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1. Izotope Music Production
2. Izotope Music Production Suite 3 Review Guide
3. Izotope Music Production Suite 2
4. Izotope Post Production Suite 3

Nov 02, 2018  Nectar 3 contains iZotope’s most sophisticated set of tools designed for vocal production yet. With corrective tools through creative vocal production tools all the way to the final polish, Nectar 3 has been designed to bring out the intended performance in isolation and in the context of the mix, helping you to easily get your vocals to sit in the mix. Mar 03, 2020  Get 40% off 40% off Ozone 9 & Neutron 3, 50% off Music Production Suite 3 & Tonal Balance Bundle. In addition, get Elements products for only $29! IZotope Mix & Master Sale. IZotope Ozone 9 Advanced review by MusicRadar. The review was.

The mighty Neutron just got an update with new important additions and features that include machine learning, virtual assistants and improved performance.

by Vince Bellanova, Jan. 2020

The well-known iZotope advances the all-in-one solution for mixing with the update of their incredible Neutron. iZotope Neutron 3 is a modular solution for mixing and mastering that offers seven different modules: Equalizer, two Compressors, an Exciter, Gate, the new Sculptor and the Transient Shaper (eight modules if we also include the visual mixer in the list).

New features include a brand new module, Sculptor (we’ll be on that later), a new look for the entire plug-in, a grown-up Masking Meter, the new Mix Assistant and enhanced performances with less CPU usage. All of these will take the capabilities of Neutron to the next level for easier, more precise and more efficient mixes.

Neutron 3 provides everything we need in order to mix, enhance, or fix our single channels or entire tracks, as we will see. The mothership can host all of them or just what we need; here in fact we can arrange them, swap them and use a Limiter on the Output, or, if we just need a single section of Neutron, we can use the modules as single plug-ins. Neutron comes in three different versions, Elements, Standard and Advanced (the version I am reviewing), and the possibility to use modules as plug-ins is available only with the advanced version. For a detailed comparison between the various versions, please check this link:

Modules and Sculptor

It would be very hard to go deeply into every module and every function provided by Neutron 3, so we will focus on the main aspects of Neutron and on the new features.

As already seen, Neutron offers a complete set of tools for our mix, from Exciters and Transient Shapers to EQ, Compressor and the new Sculptor. Many of the modules are capable of multiband processing, and while this is awesome for the Compressor and the Exciter, it is a true blast with the Transient Shaper. Here we can adjust the Attack and Sustain for up to three bands. We can also choose the Envelope Mode, or the type of envelope since Precise, Balanced and Loose determine the recovery time between transients. With the learn function, as in other multiband modules, it can analyze the incoming audio material and split it into three bands. This can be great for enhancing the attack-specific sections of the spectrum, and particularly useful with entire tracks or for precise tweaking.

The new addition we mentioned above is the Sculptor module. Sculptor is a spectral shaping tool that looks quite simple but has a lot going on under the hood. It is dedicated to track improvements by removing muddiness, taming harshness or enhancing some areas of the spectrum by compressing the signal in up to 32 frequency bands, a considerable number that allows for great control over the input material. The dynamic processing is going to point towards a Target Curve. When we load Sculptor we can choose the type of target curve between various instruments divided into categories (we can also choose general purpose curves like Add Punch and Instrument Bus). These idealized spectral curves will be our guide, and at this point we can play with the parameters Amount, Speed and Tone to further sculpt the spectrum.

This tool is capable of adding clarity and a bit of definition to almost everything, and its complex series of bands is capable of interesting spectral enhancements. I particularly like it on basses, pads and drums, where it really shines removing muddiness and adding punch. In this example I loaded a pulse I made that was a bit dark and tried to enhance it with Sculptor to give back some life.

