A Review of iZotope Ozone 3

What's unique about this arrangement is that the six modules are all accessed by a single interface. The interface also stands apart from others in that you don't have to use a mouse to twiddle knobs. It's a push button and onscreen slider affair and it's easy to work with.

Podcasters will appreciate the ability to add compression, expansion and EQ simultaneously to their voice tracks. I found it very easy to get that big "on air" sound out of this plug-in. And if all I got for my $249 was the Loudness Maximizer, I'd feel good about the investment. Unlike ProTools Normalize function, Ozone 3's Loudness Maximizer uses an intelligent release control technology with predictive limiting of "intersample clipping." You can also adjust the threshold, margin and release. You get visual feedback in the form of gain and reduction meters that help you see as well as hear the difference.

I ran a podcast that was otherwise mixed and ready to go through the ProTools Normalize plug in and then again through the Ozone 3 Loudness Maximizer Plug-in. There's no comparison. The Ozone 3 treatment gave me a fuller, bigger sound.

The company has an in-depth help section on their web site and you'll want to spend some time there because there's plenty to learn. But for those who are new to digital audio workstation mastering, take heart. Ozone 3 ships with a boatload of presets and what's more, you can tweak the existing presets and save your own custom versions. Since the presets are simple XML files, they're easy to send around the Internet.

While I know enough about audio engineering to get the job done, there are times when you need an expert. So to put this plug-in through its paces, I hired master podcast production engineer Paul Figgiani (From podcastrigs.com and IT Conversations) to create a preset that would fatten up my voice and give it more presence. I first learned of this product via Paul's blog so I knew he was familiar with it.

I sent Paul a dry .wav file and he used Ozone 3 to make a preset and shipped me the xml file via email. I dropped it into the presets folder for Ozone and there it was, immediately available the next time I opened up the plug-in.

One more thing to note about the presets is that iZotope provides additional presets on their web site at http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/ozone/more_presets.html.

There's plenty to love about this software. You can automate more than 150 parameters, use customizable shortcut keys, it has a great interface with lots of graphical metering, it allows you to easily create A/B comparisons, allows the use of undo and history to get to and from your favorite tweaks and you get all of it in 64-bit glory that mimics the sound of tube-modeled devices.

You can certainly spend more on audio processing plug-ins for products like Waves but you'd be hard-pressed to get value that matches the price difference. This is a professional-quality tool even though it's affordable. And in case I didn't say it plainly enough, the results sound fantastic.

Other than not being able to resize the plug-in window so that my old eyes could see it better, there's nothing I'd change about the iZotope Ozone 3 plug-in.

Street Price $199 - free 10 day fully functional trial. Mac Universal and x64 compatible. Sample rates up to 192 kHz.
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SIDEBAR: Mastering is an advanced aspect of audio recording. Whether or not you try the Ozone3 plug-in, do yourself a favor and visit their site for a free PDF mastering guide. It's probably one of the best introductions to mastering I have ever read.

For more on podcasting, visit my site PodcastingTricks.com

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