Ozone8 and Wavelab

WaveLab
#1

I’m being told by the people at Izotope that Wavelab is not a supported host for Izotope Ozone8:
“The iZotope technology included with Wavelab 9 is MBIT+ Dithering. This is a very old product that has retained compatibility because it is part of the DAW itself. Ozone 8 is not a supported host because the updated audio engine and coding system in Ozone 8 is simply not compatible with Wavelab.”

I’ve been using Ozone7 for a while and updated to Ozone8. It just seem to run fine but I wonder if anyone has any experience with Ozone7-8 and Wavelab.

TIA

#2

Is the trial download still available? Nothing like trialing something like this on your own specific system.

#3

I’d like to ear PG about it.

#4

I haven’t put Ozone 8 through a lot of testing but it definitely works in WaveLab 9. I don’t use the full plugin but with Advanced you can use just the modules you want as single plugins.

I wonder what has changed in that they can’t officially support WaveLab?

WaveLab is possibly the most used cross-platform mastering DAW so I think they would want to support it.

#5

Exactly. And I find their answer a tad nebulous.
Here, Ozone 8 seem to be working fine. I got their answer when I simply mentioned the fact that putting the Balance plugin last in the chain is seen by Wavelab like it is processing, ending in a 32 float bit depth, even though I use the MBit dither in the Ozone 8 module. Easy to circumvent you will say, simply use dither in the dithering pane. Of course it’s the solution. But it is counterintuitive to have a “meter plugin” (Balance) that will change the bit depth.
I yet have to try the combination Ozone 8 with dither, followed by Balance in a supported host (like Reaper), to see if it behave the same. I’ll report if anyone 's interested.

#6

Yes, I also see that the Tonal Balance Plugin increase the bit-depth back to 32-bit floating point but this also happens in REAPER so I don’t think it’s WaveLab specific.

Maybe a better place to insert the Tonal Balance Plugin is in the Playback Processing section of the master fader so it doesn’t affect any of the rendered/processed audio?

#7

I agree. Maybe Wavelab has not been on their supported list in the past? I never checked. Samplitude/Sequoia is not there either. I expected Samplitude to be supported.
https://www.izotope.com/en/products/master-and-deliver/ozone/specs.html

#8

It sound to me like they may be referring to the free Izotope MBIT+ dithering plugin included with Wavelab… It says “Ozone 8 is not a supported HOST”. If running Ozone within Wavelab, Wavelab would be the host, not Ozone.

#9
#10

This is true that in the playback processing the new Ozone Tonal Balance Control plugin triggers a 32-bit reading currently. I think PG has hinted that in a future update of WaveLab, plugins in the Playback Processing slot will not influence any of the internal meters so I think you’ll see a change here sooner or later with the Playback Processing insert points.

I tested with some other popular/common metering plugins and none of them change the audio to 32-bit floating point so I really think the issue is not on WaveLab but should be reported to iZotope.

I would ask iZotope why this happens. If it’s meant to be only a meter, it should keep the audio at the same bit-depth as the incoming audio like the meters I tested (NUGEN, Waves Dorrough and WLM Plus, iZotope Insight).

It’s not WaveLab’s fault that the Tonal Balance Control plugin increases the bit-depth. It’s hard to know if it’s a bug because it’s a new plugin, or if the plugin is meant to do some processing somehow and therefor increases to 32-bit float.

#11

Indeed. I was not looking for a culprit and since I’ve been using Wavelab from V4, it’s the tool I use to evaluate audio and plugins. I reported the behavior of Ozone 8 right away to Izotope and that’s when I got the “coding” answer… Maybe PG could chime in on the subject ?
To be continued…

#12

I see. In general though, I think the Tonal Balance Control plugin must need to be 32-bit float to communicate with Ozone 8 and Neutron 2 properly. It does the same 32-bit float thing in REAPER too.

It would be a shame if iZotope decided to stop officially supporting WaveLab.

#13

I have installed Ozone 8 demo and everything seems to work fine. From the WaveLab POV, Ozone 8 is a “VST plugins as others”, and as far as Ozone respects the specs, there is no reason WaveLab would not be compatible with it.
Maybe the answer you got was from tech support that wanted a quick way to classify your case and avoid entering into details :unamused:

#14

Here’s the rest of the answer (I was asking: Still, it does work. When you say that “Ozone 8 is simply not
compatible with Wavelab”, again I’m asking: does the audio quality will
be altered in any way ?)
Answer:
“I don’t have an exact answer to this question — the fact that Ozone 8 is not compatible with Wavelab means that its performance will be unstable and unpredictable. This is the reason we do not qualify it for use in Wavelab: there is no way for us to guarantee that the product’s sound quality and function will be optimal within the unsupported DAW.”

#15

Ozone 8 is not compatible with Wavelab means that its performance will be unstable and unpredictable

Non-sense. Where are the facts? Or political answer because WaveLab is somehow a competitor :unamused:

#16

Does anyone know if Wavelab was ever on the officially supported list of Hosts for Ozone? Soundblade, Sequoia, Pyramix, Sadie are also not there. If Ozone is also a standalone app does it consider itself a mastering app, and therefore won’t list other mastering apps as supported hosts, or won’t bother testing with them? But the other apps also have fewer users, so that could also be a reason.

The way they dismissed the question and say Wavelab is simply not compatible because of updated “whatever” really deserves a much better answer from them, because it’s totally misleading without more information, and if they have more information, they’re not saying. Have they even tried testing Wavelab?

I think the op should just tell Izotope that the 32 bit issue, if it’s an issue, also happens in Reaper. Isotope should have checked It out in another host when the question was asked about wavelab.

#17

Ditto. That is what I’m trying to do.
Ozone 8 is an audio mastering plugin, not a stand alone nor an editing software. Rx, on the other hand can be used as a stand alone software or as a VST plugin.

#18

Wavelab being unsupported simply means that they haven’t tested Ozone with it, and so they can’t guarantee that everything will work 100% as intended.

The rest is likely just an employee extrapolating.

#19

Not very inspiring… get the employee fired :wink: Or maybe he’s been hired to do just that kind of job ?

#20

For the record, Ozone 8 does come as a standalone app as well but if they think that it somehow competes with the WaveLab montage they are incorrect.

Maybe some of the reasons they don’t support WaveLab are political but I think that it’s also because even though iZotope is one of the bigger plugin companies right now, they might have the resources and interest to support some of the mastering DAWs that have a smaller user base compared to DAWs like Pro Tools, Cubase, and Logic that just have more overall users.

When you consider that Ozone can be a great mastering tool, it seems silly that they wouldn’t want to support WaveLab and other mastering focused DAWs.

Maybe somebody from Steinberg needs to connect with iZotope again to end the cold war :slight_smile:

That being said, I don’t see any issues with Ozone 8 and Ozone 7 and earlier was also OK in WaveLab.