Izotope Music Production

Masking Meter

The Masking meter is one of the favorite enhancements. Masking can be a real issue and one of the primary goals in a mix is clarity, definition and, probably, separation for some instruments. Some frequency clashing can glue the mix, but often times we talk about masking, that happens when two instruments or sounds sit in the same frequency range and compete for our attention. In the EQ module we can engage the Masking Meter and select which track will be the “masker” which is responsible for masking the material we are analyzing. To select a track as a masker it must have an instance of Neutron 3, Neutron 3 EQ or other compatible iZotope IPC plug-in.

In the above image I have a Bass track as a source and the Kick as a masker, and we can see that those orange bands going down from the top of the Spectrum Analyzer are telling us where the clashing occurs, indicating the problematic areas. We can EQ the instruments individually or use the magnificent Inverse Link function that links two EQ nodes in the different instruments and allows us to make space by boosting on an instrument while cutting, at the same time, on the masker, or vice versa.

Mix Assistant and Track Enhancement

Mix Assistant is surely one of the most advanced features of Neutron 3. Machine Learning, as we have seen it in Ozone and RX, now takes the shape of a virtual assistant and enters the world of Mixing too. What the mix assistant can do is listen to the tracks in our mix, learn and understand what type of instruments they are, and adjust the levels to deliver a well-balanced mix to start with. We need to have one instance of the free Relay on each track of the session to get started, so they can communicate with Neutron’s mothership and operate on the tracks.

In the mothership can activate the assistant in the upper section of the interface, and then choose balance. It is recommended to reset all the volumes of the various channels before starting. Then Neutron will ask us which tracks we want to include in the analysis and what we want it to focus on. We can choose more than one element as a focus, but at least one have to be selected. Then we can start the playback, and we need to play the song from start to finish.

Once the assistant has listened to our tracks, it will group the various elements into categories (Focus, Voice, Bass, Percussion, and Musical). These are available as group faders with which we can play and further adjust the balance. Also, we can Bypass the assistant for A/B and we can reassign the elements in the categories, in case something went wrong.

During the test the assistant worked great for grouping and balancing elements, providing a stunning starting point for further tweaking. The balance of the mix, though, was depending on the genres, way better on some genres than others. This tool can save some time (especially if your DAW has a function for assigning a plug-in in insert on multiple tracks) and make a rough balance, but I feel it can be improved. Despite being a bit genre sensitive, it is able to provide amazing results even with a large number of tracks.

In addition to the Mix Assistant, the Track Enhancement can analyze the material and suggest a processing chain for enhancing a single track. This is a huge help when starting with a track, or, if you make sound design and music loops as I do. It’s an amazing tool for giving those loops brilliance and sparkle, and cleaning them up to make them really shine. Let’s keep in mind, however, that both the Mix Assistant and the Track Enhancements are intended as starting points for further tweaking, although they do provide great suggestions.

Documentation and Tutorials

Something worth noting here is the quality of the documentation provided, from the well-written user guide to the simple tutorial videos to the articles that iZotope provides on a blog. Manual apart, when you can learn what every control does, the blog is the place where things get interesting because various contributors share their knowledge and experience explaining technical concepts, guiding us through certain techniques with practical examples or, in the case of Neutron, it can provide material on how to improve our mixes focusing on single aspects, like masking, for instance. The blog is free and constantly updated. I found a lot of useful information not only on the plug-ins, but on technical concepts that were explained in a plain language but without omitting important information. I find this an added value and a great way to train everyone.

Conclusion

The third version of iZotope Neutron is a complete suite for mixing that has several assistants included. The single modules are easy to use and surgical, and the visual feedback is always precise and clear. The new Sculptor module is excellent, the Target Curves are extremely useful for enhancements, and the whole concept of this module is a win. We could call in Sculptor in every situation, from sound design, to mix and audio post production. The enhanced GUI is even clearer, and the Masking Meter improvements make it a reliable instrument that is one of the preferred features here. Mix Assistant is very useful in a lot of situations, and it is able to categorize and balance well for the instruments, but I feel it can be improved to shine in more genres as it does in Pop, Rock and HipHop.

