Ozone 8’s metering panel also offers a host of useful additional features mono/stereo solo, stereo channel swap, Codec preview, Dither (offering iZotope’s acclaimed MBIT+ dithering algorithm), Reference track matching, Global Bypass, and gain matching. To the right of the module section and signal flow path lie the master input and output meters, which offer some incredibly powerful metering features, including support for all standard formats including Peak, RMS, K-System, LUFS, and more. A number of Ozone 8’s modules also offer robust Mid & Side and Left & Right operation modes, which experienced engineers and producers will appreciate. We’ll dive into the specifics of each below, but suffice it to say every module in Ozone 8 sounds superb, and learning one module will have you easily using all the rest all of Ozone’s processing modules share very similar design cues and interface elements. Ozone 8 Advanced offers 11 distinct modules Equalizer, Vintage EQ, Vintage Tape, Exciter, Vintage Compressor, Dynamics, Dynamic EQ, Spectral Shaper, Imager, Vintage Limiter, and the famed Maximizer.
#IZOTOPE OZONE 8 REFERENCE TRACK SOFTWARE#
This seems like a bit of an arbitrary and possibly UI-based limitation, and it’s odd for software that’s otherwise creatively limitless we hope to see a future iteration of Ozone which allows a user to add as many modules as their computer can handle. Similarly, you also can’t add a single module to your signal path more than once-for example, to compress your mix twice during the mastering phase, which is quite a common practice in EDM, Pop, and Hip-Hop. One surprising limitation to Ozone 8’s module approach: you can only add six modules to any Ozone plugin instance, which might fall short of what some users would need for certain mix situations.
Users can add, reorder, solo, bypass, and remove modules in Ozone’s signal path, and I’ve always been a huge fan of this modular flexibility if you like to compress your mix before EQ’ing it, Ozone can easily accommodate that-along with just about any other sort of signal routing you can imagine. Ozone 8, whether used as a plugin or standalone app, essentially functions as a unified wrapper and signal path for a host of different processing modules.
#IZOTOPE OZONE 8 REFERENCE TRACK WINDOWS#
Opening the Ozone 8 Advanced plugin interface for the first time reveals a powerful, complex, but never cluttered UI it seems iZotope has gone to great lengths to continue to build out Ozone’s functionality without burdening the user with multiple windows and endless buttons and controls.