Put your skepticism to rest 
by Jonathan from Brooklyn, NY, June 2008
Music Background:  Production, Composition

I was originally skeptical of this tool; snazzy graphics and a whole mastering suite for $200? I passed. But I've really grown to trust iZoptope's products and they are indeed EXCELLENT!
The interface actually makes perfect sense and transcends any gimmiky, hardware look-alike nonsense that many other GUIs are stuck on.
The sound quality is amzing and fully adaptable for your needs; CPU friendly vs. complete digital accuracy. The signal chain can be arbitarily reordered (an iZotope standard), any stage can be quickly solo'd/bypassed instantly and the metering tools never get in the way.
I don't rely on this exclusively for DIY mastering either, it serves wonderfully for mixing and polishing up sound design material. THIS IS NOT JUST A MASTERING TOOL - it serves well at any stage of production! If it were strictly for mastering I wouldn't use it very often, but if I simply need multiband compression, or subtle excitation, or a "quick n' dirty" limter - Ozone3 is on the channel strip.

  Dowloaded It, Purchased It, Used It, Love It 
by Tyrone Omar Lewis from California, February 2008
Music Background:  Pro Musician, Keyboards

I saw this plug-in while downloading a free copy of vinyl from the Izotope web site. I downloaded the demo copy that they offered, inserted the plug on a mix I just finished and it sounded great. So I purchased it from Sweetwater. This plug is a must have for people like me. I have a project studio and I do alot of demo work. I like to listen to my different ruff mixes and this plug adds that extra kick that I need to get a good feel on how the final mix will sound.

  OZONE 3 
by 12welve! from Saginaw,MI, December 2007
Music Background:  Producer,Beatmaker,Drummer,Engineer,C.E.O. of Platinum Bound Productions

I purchased the Ozone 3 about 4 years ago and had to wait another year before i could use it because i was running on OS9 and transfered to OSX Tiger and pop that baby in the Install and BANG frequency range simular to a SSL mixing board sound JUMPED out the speakers,i own a Manley and this is definatly comparible to that kind of shock and awwww.........YEA it's digital Scret Weapon!

  Very Impressed So Far 
by Laz from Tampa, FL USA, October 2007
Music Background:  Hobbyist

This is a great program from what i can tell so far. I put it on a track to sample it and go thru some of the presets and WOW! Major difference. For the price its a must have in any studio.

  Magic with the click of a button 
by Cameron from fort collins, CO, October 2007
Music Background:  seasoned drummer/guitarist, aspiring engineer

I recently recorded a full song ina local studio, and the engineer bussed 8 drum mics all into this one procesor and just fired up a stock preset, and i was AMAZED! for all the drums to be bussed into the same plugins, it doesnt show it at all. The result is a punchier, broader, more lively sound like you wouldnt imagine. The second i heard it i knew i had to have it for my studio im gradually building up.

  Ozone is all I need anymore. 
by Greg B. from San Diego, September 2007
Music Background:  Composer / Project Recording Engineer

Ozone has totally changed my expectations from my own recordings. Old recordings that were well performed but flawed in the production stand get new life in Ozone. My problem is that now I have 12 years worth of work to revitalize!! I took my sister's bible studies that were recorded on a karaoke machine with the stock mike and ... well you would need to hear the before and after to believe the difference.
I accidentally turn the expander on and that made such a HUGE difference on the tape hiss. I agree with other reviewers that the reverb was definately an after thought but if used sparingly it can actually be quite effective. I found the presets to be very instructive since I can go in and see how they set the equipment to get the preset's final effect.
I use Pro Tools and Garageband. I installed Ozone into PT and low and behold when I opened Garageband it was there as well. Although not the RTAS quality in Garageband (I think I could be wrong) it's a really treat when fleshing out a sketch before pre-producing it for a studio session.
I'm still after the many months since I bought it figuring out that it still does more than I thought it did. I never feel limited.
I like it. It blinks and goes boom. What else is there?

  Best Mastering Software I've Found 
by Vince Maffei from Green Ohio, September 2007
Music Background:  Recording Engineer, Studio Owner VFM Productions

I own WAVES, IK-TRacks, and more...but the Ozone3 blows them away. This software will make your mix down tracks ready to burn and radio ready. Great mastering software makes ALL the difference in the world. Save your mony on effect plug-ins and buy this mastering software...you won't be sorry!