The value of Neutron 3 goes beyond the modules and the tools, but I find that functionalities like the Masking Meter, to see where problems might occur is especially noteworthy, as is Sculptor and Track Enhancement as starting points for the mix or even for single tracks and sounds. I can personally recommend it to anyone involved in music creation, and not only as a set of tools, but as an instrument capable of transforming the way we mix, making us think to every step we take within a mixing session, from balancing levels, to masking problems, using EQs, controlling dynamics, clean things up and add brightness with Scupltor, add punch with a Transient Shaper and fatness with the Exciter. It would be great to see an Imager module as in Ozone – that’s a wish for Neutron 4, though.

iZotope Neutron 3 is available for Mac and PC in AU, VST, VST3 and AAX format and 64-bit only. The pricing depends on the version, and it is ranging from $129.00 of the Elements, to $249.00 of the Standard version to $399.00 of the Advanced version. More here:

With up to 13 different processing tools available, if Nectar 2 can't make your vocal track sound good, nothing can!

Nectar, reviewed in SOS March 2011 (/sos/mar11/articles/nectar.htm) was originally developed by iZotope as a comprehensive toolkit of vocal production elements wrapped into a single plug-in environment. Like the original, the new version 2 of the Nectar plug-in contains 11 separate processing sections, but the palette has been changed slightly, and now comprises Harmony, Plate Reverb, FX, Pitch, Delay, De-Esser, Saturation, Compressors, Gate, EQ and Limiter. The update also sees these functions joined by two separate plug-ins as part of a more upmarket Production Suite version. One of these is based on the section of the original plug-in that dealt with controlling the level of breaths,In Overview mode, you see simplified versions of all 11 processing modules with just a handful of controls. while the second new plug-in caters for offline pitch editing and correction.

Nectar 2 is a cross-platform plug-in that works in RTAS, AudioSuite, VST2, VST3, Audio Unit and AAX formats, including the 64-bit AAX protocol used by Pro Tools 11, and is authorised online or to an iLok key.

In The Dark

Other than Breath and the offline pitch editing, Nectar still opens as a single plug-in window, this time with a slightly larger, redesigned graphic interface that bears an obvious family resemblance to iZotope's Ozone 5 and Alloy 2 all-in-one processing plug-ins. Though it looks quite different from the previous version, being darker and considerably less orange, Nectar 2 remains, in the main, easy to navigate, as most of the text is white on a very dark grey background. However, iZotope have succumbed to the temptation to make just a couple of things in the meter section black on a dark grey background, rendering them almost invisible under anything other than ideal viewing conditions. I don't know why extremely dark GUIs are currently in vogue but I'm not altogether in favour; I'm all for style but not if it gets in the way of functionality!

Apart from having the spectrum analyser/EQ screen at the top rather than the bottom, Nectar 2 actually works in pretty much the same way as before. A browser is used to select presets from drop-down menus classified by musical genre, and there are over 150 new presets in version 2. As with the previous version, a large number of 'macro' presets can be called up by the user and then adjusted in an Overview mode using a manageable number of controls, making it well suited both to professionals who need results in a hurry and those less experienced users who are not so confident about their processing skills. Each preset calls up the required combination of the individual processing sections and their settings and the simplified Overview controls let you switch individual processing modules on and off and adjust key elements of the sound. In Overview mode, a single slider might actually adjust several parameters behind the scenes, and the controls are often named after terms producers might use; instead of being presented with a shelving high EQ, for example, you might be invited to adjust a control called Sparkle.

