eyes in the master chain unless you wanna be doing lots of delay compansations if you use it on a few tracks in a session. I find onyx although colours a bit more on the bassier side of things handles peaks and rounds them nicely in a way that stops them hitting as high as the ozone on same settings it seemed to not round so well and got dangerously close to flattening the peaks at same input output as onyx and on loudness (perceivable) onyx won hands down in my honest opinion. I like titan seems very clean if used right but not as loud as ozone before distortion just a tad lower in perceivable volume and was just a tad better than mclass. surprisingly the limiter on the revival on what I was experimenting on across the board actually did as well as mclass and id say lay in between mclass and titan . so if you have not got onyx or ozone put them both on trial and back to back them and see what you like best try all settings try to match them as close as you can. I use onyx all over the place in lots of places with no problems that I could see happening with ozone to be honest, and can see with other things adding delay in the chain it can help mess things up if not just used in the mastering chain.

Whether this is the case or true is irrelevant, but what really matters is what appears to sounds better.