IZOTOPE OZONE 9 REVIEW : Does it go too far?
Does it bang?
I posted a review of Izotope's Ozone 9 about a week ago, ahem. I got lucky and was able to download it off their website right after they released it. I dived in as hard as I could right away. The first thing I wanted to know about was the tools, what new tools have they added since version 8? Well not much to be honest, but the tools they have added are pretty powerful and unique. The short answer, is yes. Low end Focus The low end focus tool helps give your masters the precision they need on the low end. More precise than what an EQ can do for you. My take is that this tool is probably made with a multi-band compression algorithm. Which I think is great because multi-band compression destroys lives. I can't tell you how any dead audio engineers I've stepped over because of multi-band comp. Anyway, this tool definitely does something EQ doesn't and it's much easier to use than multi-band compression. So I'd go out on a limb here to say they are really on to something.
Master Rebalance The master rebalance tool is the perfect tool for mastering engineers who don't want to bug their clients to resend the mixdown with the drums .5 db higher. It can also be useful for boosting the vocals, drums or bass of certain parts of a song or the whole thing (obviously)
I'm not sure if this is a tool that people asked for, but I must say it's quite nice.
Match EQ Not much was changed here aside from the fact they made it it's own plugin. If you were a fan of this before, you will be ecstatic now. Stereo Imager
One of the most championed things about Izotope ozone is it's stereo imager. I personally am a bigger fan of Wave's S1 imager (in mixing) and generally do not use an imager at all in mastering. They added a new feature that does perk my ears up a bit though, that being a different stereoize algorithm. So you have two to choose from now, more options can't hurt when they are quality!
Does it go too far? No, i personally don't think so.
Algorithmic Updates
The updates to the algorithm are nice, the mastering assistant seems a bit more intelligent. Albeit quite a bit far from perfect, so all you mastering engineers can calm down. There are quite a few more updates, if you want my full opinion on them check out this review I uploaded to my youtube channel.