Clicking the Overview button brings up an Advanced mode for deeper editing, which brings access to the individual controls of each section in about the same depth as you'd expect to see for conventional plug-ins. In Advanced mode the various processing modules can also be reordered by dragging and dropping to create custom signal flows, while in basic mode all you can do is switch individual modules on or off and adjust the basic front-panel controls. The lower DSP, lower-latency Tracking mode has been retained as an alternative to the 'full fat' Mixing mode, the latter using lookahead where necessary to fine tune the processing at the expense of slightly higher latency. Metering is included for the inputs and outputs along with level controls as before, but if you already own iZotope's Insight metering plug-in, this can also be viewed from within Nectar 2.

Sweet Harmony

The headline addition in version 2 is an automatic harmony generation module. Advanced mode lets you edit the parameters of an individual module in more detail. This is the new Harmony module.This works as well as most such devices, and can sound reasonably natural as long as you sit the harmonies behind the main vocal rather than featuring them too strongly — they can start to sound obviously 'electronic' if turned up too far. The algorithm is able to make a guess at suitable notes by analysing the main vocal melody, but where it can't do this correctly, you can input your own choice of key or enter your own scale data on a miniature keyboard display. Depending on the song's chord structure, a single harmony setting may or may not work, so you might find yourself having to break the vocal part up across several tracks and then apply a different harmony setting to each section to make it fit the song. Alternatively, you can use MIDI to force it to generate specific harmony notes as long as your host allows MIDI to be sent to audio processing plug-ins (Logic, for insance, still doesn't let you do this). Up to four harmony voices can be created, and the gain, pan, delay and other parameters of the individual harmony parts can be adjusted using an X/Y control pad. Parts can also be set to unison and detuned or delayed slightly to give a layered vocal effect.

Updated pitch-tracking algorithms are used both in the harmony and pitch correction sections. The original Nectar Pitch Correction module was clearly based on the classic Auto-Tune paradigm, employing a correction speed control that determined how quickly the pitch was brought to match the closest target scale note. The new version looks rather different, but does more or less the same job. You can choose from a variety of preset scales or create custom scales, and as ever, fast correction speed settings give you the familiar 'hard-tuned' robotic sound with slower speeds sounding more natural. There's also the option to preserve the formant of the processed vocal, which is useful when creating harmonies.The Production Suite includes a new offline pitch processor reminiscent of Celemony's Melodyne.

The new off-line pitch editor bundled with the Production Suite is reminiscent of a simplified version of Celemony's Melodyne Plug-in. Audio must first be loaded into the plug-in; it is then passed to the offline editor, and kept in sync with its correct DAW timeline position using ReWire. This works perfectly well and is a useful tool to have on your side if you don't have Melodyne, though Melodyne does offer a greater degree of control to include things like pitch droop and note length.

Deep Breaths

The Breath control module has also been turned into a separate plug-in, apparently because it requires lookahead to work and so incurs additional latency, which made the original Nectar plug-in less suited to being used during tracking. It works much as it did in the earlier version of Nectar and is useful for taming excessive breaths without losing them altogether, something that is tedious to do manually. Once the threshold is set, the process is reasonably forgiving of normal changes in vocal level. The gain-reduction line superimposed on the waveform display shows where the process is being applied. You can also audition only the detected breath sounds to make sure you're not eating into anything you shouldn't.

The revamped reverb module in Nectar 2 emulates an EMT 140 stereo plate reverb unit, and is a definite step up from the original Nectar reverb, getting very close to that vintage plate sound — always a favourite on vocals. There are relatively few controls in Advanced mode but there's everything you need to get the job done, including pre-delay, reverb decay time and wet/dry mix, with a graphic display of the reverb tail or audio spectrum.

In the window that appears, choose your SoundFont from the Sound Bank pop-up menu to play that sound.Note that not all SoundFonts are compatible with the Mac OS. Once you’ve downloaded a few SoundFonts, place them in this directory: /Library/Audio/Sounds/Banks.3. Garageband sound packs for mac pro. In GarageBand create a new Software Instrument track, click the Details triangle, and from the Instrument Generator pop-up menu choose DLSMusicDevice and click the Edit button next to it.4.

