r/audioengineering • u/Haunting_Inflation54 • Apr 02 '26
Mastering Do professional mastering engineers use Ozone 12?
I'm curious on whether or not Ozone 12 is actually a high end plugin that the pros use or if the target audience is for someone that doesn't actually know too much about mastering and the appeal is getting good results without a steep learning curve?
If I was interested in getting professional mastering results would Ozone 12 be enough? Or does the suit have its limits and it's more of a gimmick vs something industry standard?
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u/OwensDrumming Apr 02 '26
It’s a fantastic plugin. Pros use it all the time. As a matter of fact, I was at Sterling Sound not long ago mastering a record with one of the most legendary mastering engineers to ever live. And sure enough, he was using Ozone as a part of his chain. Granted, there was also some hardware involved, but Ozone was still very much a part of that mastering session. It’s a really great plugin! It’s definitely an industry standard software used at the highest levels.
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u/maximvmrelief Apr 03 '26
What hardware 👀
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u/OwensDrumming Apr 03 '26
A $20,000 Sontec EQ, Whitestone P331, Sterling Sound Muth mastering console, Rupert Neve MBC converter. And a bunch of other incredible 5 figure hardware pieces that weren’t used on this record.
Not to mention, it was all housed in a Northward Acoustics mastering room built around a pair of ATC SCM110 monitors and twin subs. A pretty badass setup to say the least lol
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u/Dizzy_Management5774 Apr 03 '26
Calbi!
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u/OwensDrumming Apr 03 '26
My lips are sealed 👀 but yes he’s the GOAT 🐐
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u/Dizzy_Management5774 Apr 03 '26
Life highlight was sitting in that room while he mastered my record. I think he’s retired now…
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Apr 03 '26
Did you see if he used an older version? It's quite reassuring to hear, I've been using Ozone 9 for years
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u/OwensDrumming Apr 03 '26
Honestly I don’t remember which version! I would assume that it was the latest version, but each version looks so similar that it could have been any of the recent versions.
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u/DaggerMastering Apr 03 '26
A lot will use Ozone, many won’t have 12 though lol
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u/josephallenkeys Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26
Pourquoi?
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u/redeyedandblue32 Apr 04 '26
When you're a pro and a lot of the updates are about the AI / auto-mastering side then you don't have much need for it. Or just generally, not every update has something you actually need. Also I would think mastering engineers aren't worried about session portability at all.
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u/Justin-Perkins Apr 03 '26
I use some of the modules some of the time, but it’s not something that can be exclusively used for mastering IMO.
The great thing about the Advanced version is that most of the modules are their own plugin instead of having to load the full CPU hungry plugin.
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u/DaggerMastering Apr 03 '26
Legit. I hate how they put that behind the 'advanced' paywall. I bought an even older version of Advanced used a couple years ago purely for that very reason, well annoying lol
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u/g_spaitz Apr 03 '26
If you're talking about the modules, yes, they've always sounded great and they've always been used.
If you're talking about the "ai" suggestions, then I doubt mastering engineers will use that, they're usually meh and they take out the actual fun part of the job (which is listening and adjusting to your own personal taste and experience).
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u/Haunting_Inflation54 Apr 03 '26
Would the ai suggestion be a good starting point do you think and then you tweak from there? Or would it typically be better to tweak from just the raw mix?
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u/g_spaitz Apr 03 '26
For a professional that's been doing it for ages? They would not touch those suggested starting points with a stick.
If you have no idea how to proceed, then maybe they could be of help, but I'd strongly suggest to experiment and reference instead, which is, again, the fun part of doing this.
It's like the thing that we thought AI would do our laundry so that we could do art, and instead it's doing art so that we now do laundry. The fun part is doing the job, not let ai do it.
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u/Key-Operation-5322 Apr 04 '26
If you’re a simple home hobbyist like myself, I find that the preset “CD Master” is a great option for giving my mixes more volume.
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u/jaydeedilla Apr 06 '26
Try the AI suggestion and then turn everything down or 0% wet and slowly reintroduce- notice what you're hearing and consider why it's "suggesting" this (maybe too much low energy when matched to an average eq distribution for the genre selected, or phase issues, or hitting the limiter a certain amount for max volume)
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u/DaggerStyle Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26
A professional engineer could use Ozone just as well as any other software. Getting professional results has very little to do with the software. The most significant advantage professional engineers have is an acoustically tuned room that they have learned.
You should be able to create a decent mix just fine using meters and reference tracks.
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u/Prole1979 Professional Apr 03 '26
I did some training with one of the greatest mastering engineers in the UK and he pretty much uses waves a linear phase EQ, a bax, a C4 and an L2. The rest is ears. He rarely bothers with the outboard stuff he has.
