after having polished my last rabbit’s album, where I used Scaler a lot, I understand I need to learn basic mixing at least
I read a couple of guides but I think they are too much deep, while I need a faster/easier way to have a decent amateur mix
I tried the simplest that is using a spectrum analyzer, then equalization to create a space for conflicting instruments, but even this method is hard if the song structure has multiple instrument in the same bandwidth (bass, drums, my voice, etc)
so my question is: can you suggest me some software/plugin, that is not so much expensive, and let me mix fast and easy at an amateurish level?
That’s a very good suggestion. I like to think of music production as cutting what you don’t need (EQ), colouring to add sparkle (FX, Saturation) and control to control dynamics whilst pushing for loudness (Compression). Ozone does a great combination of these things whilst allowing you to change the individual elements and parameters within those.
BTW note that this big discount called “Ozone 9 Advanced: Crossgrade from any iZotope Product” is valid even if you have an account and a free plugin, as in my case (with Vocal Doubler)
You are welcome, Claudio.
I am glad that you had this discount. And, thanks to you, i also checked my account and found a great deal, Crossgrade from Ozone to Tonal Balance Bundle for 149$. I discovered Neutron and combined it with Ozone. Didn’t have time to check everything, but already Ozone 9 Advanced is worth the money. If only I could buy a bit of inspiration on sale! Oh, i already have it - it’s Scaler
now we have to understand how using these beasts, and you are advantaged as there are tons of video-tutorial in English
I understand that Ozone it is not exactly for mixing, rather for mastering
nevertheless, I hope that the suggestions of Ozone AI may be used to understand what’s bad in my mixing, so improving it with the standard Ableton tools
unless they don’t give away their mixing tool Neutron for Peanuts
even if it means I have to break another piggy bank
Find a type of mastering I need (the list is enormous so I need to listen, but I start with something that is close to the style of my song)
I use the assistant that gives the “basic” (I use quotes because with AI in Ozone, it is really good)
Then I go to Imager and use it to set the stereo width or anything else I need to modify
And, what is really exciting in Ozone 9 Advanced, I can use Master Rebalance control (need to add it with a “plus” sign) and set Gain for vocals, bass and drums. Pretty simple, but really good.
yes, it’s just what I tried yesterday night, after having installed it
now, if I’m not wrong you put in on the master and it works on the stereo audio output, not on lanes as a standard mixing tool, and I was thinking if using the AI as a prompter, then editing each lane with its suggestion, can improve the mix before the real mastering, and improve my ability to mix
but if you say that it’s not worth the candle of easiness, I’ll follow your path
Well, there was a problem when I put an instance of Ozone in the Master track, my projects crashed regularly during the rendering. Since I decided to use the stand-alone version and provide it with a complete stereo mix, no issues in about two years
So yes, it is easier and also it’s more robust…
I think I might try again putting Ozone to master track but before doing that, I will freeze all my tracks (I recently discovered this feature in Reaper but probably exists in any DAW). Maybe this will work better.
yes, I do that regularly since a couple of weeks and my PC breaths way better
another tip I read is only using a low buffer (to reduce latency) when playing instruments, then increase it while mixing and mastering (with frozen tracks or not)
I have a weak hardware but no crashes so far (I cross my fingers )
and another thing that I believe to have understood, is removing effects on tracks, if you then use the same, or better, effects in Ozone
effects suck a lot of RAM and CPU and I suspect that the doublets degrade audio as well
and I still have to understand how using IPC
Wouldn’t it be cool if all the iZotope products you owned talked to each other? Well, it’s a dream come true! With iZotope’s Inter Plug-in Communication (IPC) technology, different iZotope plug-in instances on separate tracks can send data back and forth to each other.
Oh, yes, Neutron. I am discovering it. Try Visual Mixer in it, put the instruments in space,(left/right), run Assistant and then fine tune back in Visual Mixer. This is greatness.
Use Shift to preserve the volume, e.g. 0 dB horizontally and Ctr to preserve the left/right position while changing the volume level of each instruments in Visual Mixer.
Gta, I just discovered that I already have IPC. It is called Relay and the magic of Neutron works thanks to it. It was on my 149$ bundle altogether with Ozone, Neutron, Nectar and Tonal Balance Control.
yes, it is included in Ozone as well, but I realized its usefulness only reading a Izotope tutorial
so yesterday I polished quite perfectly a vibe, but I still have issues with a track, so today I’ll use the Track assistant on it
or I delete the track and remade it
Neutron and Ozone are a bombastic couple of tool
very very easy to use for the basic
and plenty of improvement if one is willing to go deep (not my case )
mmm, I think this could be a drawback then, because you’ll go to change dynamics, etc. on a track that is different from the real one
anyway, yesterday I tried to NOT freeze any track (stuffed with effects and Neutron-Ozone tools) and my old PC endured, simply rising the ASIO buffer: so the latter can be a good alternative to freezing
BTW, Neutron and Ozone effects suck less RAM/CPU than their standard counterparts (e.g. Ableton ones), so I am able to use more effects per track now, without wringing my PC’s neck
well, I can say that the 2 assistants + the visual mixer are perfect for easiness
very satisfied by both tools
now only Nektar entices me a bit, but I don’t have a place to sing without bother my wife so the vocals will wait until I find an alternative to record my voice, for example a smartphone
Izotope has the iOS app Spire to do that, but it only works on iOS
do somebody know a similar app that works on Android?
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