[braindongle]

It's an interesting thing. When you participate in this war as a creator of recorded music, as I do, you're sacrificing dynamic range so that your track fits in with everyone else's. For some types of music, it's a trade-off worth making, for others, not so much. Getting close to what the pros do is pretty straightforward if you have experience and a real mastering tool. Those tools are getting smart about analyzing your track and building an eq/compressor/limiter/maximizer stack that rocks, but the gods of top-40, for example, can make real magic happen when it comes to loud-but-not-distorted.

[p1necone]

It's not a trade-off worth making at all from my perspective. I have a volume knob, pretty much all audio software has an option for volume normalization, radio DJs can apply something similar if they wish.

[IAmGraydon]

I say this with all due respect, but your copy of Ozone is getting you nowhere near what the pros do. Not even the same planet.

[sramsay]

All he said is that the "tools are getting smart[er]," and he's right.

I still can't bring myself to hit "Mastering Assistant" (still less, "Mix Assistant" in Neutron) and call it a day. But honestly, it's pretty spooky how good these tools are getting. I'm particularly impressed by the way it figures out where to set dynamic EQ points on problematic frequencies. I haven't played with Gullfoss yet, but the pros I talk to say it's even spookier.

Of course, what you may mean is that there's no substitute for a $50,000 Neve console, a treated, isolated room, monitors that cost considerably more than your car, and an engineer with twenty years of experience. Sure.

But honestly, it is reasonable to wonder whether this is a bit like when we used to say, "Well, a computer will never beat a human at chess."

It's also not true that no professional mastering engineers use Ozone. Most big shops at least have it lying around (if only for that limiter, which many pros emphatically do use). It's also sometimes the right tool for the job. And there are a few serious pros for whom it's their main tool. Not many, granted. But interface aside, it's not clear that when it comes to "clean" processing, that FabFilter's stuff (which is very widely used) is any better.

[braindongle]

Thanks for mentioning those other plugins. I'm not serious about mastering (it's about the tune!), but now I'm curious, and the FabFilter mastering bundle may have to go on the wish list.

[braindongle]

Well, perceived loudness is a tough nut to crack for sure, but that's what's in question, and my evidence is here: https://soundcloud.com/willhaslett Enjoy! Same "league", "planet", whatever. My work is plenty loud when I want it to be :)