# How useful is Ozone 5 for orchestral work?



## George Caplan (Jan 11, 2013)

could also include music of let us say less aggressive than what im tending to find in the youtube videos although there are some easy going pop songs in some. but there are not any tutorial ones or at least examples of ozone 5 being used on sampled orchestral at all that i can see.

a tutorial on orchestral music using ozone 5 would be a big boon here.


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## Kejero (Jan 11, 2013)

Good question


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## MichaelL (Jan 11, 2013)

Ozone5 has several presets for orchestral work, which are good starting points including: Orchestral Master, Symphonic Master Choir, Symphonic Master Incidental, Symphonic Master Score, Symphonic Master String Quartet and Symphonic Master.

There is also a wide range of individual instrument / section presets like brass section, cello section, strings and woodwind section.

You get a wider range of individual presets in Izotope's Alloy 2.

Cheers,

Michael


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## Mike Marino (Jan 11, 2013)

> You get a wider range of individual presets in Izotope's Alloy 2.



Is this because Alloy 2 is meant more for the individual channel strips whereas Ozone 5 is meant mainly for the master?


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## MichaelL (Jan 11, 2013)

Mike Marino @ Fri Jan 11 said:


> > You get a wider range of individual presets in Izotope's Alloy 2.
> 
> 
> 
> Is this because Alloy 2 is meant more for the individual channel strips whereas Ozone 5 is meant mainly for the master?



That's the way they function most often. But, I think it's more of a chicken and egg question. Ozone was first, and it had some individual instrument presets. I think Alloy grew out of that.

I use Alloy on individual channel strips and Ozone on individual strips, groups, and for mastering.


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## Mike Marino (Jan 11, 2013)

Interesting. So if you're deciding to use both on the channel strips are there subtleties in deciding which plug-in to use on which strip?


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## Ciaran Birch (Jan 11, 2013)

I know Mike Patti (cinesamples) uses Ozone for his orchestral trailer tracks in mastering. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hp6bKIJ-chQ


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## MichaelL (Jan 11, 2013)

Mike Marino @ Fri Jan 11 said:


> Interesting. So if you're deciding to use both on the channel strips are there subtleties in deciding which plug-in to use on which strip?



I use Ozone mostly for mastering. On channel strips, it depends. 

I just finished an orchestral cue for a library. I used the Alloy "Orchestra Brass" preset on the CB legato French Horn section that was playing the melody. Later on in the piece, I used the Ozone 5 "Brass Section --add warmth" preset for brass pads, with Symphobia at one point, and CB low brass pads at another.


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## Mike Marino (Jan 11, 2013)

Very cool. I've recently purchased the Izotope bundle (RX2, Nectar, Ozone 5, and Alloy 2).....but haven't had the time to do much with them at this point with how my schedule works out at the moment.

Thanks for the insight!

- Mike


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## woodsdenis (Jan 11, 2013)

Without a doubt Ozone 5 is the best all in one solution BUT

http://www.thehouseofkush.com/clariphonicdsp.html
http://www.fabfilter.com/products/pro-l ... er-plug-in

are 2 essential items on my master bus now.

There are much better plugins that out do the individual elements in Ozone 5. It does have the convenience factor though, any time i demoed it it really messed up my mix and it didn't play well with Protools either.


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## George Caplan (Jan 11, 2013)

woodsdenis thats a good video on mastering at fabfilter although it gets difficult to understand the more it goes on.


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## woodsdenis (Jan 11, 2013)

George Caplan @ Fri Jan 11 said:


> woodsdenis thats a good video on mastering at fabfilter although it gets difficult to understand the more it goes on.



Yep it gets in very deep, the ProL has presets for all different types of music. I use them and adjust accordingly. It is the most transparent Limiter I have ever come across, definitely some kind of voodoo going on in there :D . You can demo for a month, I would guarantee you won't want to give it up. If you primarily use Ozone for limiting try this one out.


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## dannthr (Jan 11, 2013)

FabFilter dominates my mixes now.

Pro L, Pro C, and Pro Q are fantastic!


