Hi! I've got 2 questions:

1) Has anyone compared the maximizer in Ozone 5 advanced with the maximizer in Ozone 6 advanced?

Is the maximizer in Ozone 6 advanced any better than the one in Ozone 5 advanced? Can you create a louder mastering using maximizer in Ozone 6, comparing to using maximizer in Ozone 5? (eg. because maximizer in Ozone 6 has some better algorithms?)



2) What's better? (especially for creating a louder mastering) AOM Invisible Limiter or Ozone's maximizer?
(I'm interested in house, trance masterings)


cheers!

 

Sorry for going off topic slightly, but don't forget to check out this free software:

https://vladgsound.wordpress.com/plugins/limiter6/

If you don't like it, you can delete it without regret.

 

OZ 6's limiter sounds better.

Check out this: http://youtu.be/zlph_VQ-1wU?list=UUVdU3CMnJ-edC4FeCXK4b3Q

 

The limiter i would say isnt that big of a factor, mixing your track would be a better search for time.
If you wanna just go full loudness try using camel phat on your master, it can make your tracks super loud but still be 0db.
There was also a topic posited by someone on this forum (cant remember who) that compared all of the limiters and i think AOM came out on top.
Hope this helps!

 

To me there isn't a big difference between 5 and 6 limiters. Maybe the 6 is slighly better but i haven't run an accuractley test but i can tell you trick. (I produce edm mainly) if you want a loud track you need a proper mix before the mastering chain. Once you are satisfied with the mix, use your mastering vst (eq compressor,saturator/exciter). In the end of the chain use a clipper instead of a limiter (gclip is free or t-racks clipper). In this way i can get better results in terms of loudness and mix trasparency.

You get your track louder by using izotope imager and making mono the track low end like from 90-200 hz (depends on the track).


If i had to choose my favourites limiters in terms of trasparency are the FabFilter Pro-L and the T-racks Brickwall limiter. I'm not a big fan of the Izotope one. It destroy the audio pretty quick imo. Just my 2 cent

 

I tried ozone 6, I didn't feel a better sound, but a much bigger CPU hit
I rolld back to 5.

If you shout for loudness, it won't make a big difference anyway.

what you can do with a bigger impact :
- limiters on every single attack-ish tracks
- saturator every where
- sidechain comp everywhere
- careful eq.
- stereo expand everywhere you can.
- learn multiband comp.

 

The moment a person mentions the words "limiters, better and louder" in one sentence is the moment that person gets punched.

 

I tested almost all market brickwalls.
I kept Elephant and Pro-L.

Elephant is less flexible, but can warm any cold mix without too much side effects.
Pro-L is very neutral and flexible.

Ozone is just good.
Slate FG-X is just awful. They pretend their strong point is transient handling...but it deliver the worst transients ever. Even freewares are better.
Loudmax freeware is very good.
and on and on...

V6 or V5 will change almost nothing. The real difference will be Ozone vs Elephant or Pro-L

 

Sonnox limiter

 

I also like this one.

But on the other hand, "it's not what you use...".

 

If you're looking for the short answer, then yes the Ozone Limiter is great. It has great transient handling and you can really push the loudness pretty hard. It's very easy to use and you can get results really quickly with it.
That being said, how loud you can go with your tracks depends on so many things. It all starts with mixing. The more compression you use on your tracks during mixing, the louder you can go with your limiter. Also, if you use limiting and clipping during mixing to get rid of crazy transients, then you can go even louder with your limiter during mastering.

If you're looking for a list of limiters here are my favourite in order

1) Fabfilter Pro-L - extremely flexible, so many different flavors and settings you can use. The attack/release and look ahead controls are extremely useful. It's awesome and it's what I use for most of my work and mastering projects

2) Ozone - again like I said before, excellent limiter, very easy to use, great sound and transient handling. For me it's just not as flexible as Fabfilter, which gives you complete control over everything.

3) Voxengo Elephant - again another great limiter with lots of features and controls.

In the end, they all pretty much do the same thing. Just like everything else it all depends what you want to do with the limiter. I've sometimes used Ableton Live's limiter and it was perfect for the job.

 

Personally I really like the Waves L3 Ultra Maximiser. It just makes my mix sound so much better

 

sometimes i just use a saturator as a limiter. MMultiBandSaturator is awesome for making tracks/master fatter and louder on the default setting.

 

Some ppl use a combination of regular limiter (not brickwall) and saturation to tame spikes. A kind of soft saturation limiting.

Some brickwalls (like Elephant, if i remember well) use voluntary saturation between adaptive compression/limiting and final look ahead brickwall to get less gain pumping due to spikes, and "beef up" sound with harmonics.
This is what i call transients handling...unlike FG-X

 

Also, about the mixing stage.

Besides compression, you have also to play with subtle saturation types on almost every track. I compared once Izotope Trash and "SausageFattener" on a synth track to see which plugin can make the track louder but without increasing the peak loudness too much. I used the clipper from Trash and what i've realised was that the perceived loudness of the track was louder but with less dbs (e.g. -13.2db) against SausageFattener which produced the same "peak" loudness (-13.2db), but the perceived loudness/on the ears sounded weaker & quieter.
SausageFattener fattens up only the peak loudness, while the perceived loudness gets weaker....
That being said, saturators and clippers plays an important role in the loudness of today.

 

Just my view (no comments needed). Learn to master real music at first place then you will produce fantastic house, trance, whatever music

 

Thank you for your help!

Have you tested HOFA IQ-Limiter?
Has the IQ-Limiter anything to offer that is unaviable in e.g. Fabfilter's Pro-L ?

 

No! Hofa one is ok as an overall limiter, but i think that Pro-L is better, due to its extra-tweaking features.