Master Assistant is designed to give you a starting point that is intelligently tailored to your music, helping you create a professional sounding master, regardless of your experience level. Brand new to Master Assistant in Ozone 9 is Vintage mode.
How to set up Master Assistant
If you’re using Master Assistant for the first time, all you need to do is:
1. Open a track in the standalone Ozone application or place the Ozone mothership on the master track. Click on the Master Assistant button and adjust Master Assistant settings.
2. If you want Ozone to tackle the loudness of a track, choose Manual and move the intensities to control the amount of loudness processing applied to your audio, ranging from low (14 LUFS) to medium (12 LUFS) to high (11 LUFS).
3. Choose a destination. This sets the Maximizer Threshold ceiling to provide your audio with an appropriate amount of headroom based on your destination medium. Choosing CD will set a threshold of -.03dB, and choosing streaming will set the threshold to -1dB. Once you’re happy with your settings, click Next so that Master Assistant can analyze the audio content. For best results, we recommend running Master Assistant on the loudest portion of the track.
4. When Master Assistant is finished, you can either Accept or Cancel the changes.
Have a listen to Master Assistant at work in the audio demos located in the media player above.
Modern vs. Vintage Modes
Modern and Vintage modes both offer different processing options. Listen to the same track mastered in both Modern and Vintage modes in the media player above. Hear how much warmer and fuller the Vintage one is—especially compared to the bass guitar and kick drum in the thinner, more transparent modern version.
Conclusion
Master Assistant is a versatile tool in Ozone 9, it listens to your audio and settles on parameters to give you a great starting point. The new Vintage mode provides even more starting options, employing the Vintage EQ, Vintage Compressor, and Vintage Limiter to help get a warm, analog-style master.
by Geoff Manchester, iZotope Content Team | October 3, 2019.