  Ozone is amazing... finally something usable 
by Simon Wood from UK, September 2007
Music Background:  Recording Engineer

Ok, it's time for you to get your wallet or purse out. This is the ultimate sound studio essential. For years peopel have tried to get that full, deep, spacey, crisp, detailed, enhanced, loud sound and now it is literally one or two clicks away. scroll through the presets and you will soon see (by pressing the bypass button) exactly what you are missing out on by not having this. Our studio can not survive without this. it does not suck. Download the trial version for free and check it out. it is awesome. - Simon Wood

  Best Money I've Spent 
by Greg from Florence, CO, July 2007
Music Background:  Project Studio owner/engineer, Musician, Music lover and enthusiast

After spending thousands on Mics, preamps, converters, computer "stuff", etc. I was floored to run my first song through this software. Compared to other popular software costing much-much more, Izotope gave me cleaner, more pristine and louder results. The sheen it put on my music is breathtaking. It was easy to download, so easy to use a monkey could use it, the factory presets are AWESOME to begin with, and best of all: for the power of this units performance, it has put very little strain on my computers CPU. This piece of software has done more for my recordings than any other single purchase to date. For the money, you can't go wrong.

  I'd easily pay 600+ for Ozone 3!!! 
by , April 2007

Today was my first day using this plugin. AND WOW! It made my mix come ALIVE that no other plugin could do, NOT even the SONY INFLATOR. For 200 bucks, you get 7 mastering plugins that you won't regret. and as I said, even if it was $600+, it would still be worth it. :-).

  This is the real thing. 
by Nathanael Davenport from Rexburg, ID, January 2007
Music Background:  Hammond Organist, Recording Engineer - Rock House Recording

It's sad that people don't realize the potential of this mastering processor. This is a professional tool, that professional mastering engineers can and some do use. The reason it isn't used more often is due to it's relative newness and it's price. It's so sad that in this profession people hold so fast to the juvenile and dogmatic view that you ALWAYS get what you pay for. This is one exception, and anyone with good ears can hear it.

A mastering engineer's job is to qualify a mix for commercial duplication, and sometimes that means not doing anything and giving their seal of approval for a mix! An excellent master depends on an excellent mix, and an excellent mix requires and excellent recording to begin with. It all requires professionalism at all levels.

Ozone can't make a bad mix sound better. Ozone is only marginally useful in the hands of someone untrained in the art and science of two-channel mastering. But in the hands of a professional, it is a very powerful and efficient tool, with the capability to produce results on the same level as TC Electronic's System 6000 mastering system. The dynamics processing, reverbs, spatial processing, and dithering algorithms are all second to none. With an excellent source mix and skilled ears, a professional can use Ozone 3 to obtain the same results as are possible with much more expensive mastering solutions.

This is the probably the best-kept secret in audio engineering. Don't underestimate it.

  Fine Tuning 
by The Ken Myers Project from Cleveland, Ohio USA, October 2006
Music Background:  recording artist, electronic musician composer

much agreed nothing subsitutes a pro mastering engineer, and duplicating the final sheen of one song and copying it to another is rather hit or miss as it were. If you want to get levels right where you want them this product is fine. Also, the mastering reverb is excellent for smoothing out final mixes with different reverb settings for different instruments.

DIY Mastering Dream 
by dean bonzani from flagstaff, AZ, July 2005

For the record, there is no substitute for taking your final mixes to a mastering house and having an engineer finish the whole shebang up. This, of course, will set you back anywhere from $500-$________, depending on who's doing the mastering.

If you're the type who'd rather invest the money in equipment and software that allows YOU, the aspiring engineer, to tweak about with the sound and get a result that keeps musicians, yourself, and your fans happpy, then THIS is a phenomenal amount of processing power for the money.

$199. for a mastering tool with this much UMPH! is a bargain! Just punching up the presets will reward you with a host of intriguing treatments of your track/stereo mix that you'll be hard-pressed to pick a winner from, as they're all so interesting and good, each in it's own right. You can turn an "okay" track into a "wow" track at the flick of a button, and dipping deeply into the individual parameters of the different effects will have you happily tweaking into the wee hours.

Sound quality: pristine. Easy of use: Ha! Are you kidding? Use-ability: infinite.

Your mix will leap to life with Ozone 3! It's almost ridiculous how much of a difference it makes when plugged into a track or placed at the end of the chain. (I'm using Traktion, so I can drag the filter to the main outs section, and it KILLS.)

An important note here: the folks at iZotope must be just as sick of using a mouse to twiddle knobs as some of the rest of us are, because they've done away with that annoyance. This software is a breeze to futz with— intuitive and easy to navigate, so the fun is never slowed by ungainly GUI acrobatics or dicey layout.

A thoroughly enjoyable and powerful suite of real tools for the serious "I can do this" crowd, for a fraction of what one mastering session would cost you. Yeah, you'll be up nights learning all of the intricacies, but you know you'd rather spend the cash on adding to your own capabilties and skillset, or you wouldn't be reading this...

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