Delay likewise remains a key effect in just about any type of vocal processing, and here the delay itself can be modulated or flavoured with controlled distortion as well as having all the expected controls for delay time, feedback and so on. Delay times can be sync'ed to host tempo when necessary, but there's no tap tempo facility, which I would have found useful when working on material recorded 'free' of the grid. Five saturation models named Analogue, Retro, Tape, Tube and Warm allow coloration to be added to the delays. A conventional expander/gate is available to mute low-level noise, and now has a variable attenuation setting. The limiter is quite conventional and seems to be the same as in the earlier version.

Izotope Music Production Suite 3 Review Guide

The De-Esser section models the classic Dbx 902 split-band de-esser, so called because it compresses only frequencies above the split point when a sibilant is encountered. It isn't clear whether it works differently from the one in the original Nectar — I couldn't hear any difference in the end result, and it does a good job unless the sibilance is really pronounced. A single slider controls the amount of sibilance reduction, and in Advanced mode you can set your own de-essing frequency, this time via a draggable line in its display window rather than a physical slider. This section works very effectively providing you don't overdo the processing to the point where you give the singer a lisp.

The Compressor module is largely unchanged, with four compressor types (Digital, Vintage, Optical and Solid State), plus switching for RMS or peak side-chain detection and a graphical display of the compressor curve. Parallel compression is available via a Mix control, and in this new incarnation it is also possible to set up two different compressors in parallel, the controls for each being selected via Compressor 1/2 tabs. The Advanced version of the Saturation module also offers a wet/dry mix control for parallel distortion treatments, which can be particularly effective for thickening rock and urban vocals. There are also more aggressive digital distortion options for when you want something that sounds just plain nasty.

In the EQ section, iZotope's original parametric equaliser algorithms are now augmented by new Baxandall and Pultec-style filters. Finally, new to Nectar 2 is a general 'FX' module. This has four subsections that cover modulation effects such as phasing and chorus plus Distortion, Decimate (downsampling) and a type of stutter delay called Shred.

Honey Trap

Izotope Music Production Suite 2

I recall being rather impressed by the first version of Nectar; the presets alone could bring a smile of instant gratification to your face. Incarnation two delivers more of the same, but with a cleaner interface layout and some worthwhile improvements and augmentations. Harmony is a great addition, and while the FX section offers mainly familiar effects, it is good to have it on board.

Inevitably there are some presets that seem a touch over-processed, but you can either skip these or dial back the settings to a more sensible level. Building some of these treatments from scratch would take a lot of time and skill, so although an experienced DAW user may be able to get similar effects by combining existing plug-ins, Nectar 2 can still be a great time-saver for the busy professional and is most definitely not just a tool for beginners. Advanced edit mode isn't particularly scary, so I'd encourage all users to venture in there from time to time as you can't break anything. Even so, the simplified Overview mode will give you an ample degree of control in many instances. For me, the vastly improved reverb alone makes the upgrade worth the ticket price, and I'm sure users will also have a lot of fun with the auto harmony capabilities.

Alternatives

All the individual components of Nectar have numerous equivalents, but there are far fewer choices when it comes to all-in-one solutions. Check out Toontrack's EZ mixing tools and Waves' various producer signature collections for the nearest equivalents.

Pros

• A versatile toolkit of vocal processing tools accessed from one plug-in window and saved as a single plug-in setting.
• Very easy to use, even in Advanced mode.

Cons

• Usefulness of the presets is necessarily limited by their being somebody else's idea of what is needed, but if you're prepared to adjust them or delve into Advanced mode from time to time, that won't be a restriction.
• No delay tap tempo.

Summary

Nectar 2 is a well thought-out set of vocal processing tools, presented in a format that should suit both experienced users in a hurry and those new to mixing. The new reverb sounds pretty authentic, and the automated harmony generation can be useful as long as it's used sparingly.

Izotope Post Production Suite 3