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## Kralc (Jan 11, 2013)

dannthr @ Sat Jan 12 said:


> FabFilter dominates my mixes now.
> 
> Pro L, Pro C, and Pro Q are fantastic!


I've been watching those Dave Pensado mixing videos, and seen him using the eq quite a bit. They look/sound really nice.


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## Ryan Scully (Jan 12, 2013)

I too love the FabFilter plugs - still need to grab the Pro L. Saturn is one of my favorite plugs too - makes its way into almost every one of my tracks.


Ryan :D


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## dannthr (Jan 12, 2013)

Pro-Q is genius.

Wonderful interface, very spectral-thinking. I hate software that tries to act like hardware EQ (unless it's successfully emulating that EQ and even then I'm not the type to want it), with Pro-Q, you just double click anywhere you want some kind of spectral adjustment and it will contextually add a bell, shelf, or cut at the frequency you clicked and at the gain/attenuation you clicked. It's very fast and easy to use.


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## stonzthro (Jan 12, 2013)

Ooo - those (FabFilter) are visually appealing for sure - going to have to demo them! 

Ozone is really a great all-around tool and for the price it is hard to beat! Lots of channel strip presets and mastering presets. There really isn't one do-all that just works perfectly, but you can go a very long way with Ozone!


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## Marius Masalar (Jan 12, 2013)

Another vote for FabFilter. I own everything they make and they're on my (very short) insta-buy list. 

They are used liberally on everything I do, and I only ever augment them — haven't yet needed to replace them with anything. Truly superb plugins and some of the coolest support ever.


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## dannthr (Jan 13, 2013)

All of their Pro stuff does M/S too, if that's part of the appeal of Ozone for you.

And you can really slam the crap out of their limiter and their compressor.


One thing that I didn't like about the old Ozone presets (I haven't tried any of the new Ozone 5 stuff), is that I consistently lost low volume detail in their process.


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## drasticmeasures (Jan 17, 2013)

I'm a big fan of Ozone 5 for a 2-track master.

I find it very adaptable - it's great for a hyped up in-your-face sound, as well as a more subtle and transparent tool.


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## drasticmeasures (Jan 17, 2013)

I'm a big fan of Ozone 5 for a 2-track master.

I find it very adaptable - it's great for a hyped up in-your-face sound, as well as a more subtle and transparent tool.


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## George Caplan (Jan 18, 2013)

it is a very in your face but ive been convinced from some replies here that it may not be exactly what i want for orchestral. i think it is good and will work well for many but fabfilters maybe the way ill go initially. theres a good bundle available. the interface for the eq looks very good.


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## dannthr (Jan 18, 2013)

I have used Ozone in the past on certain projects, I found the presets (though this was some versions ago) for orchestral to have a severe gating effect, which I found distasteful on my more delicate sections.

For me, Fabfilter communicates a great deal to me about what it's doing, how its acting upon my mix, and that informs me and allows me to make informed decisions rather than experimental tweaks.

We actually use Fabfilter in the school where I teach to help describe Compression to the students, and how a compressor works, what it does, etc, etc.

Not to mention that you can slam the crap out of stuff and it'll still sound really flippin' good.


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## lee (Jan 18, 2013)

How much presets in fabfilters plugs compared to ozone? Orchestral presets?


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## dannthr (Jan 18, 2013)

There aren't a lot of presets in FabFilter--I think Pro-C comes with two presets for mastering Orchestral.

But to be honest with you, I kind of stopped using presets when I switched to FabFilter.

It shows you what it's doing, so you really get a sense of what everything does and that informs you in a way that is empowering/enabling.

With that said, their Pro-C is not Multi-Band.


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## lee (Jan 18, 2013)

Ok. Thanx for the info!


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## dannthr (Jan 18, 2013)

They have a trial, you should just try it out.


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## bryla (Jan 18, 2013)

dannthr @ Fri Jan 18 said:


> With that said, their Pro-C is not Multi-Band.


But Saturn is. It does some good dynamic work.

