Both Ozone 5 and Ozone 5 Advanced are Native plug-ins available in RTAS, VST and AU formats. Ozone 5 Advanced includes all six of Ozone 5's internal processor modules as separate plug-ins--freely useable anywhere in your DAW. Those are: multi-band Dynamics, a four-band compressor, limiter, gate/expander; a four-band Stereo Imager; the variable phase, paragraphic Equalizer; a mastering-grade Reverb, Harmonic Exciter, and their wonderful loudness Maximizer.

All-new is Ozone 5 Advanced's Ozone Meter Bridge. Ozone Meter Bridge is a set of four sophisticated measurement tools that provide a real-time and precise visual overview of Ozone 5's mastering process and its affect on your audio program. It's GUI and design makes for a beautiful image to behold on my computer monitor!

All four of OMB's tools are viewable separately or in any combination and in any monitor screen size you prefer. The four tools are: an phase vector scope that graphically represents instantaneous phase using pointillist-style imagery, a resizable stereo spectrum analyzer display, and a set of input/output vertical level meters that measure peak/RMS electrical levels and also provide running tallies of short and long term loudness with a loudness range determination referenced to the ITU-R BS.1770-2 guidelines. This new set of recommendations for broadcasters is in place in Europe and under consideration by the U.S. congress to become a federal mandate.

The fourth measurement tool in the OMB is the mesmerizing 3D spectrogram. Spectrogram shows, in real-time, your mix's frequency content (Z-axis), level (Y-axis) over a time period of several seconds (X-axis). I found this display to show "hidden" sonic information and details about my mixes that I couldn't hear because either they were masked by louder sounds or obscured by newly-discovered deficiencies in my monitors.

During the final tweak stages of my mixing process, I have OMB's spectrogram (which also works in 2D) onscreen nearly all the time--especially when the producer and artist show up to critique my work. OMB has enough resolution so that individual instruments within the stereo mix, such a guitar track during a solo, are easily "seen" with the ebb and flow of their level, pitch and tonality visually represented. This technology is based on iZotope's RX 2 Advanced audio repair software, but especially tailored for a mastering application.

Under the hood of Ozone 5, along with the completely new look and the updated and more precise controls of the GUI, are many well-named presets that are nearly perfect starting places to get good mastering results done quickly--even if the mastering process is all new to you. I especially liked that, unlike a lot of other mastering plug-ins, the presets in Ozone 5 (like all iZotope products) don't come already "maxed out"--where the default settings (when you first insert the plug-in into your session) cause levels to jump up and hit you in the face--as if to shout at you that it's working!

Other new Ozone 5 Advanced features are: now the Loudness Maximizer has a mode for transient recovery (restore lost brilliance from over compression), stereo link controls, and mnay mono-compatible stereo synthesis features. Plus for mixing and stem mastering, multiple audio streams can be superimposed on a 2D or 3D plot using Ozone 5 Advanced's Meter Tap plug-ins.

Ozone 5 and Ozone 5 Advanced sell for $249 and $999 respectively and there are upgrade paths and prices for the current Ozone user base.