I used Ozone 4 in the past but moved over to T-RackS a few years ago - more to do with cost at the time than anything else. After reading poor reviews for Ozone 6, I stuck with T-RackS but now see Ozone 7 is out. Any thoughts on the new version? I'm happy with T-RackS but always on the lookout for improvements - as long as the improvements outweigh the costs.

Ozone 7 Advanced is a very good piece of gear, Ozone 6 wasn't as bad as they make out, mainly people were upset with the removal, and apparent removal of certain things like the reverb and presets and such, with the presets there were plenty of presets available, a lot seemed to not be aware of how to them, and what started at the beginning just seemed to flow on in ignorance of the actual reality. Also a lot seemed to get disgruntled that certain options/modules were Advanced only. Wasn't so much the quality of what could be achieved, Ozone 6 Advanced was another fine piece of gear.
 
I own all the T-Racks stuff, and way back I did some comparisons and most of the time it was Ozone 5 or 6 Advanced that came through for me as the better end result, using Alloy 2 and Nectar 2 production Suite in the mix as well. But then there were times that T-Racks would shine as well. The T-Racks Master EQ 432 is very very nice, and in it's place very hard to beat, the Stealth Limiter is also right up there. I very rarely use the T-Racks stuff now, apart from the Master EQ when it suits.
 
They are both very formidable pieces of software, I tend towards Ozone and Izotope products with a very generous helping of Waves Plugs and a number of very good and useful plugins from various other developers. The best thing to do is try them out for yourself, all our music is different, what works well for one will not necessarily be the best for another. And the bottom line is, if you can use the tools you have well, you will most likely get a better result than if you use tools you don't really have a grasp of even if they are 'supposedly' better. Try them out, and see which suits 'you' the best.
 
Richard

I don't know enough about Ozone 7 to compare it to the current TRackS.  But, when I was looking at a mastering suite, I download both Ozone 5 and TRackS demos.  Ozone 5 won and I bought it.  I upgraded to Ozone 6 but to be truthful I mainly use Ozone 5.  I've used Ozone 6 on occasion but Ozone 5, for my uses, is my "go to".

I have both TRacks and ozone 6 adv. TRacks will certainly cost a whole heap more unless you're able to get all the modules in group buys.

They both have their uses and one could easily be better than the other for different use cases. If I had to do some real fine surgical treatment I'd got for ozone for sure.

A group buy was the "carrot" for me in the first place. I've bought other IK products the same way and got very used to how they operate. Maybe just sticking with what I know best will do me for now. I'm also still getting used to all the new stuff in the past few Sonar updates - just scratching the surface of it all is taking a fair amount of time.

I don't think  TRacks is as intuitive. That said I have heard some killer mixes using only TRacks. As Mudgel has said, I believe that Ozone is easier to make surgical changes with. I presently have Ozone 4 through Ozone 6. I think there are users who rely heavily on the presets in Ozone which are very helpful for a new user or someone who doesn't know how to use all of the included plug-ins. One thing that Ozone does that I think throws some people off- They have a harmonic exciter at the end of many of their chains...people hear that and think wow! Almost anything run through some kind of harmonic exciter will sound a little sharper to the ear.
You could simply copy the chain layout with plugs in Sonar and get very close. A decent EQ, a good multiband compressor, a limiter and a harmonic exciter. And there are pre made mastering templates in Sonar Platinum. Ozone probably makes it easier to get there because you have all of those tools on one place and a fairly useful GUI. You can also build a mastering chain in Sonar and save it so it's there when you want it.
The demo is a free download I think. Give it a shot and see what you think.

Ken, if you're getting good results with TRackS now, in all honesty Ozone is not going to make a big difference to you. I'd say the same thing if you were thinking of switching from Elephant or L2 or FabFilter or Sonnox or anything else of good quality. Mastering is 95% skill and 5% what tools you have to work with.
 
That said, given the current low price it might still be a worthwhile investment, to get some other features you may not already have. Depending on what's already in your toolkit, the Music Production Bundle could add a lot of new toys to play with. I'm really digging Alloy, which was a surprise because I don't normally use channel strips. 

I'm very happy with T-Racks (I have all of the plugins except the new limiter), but I usually just make my own effects chain in Sonar.

I own both and use both.  I like both.  T-Racks is great for mastering.  Having said that, the standalone versions of Ozone 6 and 7 (advanced versions) allow you to put a 3rd party vst fx into Ozone's chain and move them anywhere in that chain; this includes adding any T-Racks module or even the entire T-Racks rack into Ozone.  This means (for example) that if you have a favorite couple of plugins in T-Racks, but prefer two or three of the components of Ozone, you can load up Ozone 6/7 Standalone, but add your T-Racks into Ozone and use BOTH.  I realize this can get weird or over-the-top, but the options are there.
 
Just my 2 cents.

+1 @ cecelius2