The fabfilter synth is also the best WYSIWYG


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## lee (Jan 18, 2013)

How much presets in fabfilters plugs compared to ozone? Orchestral presets?


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## bryla (Jan 18, 2013)

Lee, you can demo both.


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## dannthr (Jan 18, 2013)

I don't have Saturn yet, but I'm sure soon I will.

At the moment, Pro-Q, Pro-C, and Pro-L. I like their gate, but I couldn't justify buying a gate for how little I use them.

At work we have the ProQ/L/G/C and the Volcano 2 and Timeless 2.


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## Ryan Scully (Jan 18, 2013)

I agree with everything Dan says regarding the ease of use with FabFilter. The way they are designed is the easiest, most straight forward approach I've seen in plugs for mixing/mastering and the sound is great.. Saturn is the best plugin I've picked up in the past few years - it's seriously that good. It has a real magic to it and I liberally use it on so many things - also great for sound design too.


Ozone 5 is still a great option and I really do use it quite alot with my orchestral work. I like the multiband since version 5 brings a huge degree of control over the past versions IMO. You actually have a fully controllable gate within the multiband in tandem with a compressor and limiter for each band - really helpful and easy to use for dialing in the right settings.



Ryan :D


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## lee (Jan 19, 2013)

bryla @ Fri Jan 18 said:


> Lee, you can demo both.



Good point!


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## Waywyn (Jan 19, 2013)

just a few little thoughts!

I would never ever rely on mastering presets, especially when it comes from a plugin like Ozone which is literally a complete mastering station with actually several plugins working!

The reason why is pretty simple:
As described here, there are a few several presets in Ozone:
Orchestral Master, Symphonic Master Choir, Symphonic Master Incidental, Symphonic Master Score, Symphonic Master String Quartet and Symphonic Master.

Combining all possibilities from instruments, plugins, libraries, live instruments, different dynamics, style of music (symphonic master choir can be Carmina Burana or Gib unsern Fürsten which have as much in common as a cake and a neutron star) and all other stuff, the output on variation is that much, you could never ever cover that with just one preset. The first one is orchestral master. Obviously this preset sounds totally different on the (unmastered) Star Wars maintheme and e.g. on Griegs Morgenstimmung.

What I would do is analyze these presets and see what has been done, try to process the information and use it for yourself. Meaning create own patches with your own EQ settings etc. ... I mean to make it really short, how can the preset Orchestral Master know how much dB you got going on 10Khz? This is something which is impossible, since your own track could be perfectly EQ'ed while the preset creator didn't have that in mind.

I know, with this philosophy in mind almost every preset is more or less useless. Only because something is called rocksnare, it doesn't make a rocksnare, because your may have been recorded with another mic, preamp, console etc. etc. 

... however, presets should be seen as orientation to understand the plugin! I am aware that many if not all of you know that already, but I just wanted to say that every plugin can be used to process orchestral music. It is just always a matter of how you use it!


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## dannthr (Jan 19, 2013)

You cannot control it! This is a dangerous time for you, when you will be tempted by the Presets!

Yes, yes! To Alex, you listen.


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## MichaelL (Jan 20, 2013)

Waywyn @ Sat Jan 19 said:


> just a few little thoughts!
> 
> I would never ever rely on mastering presets, especially when it comes from a plugin like Ozone which is literally a complete mastering station with actually several plugins working!
> 
> ...




Which is why I said the Ozone presets are *"starting points."*

@dan, definitely don't judge Ozone 5 by its predecessors. I debate getting different mastering tools v. upgrading to Ozone 5 Advanced.


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## playz123 (Jan 20, 2013)

Exactly; any preset should only be looked upon as a possible starting point, no matter what mastering software is used.

A quick note. I've been using Ozone since version 2 for everything from pop to classical and have often found that with some of the presets "less is more". But the strangest thing is that when I compare Ozone 4 with Ozone 5, using 'identical' settings in each, my ears nearly always prefer the results from Ozone 4. I have no idea why that is, and of course it shouldn't be that way, but to my ears there are subtle differences. I do hope to solve that mystery at some point, but for now will just continue to compare.


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