2014/11/09 23:29:35
keneds
I've decided to pick up the latest copy of Ozone (6) to try to get some of my projects to the more polished state. I have around ten to twelve songs I'm trying to line up. My question is do I open a new project and import each song (wave file) to its own track and install ozone into each song track because each song has its own mastering needs?

Next:
After the first song plays out..... A few seconds of dead air and then the next song track will begin? And so on and so on to create roughly a 50 minute ( give or take) project? Is this he way I should proceed?

Thank you for your time. Ken
2014/11/10 00:38:44
SuperG
It depends on your particular workflow style.
 
I tend to master within the same project I mix and track in. Ozone is simply use as the last plug-in on a master bus, before going to the mains.
 
Other folks will export a finished track to a wave file, and create a separate project just for mastering purposes.
 
Either way works.
2014/11/10 06:43:48
keneds
A separate project with all the songs?
2014/11/10 10:00:07
Guitarhacker
What I would do here is use Ozone in the master bus of the song..... one at a time.  What that looks like can vary from opening the original project and inserting O6 into the master bus and exporting it before repeating that with the next project.....or..... you could load all the exported files into their own track in a new project and insert O6 into the common master bus using mute or solo to work on one track at a time. Personally, I like the first approach since that lets you set different parameters, tweek them as needed, and save them in each project.
 
In the first song you work on, set up the plug in and save the settings in a preset. Or use one of their presets, edit it, and save it with a new name. Load that new preset for each song in it's own project. This will give you the same basic overall sound shaping for all the songs.  Then, export the finished songs into a new folder and start to compare them one after the other. You should be listening for the EQ to be very similar, the levels to be very similar, and for the songs to sound as if they were recorded in the same studio, by the same musicians, and at the same general time.
 
If you start adding Ozone into the tracks in the project..... that's totally possible, and I use it that way..... but at this stage, unless it's a really important project and the time you will spend doing this is justified by the end results, I'd simply skip the total remix and just polish them all to be as similar as possible and then start on the new ones you write and record using O6 in the tracks as you deem necessary.
 
I have a custom preset that I start every song project with. I add eq and Ozone to tracks as I need it. The overall result of using that same custom preset is that my tunes tend to sound like they are all related and from the same studio.
 
Just my 2 cents
2014/11/10 11:26:13
bitflipper
My method is to master each song in its own project, with Ozone (or other limiter) on the master bus, export as 32-bit with no dithering, and then open a separate CD-mastering project and load each song into that.
 
An instance of Ozone on the mastering project's master bus supplies the wordlength reduction and dithering, the "prevent intersample clipping" option is turned on, and the limiter mode is "brickwall" with a threshold of -0.03 dB. Sometimes I also use Ozone's EQ as a rumble filter, with a steep rolloff around 30 Hz.
 
A prerequisite for this method working is that each song should be mastered to a common loudness standard. That way, all the songs are going to already be pretty close in volume. A volume envelope in the master project can be used for minor tweaks (identify the quietest song in the collection and adjust everything else to it), generally no more than 1 or 2 dB to match volumes.
 
I load each song into a single stereo track in the mastering project. That makes it easy to re-sequence them if I want, and to precisely set the gaps and crossfades.
 
I don't ever use the standard 2-second gaps that CD-burning software sticks in by default. Instead, I set the gaps by ear in the mastering project. For example, a transition from an up-tempo rocker to a ballad might warrant a longer silence. I like to count beats as I'm listening, so that the next song comes in on the beat of the previous song. I'm also fond of crossfades, which works great when two consecutive songs are in the same key with similar tempos.
 
This procedure lets me preview a CD album in its entirety, exactly as a listener will hear it. Once I'm happy with the sequence, volume-matching and gaps, I export the whole shebang as one big 16-bit wave file. 
 
At this point, your CD-burning application sees only one file, and will create only one index marker. You have to now go in and manually set index markers on each song. Most CD-burning software will let you do this.
 
WARNING: if you send this master out for replication, be sure to send along a note that they are NOT to put in gaps between the songs. Tell them it's gapless. I had a thousand disks come back with 100ms gaps between every song after having painstakingly adjusted every crossfade. And it was a live album, so it sounded especially weird. I would have been furious had it not been my own damn fault for failing to give explicit instructions.
2014/11/10 17:36:41
keneds
In response to bit flipper......

"My method is to master each song in its own project, with Ozone (or other limiter) on the master bus, export as 32-bit with no dithering, and then open a separate CD-mastering project and load each song into that."

Just so I'm clear, after your satisfied with the mix of your song, you add Ozone to the master bus and master withing that song project. Once you have all of your songs mastered to your liking, you then.... export all of those songs....one at a time into your mastering projects single stereo track and space the accordingly. Then do you add ozone to that projects master bus and master them as a whole?
2014/11/10 17:50:04
bitflipper
Yup.
2014/11/10 18:11:10
keneds
Ok then...I'll take that road. Thank you. ( I might circle back around with more questions though ) Thank You.
2014/11/11 16:10:48
fireberd
What I do is mix the project to a new track.  Then apply Ozone 5 to that track.  Export that track letting Ozone 5 dither it to 16 bit/44.1Khz. 
2014/11/11 16:42:46
keneds
What My initial approach was before I opened this post was to open a fresh project and call it "masters". Each track (or song, wave file) would have its own instance of Ozone loaded into it because each song has its own needs ( let's just say it's a ten song project ). I would solo the song I'm working on and mute the others. Once all are done......I would bounce all songs to a single stereo track, gap accordingly, and convert that "Album" track to a wave file @ 16 bits. Is this a suitable way to do this? I just want to start out in the right direction from the start, that's why I come here to pick up pieces of the knowledge that is here.
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