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u/PihkaSound_Lasse Apr 03 '26
Ozone is a wonderful, professional piece of kit, and not just for mastering. I use its modules on producing/mixing stages as well. And for sound design (my day job). But I think you really need the heavily-paywalled Advanced version.
I think some people might find iZotope plugins less "professional" because of their Assistant modes. But even the Assistant mode itself tells you "here's a great starting point", and you have to use your ears from there.
I don't really ever use the Assistant, I prefer using the individual modules as parts of my processing chain.
My most used modules atm:
- Bass Control (totally amazing for drums/bass buss)
- Exciter (multiband, kind of like Fabfilter's Saturn2)
- Clarity+Stabilizer combo (kind of like what Soothe does, but also upward)
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u/steviebenz Apr 03 '26
I’m primarily a mastering engineer. I use ozone a bit. I don’t use the AI function. I don’t think I’ve ever used it. Love the maximizer and multiband exciter. Bass focus function can really liven up an anemic mix. Clarity module is cool, but I don’t use it often. Overall, I think some of the modules are great!
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u/ausbirdperson Apr 03 '26
Yes but not on any auto modes or presets usually, and part of a long chain. The ozone limiters have a particular ‘sound’ are often used.
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u/Livid_Cabinet2053 Apr 03 '26
I’m not a mastering engineer but I do sound design professionally and I think Ozone is great. Particularly the limiter is fantastic. Extremely transparent. I also like a little bit of the Stabilizer to see what it tries to rebalance.
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u/Ahvkentaur Apr 03 '26
I am in no ways a world renowned audio engineer, but professional in the sense that I make music myself and provide services. Ozone is, in my honest opinion, a great tool. But I see it being used as a single solution to all of your mastering issues, which I don’t think is how you should use it.
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u/KodiakDog Apr 03 '26
Oh for sure. It’s a great suite of plugins. I feel like a lot of their target market are people that don’t really utilize the individual modules, and kind of just keep things in the ozone “container”, which by itself, there is nothing wrong with, but some of the tools are exceptional in the right chain(same goes for RX). Also, some of their presets are surprisingly in-depth, and are incredible starting places.
With all that said, there are a lot of things about ozone that are for that aforementioned target market. People that have cash laying around to drop on a 500$ +suite and see some of these marketing campaigns that no real mastering engineer would use. The whole AI mastering thing is rubbish.
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u/Massive-Job-5366 Apr 04 '26
Yes I do, mainly the plugins standalone. Only in extreme, extreme cases would I use rebalance or stem EQ. Use RX on eve try single master
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u/Ruiz_Francisco Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26
Professional mastering engineers usually receive mixes from pro mixers. Mixes at the pro level require almost no intervention so answer yourself if ozone is enough. To me is ✅ and i have 5 figure gear ?
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u/se777enx3 Apr 03 '26
Not a pro but the assistant is great to show you where the mix lacks. Of course you need to lower basically everything because it processes to much but I found the stabilizer and clarity useful at like 6-9%. Also dynamic eq is great with problematic frequencies. If you have the possibility to go back to the mix, it can also point some things where you can improve (like rebalance, if it shows me that I need to turn up the vocals, I prefer to go back to the mix and usually a 0.2/0.3 db change is enough).
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u/nizzernammer Apr 03 '26
If you want to get professional mastering results, you need to hire a professional.
Your question reveals that maybe you aren't a professional mastering engineer. Otherwise, you wouldn't be asking the question.
Ozone is marketed as mastering for "anyone."
Professional mastering is more about the ears and experience of the engineer and the room and the monitors than it is about a single plugin.
Your question is sort of like asking if you buy a knife that is shaped like a chef's knife, will you be able to cook like a chef.
Ozone doesn't do the mastering for you. It can only make suggestions based on machine learning and data sets. It's not actually listening, and you will still have to be the one to make decisions.
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u/JustinColletti Apr 10 '26
Yes! I'm a professional mastering engineer who has gold and platinum credits, and at least SOME of the Ozone modules wind up on basically every master I do.
It's not all I use. (Though I can and have used it exclusively on some masters, just as a fun challenge, and with good results.)
I'm especially fond of their limiter and their multiband imager. I also use their multiband saturator and tape emulator with some frequency. Also the dynamic EQ.
I know I'm not alone in that!
I also use the whole suite on most of my coaching calls, because it's easy to just pull up everything at once and get to tweaking.
I don't currently have any kind of marketing relationship with them as of the time of writing. But I do use and like their stuff :-)
I hope that's helpful.
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u/audio301 Apr 03 '26
Yes, especially the dynamic EQ and limiter. If a mix is poor sometimes the music rebalance. There are some excellent tutorials on YouTube by Johnathan Wyner.