Mastering with iZotope Ozone 5

[cpyatak]

Hi folks.

I am getting a copy of iZotope Ozone 5, and it has come highly recommended for mastering my tracks. Thing is, I have little to no experience with mastering. I have always just tried to get the sound right in the mix, and exported the audio from there. Needless to say I have never won any Loudness wars, but that has never been terribly important to me. That said, I'd really like to be able to add that extra bit of sonic enhancement (not just loudness) to my finished tracks -- something that other electronic musician friends of mine have recommended for some time. I'm excited to get into this. I think.

I will definitely be able to hit up these friends for help, but I am wondering if any of you can point me in the direction of some good tutorials or reads on using iZotope 5, and mastering in general. I am familiar with youtube and google -- just wondering if there are any real standout resources you recommend.

My musical styles vary somewhat widely, but recently I've been really into minimal techno. I feel like this might be a good place to start since there is already a good amount of isolation between the different elements of my tracks - then I can get deeper into it with some of my more complex tracks. Not sure if that information helps, just thought I'd throw it in there just in case.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[musikmachine]

I think izotope have a free pdf guide on mastering. There's also the producer's manual which i picked up for the iPad a while back, has a good mastering section.

One simple tip is to use reference tracks in the style you're producing, i just picked up Sample Magic AB but you can just load tracks into Live and switch between them.

My personal tip would be to to check out K-Meter, http://www.meterplugs.com/kmeter

There is a bit of a learning curve but i used it to calibrate my monitors so now when my master gain is at unity i'm hearing the actual loudness of the track and i can really hear how tracks are mastered, differences in volume etc so it's easier to pick out badly mastered tracks cause they'll be loud as a mofo! You need an SPL meter for the calibration though.

[cpyatak]

Thanks for the reply! That's a good call on A-B-ing my tracks with pro tracks. Also a popular one here recently. I will do.

[Pitch Black]

That's a good call on A-B-ing my tracks with pro tracks. Also a popular one here recently.

Trust me, the pros reference pro tracks all. the. time.

"Its the only way to be sure..."



As mentioned above, check out that Izotope guide, and keep an eye on Tarekith's blog / posts. That man drops science like Paris Hilton drops knickers.

http://innerportalstudio.com/guides/

[Tarekith]

Another vote for the Ozone manual, it's a great guide to mastering even if you don't own the plug in.

My only advice with Ozone is don't think you HAVE to use all the modules just because they came with the app. Often I find people try and use each one feeling that they have too, and with mastering a lot of times overprocessing does more harm than good.

[fistikuffs]

Some advice from an amateur: check out the presets, when you find one you like on your track dial all the modules back a bit. Now start disabling the modules from right to left to observe how each is effecting the signal and how they work together. When you do get a bit more experience and start rolling your own then when you get to a point you like on a track, dial everything back! In my experience it's way to easy to over do it with Ozone. It's a fantastic plugin though.

[fishmonkey]

it can't be emphasised enough that when doing comparisons between different processing and/or other tracks, level-matching is critical...

[cpyatak]

Wow, this is all great. Thanks!

I played around with Ozone on one of my recent tracks last night. Just playing really -- experimenting with really heavy handed settings to get a feel for what each component was doing, and then deleting them all -- not because they weren't working, but because I wasn't looking to add anything quite yet.

I haven't tried any of the presets but will definitely explore them.

Also picked up the Ozone manual and started reading last night. It's an impressively accessible read. Looking forward to another bout with it tonight.

Thanks for the reminder re: Tarekith's blog. Been a while since I headed over there. Time for another visit.

[Stace30]

Tarekith's blog / posts. That man drops science like Paris Hilton drops knickers.

Funny & very true!