Ozone includes a paragraphic equalizer that combines 6 bands
of adjustable notch filters and low/high shelf filters.
The green vertical arrows mark each of the six peak filter bands, with the green horizontal arrows indicating the position of the two shelf filters.
You can adjust an EQ band by clicking on a set of green arrows and dragging the crosshairs to change the frequency and gain of the band. You can also use the arrow keys to adjust a selected band, or the Shift key in combination with the arrow keys to adjust in larger increments.
If you move the mouse over the "handles" on the side of the band, you can adjust the Q or bandwidth of the EQ by dragging with the mouse and widening the band.
You can also use Page Up and Page Down keys to change the width of the EQ band, or if you have a wheel mouse, you can use the mouse wheel to widen a selected band.
Visuals:
As you adjust a band you will see two EQ curves. The bright red curve is the composite of all EQ bands while the darker red curve shows the EQ curve of the selected band.
A spectrum by default is overlaid on the EQ module for visual feedback of the mix. You can turn off the spectrum to conserve CPU or if you just don't want to see it using the Options screen. You can also set options such as average or real time spectrum, show peak spectrum, etc. See the Spectrum Options screen here...
In the background you'll see the gain scale for the EQ down the center in a light grey color. This will change as you zoom the EQ in or out. You'll see the scale for the spectrum in a green color along the right. Note that the scales for the EQ and spectrum are different, by design. If they were made to match, you wouldn't see enough of the spectrum for it to be useful. The frequency scale in grey applies to both the EQ and the spectrum.
Selecting Filter Shapes
Ozone 3 provides the ability to set the type or shape of any of the eight EQ nodes. Any node can be a lowshelf, lowpass, peak, highshelf or highpass filter. To change the shape, click on the "Show Info" button.
From this table, you can specify a different filter shape. If you had selected a node in the main screen before opening the Show Info table, that node is shown as selected in the table (i.e. Node 4 has brackets around it, indicating that this was the EQ node that is currently selected).
Note that you can also use the "Show Info" dialog to enter values for the EQ bands directly. You can also disable bands with this table by clicking on the square box to the left of a band.
Selecting Analog or Digital EQ
Ozone offers a choice of an analog equalizer, modeled after classic vacuum tube or "valve" equalizers, or a digital linear phase equalizer. The choice is a matter of subjective taste, although as a guideline the analog filter provides a classic sound for general mastering, while the digital filter provides the ability to EQ without phase artifacts.
To select Analog or Digital filters, toggle the button between Analog,
Digital and Matching.
Matching EQ
A third EQ mode is the matching mode. This allows you to automatically equalize a mix based on the spectrum or frequency response of another recording. The matching EQ is a digital linear phase EQ, with the ability to use over 8,000 bands of frequencies for very precise matching. For step by step instructions on using the Matching EQ, see here...
As would be expected, the Matching EQ works hand in hand with spectrum snapshots to "borrow" the spectrum of an audio clip and apply it to another.
The Alt-Solo
Feature
If you hold down the Alt key and click on the spectrum, you have an audio magnifying glass that lets you hear only the frequencies that are under the mouse cursor, without affecting your actual EQ settings. This is useful for pinpointing the location of a frequency in the mix without changing your actual EQ bands. Releasing the mouse button returns the sound to the actual EQ. You can set the default bandwidth of this filter in the Options screen under "Alt-Solo Filter Q".
Additional Tips and Tricks
1) You can zoom in on the EQ curves by clicking the 1x button to magnify 1x, 2x, 3x or 6x. This allows you to better see and position EQ nodes around the 0 dB line.
Note that the zoom deliberately does not zoom the spectrum. The purpose of the zoom is to give you better visibility and resolution for small tweaks of the EQ around the 0 dB line. If the spectrum also zoomed in, well, the spectrum would be ineffective as a visual aid since you'd only see the spectrum around the 0 dB line, when what you probably want is a "stepped back" view of all the peaks and valleys.
Note that with Ozone, right-clicking (under OS X you can also ctrl-click) a button toggles it in reverse - so for the zoom button a right click zooms back out - 6x to 3x to 2x to 1x.
2) If you hold down the Shift key and drag an EQ band, the EQ band will be "locked" in the direction that you're dragging. So if you just want to change the gain without affecting the frequency (or vice-versa) just hold the Shift Key while you drag.
3) If you hold down the Ctrl key under Windows or the Command key under OS X, you can click and select multiple bands. Once selected, you can adjust them as a group by clicking and dragging on the first band you selected in the group.
4) If you'd rather use numbers as opposed to visual EQ bands, clicking on the Show Info button gives you a table view of the EQ band settings. You can enter values for the EQ bands directly in this table. You can also disable bands with this table by clicking on the square box to the left of a band.
5) If you've chosen to display an averaging spectrum or a peak hold spectrum (using the Spectrum Options screen) you can reset the peak hold or the averaging by clicking on the spectrum.
6) Right click on the spectrum to bring up an options dialog to control the spectrum display. Learn more about these options here...
Note: This help file is a quick reference for basic Ozone functions and controls. We have a separate "how to" guide that provides tips and techniques for mastering with Ozone. You can download this guide from http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/ozone/guides.html