Izotope Ozone 3? or Waves L3?

[Cdacoron]

hey guys, im new to this forum, but i was wondering if any of you guys have experience with any of these programs? Obviously there is a price difference in this range, but im willing to pay the extra if the quality difference is different. I have Waves plug-ins and they are sweet to me, i would like to stick to waves but the new L3 is a bit on the expensive side. i considered waves masters bundle, but that is past my budget. For mastering on my side, i own the L1 but i want to take my mastering to the next level with all the extra multi, and linear options. Thank you so much. Oh yeah, by any chance do any of you guys have 'cracks' for the waves masters bundle? hehe thought i'd take my chances .

Chris
www.NextPhazeonline.com
www.myspace.com/nextphaze

[ace516]

hahah..

nice try though.

i haven't tried Waves L3, but apparently it's just a maximizer/limiter.
in that case, i'd try FOR FREE the infamous TLs Maximizer.

AND MAudio's Izotope Ozone seems like the whole deal, with Multi-band Dynamics, a Paragraphic EQ, Mastering Reverb, Loudness Maximizer, and Dithering along with other stuff. Check out the classic www.kvraudio.com compressor and TLs Maximizer 1.1 (http://www.geocities.com/fender686/).

but for the budget, i'd go for Ozone 3.

[DM1]

Ozone definitely does a lot more. The Waves compressor/limiter is probably a little more transparent (though it obviously depends on the quality of the signal you feed it. If you're recording with SM57s in your bedroom, you probably won't notice a difference.) But with Ozone, you also get the EQ, harmonic exciter, stereo imager (which I prefer to the Waves S1 because it's multiband,) and mastering reverb (though it's not a great reverb.)

I'd make my choice based on your experience and the quality of your gear. If you're just starting out, or using amateur equipment, you'll get WAY more bang for your buck from Ozone.

Also: The documentation for Ozone is great. (See iZotope's free "Mastering With Ozone" guide.)

[ace516]

heh. i've never taken the time to actually see how ozone works. but it's got all you need for mastering.

not gonna make a miracle, but it's gonna surprise you.

[Cdacoron]

well, im not starting out...nor am i a master engineer. i do have a good amount of knowledge in terms of mixing (yet more knowlege is helpful), so i do want the best sound out of my mastering. I record with a B.L.U.E. Kiwi Microphone goin through a VT737sp avalon, so i have really clean recordings. I don't really need the reverb, maybe the harmonic exciter. But i guess to be super specific.. the only thing i really need is the multiband compressor, linear EQ, and brickwall limiting. Out of the ozone and waves L3. which is more transparent keeping the mix as close as possible and getting mad volume. im not really looking for "its good enough" i need the best out of the two. Thanks fellas!

[XLR]

Oh yeah, by any chance do any of you guys have 'cracks' for the waves masters bundle? hehe thought i'd take my chances

I was going to answer w/info until I read that.

Tim

[Tekker]

I have used several of the older Waves plugins and I wasn't very impressed with them at all, especially not for the price. I haven't used the L3 though... But I have freebie plugins that I preferred over most of the Waves plugins I've used.

Another one to add to the list is Voxengo. I have a few of the Voxengo plugins and they are simply awesome! Voxengo has demos to all of this plugins so you can try them out and compare them to the others.

Multiband compressor: Soniformer. Much better than a standard 4 or 5 multiband compressor as you get up to 32 bands.

Linear Phase EQ: Voxengo has a different variety of EQ's so try them all out and see which one(s) you'd want.

Limiting: Elephant. I have the demo for this and it is really good. But I've never compared it to the L3 so I can't comment on which is better, but maybe other folks here have....

-tkr

[ryanlikestorock]

For the money, go with Voxengo. The bang for buck ratio with them is amazing. Also, if you don't yet have the UAD card, pick that up too. They have a great limiter for $200 as well as a few great EQ and compression plugs that sound like they're worth a lot more than what you'll pay.

[bleyrad]

IMO the L3 is anything but colourless. In fact I consider it essentially useless. Anything more than about 1 db of limiting and it turns the song to total mush. It will screw with your tonal balance - even the UltraMaximizer version (though obviously, the MultiMaximizer is even worse for that). Bass and punch totally dissapear. I didn't like it at all.
The L2 on the other hand is quite good and won't mess up your sound if you use it reasonably.

Ozone is pretty good and a really useful tool with more visual monitoring than you'd ever need! In each section there is usually a seperate plug that I prefer to it, but it definitely does the job without too much problem, if you spend time with it and do it right.

[VesuviusJay]

I am stuck on Ozone for 4 years now. Their visual tools are invaluable and time saving. Although I am not impressed with most of their presets.