Jul 11, 2017 The RX family of audio editing, restoration and repair tools moves into its sixth iteration. The core audio editor has undergone no major changes, bar a slight facelift; with its adjustable waveform/spectrogram overlay display and Photoshop-esque selection tools there’s nothing to improve. Identifying problems in your audio and selecting the offending components is easy, though complex. Nov 29, 2017 iZotope RX, in both its Advanced and standard versions, has long been a leader in the audio restoration software field. Remarkably, in its fifth incarnation, it’s gotten better. Version 5 focuses on speeding up workflow: Since audio restoration tasks can be long and tedious, anything that helps you work faster is welcome. RX Elements is the perfect introduction to the world of audio repair, offering essential tools to remove noise, clipping, clicks, and other problems that plague small studios. Get four of izotope's best repair tools, a standalone audio editor, and the brand new Repair Assistant at an affordable price. RX is also an indispensable tool for professionals doing forensic, restoration and archiving works. Post-script: As I was on the closing stages of writing down this review, iZotope recently launched Dialog De-Noise, De-clip, De-click and De-hum as 4-plugin package called “RX Plugin Pack” that furthers the options for new users. Review: iZotope RX 5 Jerry Ibbotson fires up the latest version of the firm’s acclaimed audio editor to see what’s new this time around 'Any chance you could fix a problem we’ve got with the sound?” It’s a phrase that makes me feel slightly faint and sick inside and normally comes from the mouth of a filmmaker or a student. IZotope is in the top tier of companies that I have worked for in my 30+ year career. The people are warm, brilliant and extremely passionate about music and the customer. IZotope is a leading brand in the music industry and highly regarded as an innovator and machine learning pioneer.
IZotope has released RX 5 Audio Editor, a significant upgrade to their well-stocked toolbox of audio repair software modules (previously at v4).RX 5 adds a number of new repair modules, and brings considerable enhancements to many of its tools, along with additional features that offer greater efficiency and better integration with DAWs.
Mighty RX, a complete suite for audio repair, has just been updated to version 7, with additions, enhancements, and much more. This huge, complex, precise suite just got bigger.
by Vincenzo Bellanova, Nov. 2018
An Incredible Suite
The renowned RX suite just got a major update, with several new improvements and additions. iZotope RX7 is an absolute essential suite, no matter if you’re working on music, field recording, sound design or audio post production, it can save not only a lot of time (avoiding re-recording), but it can literally fix problems transparently in most cases. Noise, mouth clicks, lavalier rustle, hum, wind rumbles, digital clicks, crackles, plosives and breaths, as well as less exoteric operations like levelling, normalizing, resampling, and this on one or more files, on the whole audio file or just in a time or frequency selection. The scenarios in which RX can operate are countless, but what is important to note is that we have everything in the same workspace if we’re focusing on repair, or we can open single plugins in our DAW for fast fixes. RX7 plugins are now available as AudioSuite plugins too, and the family just got bigger, as we will see.
A great number of videos, and the new Repair Assistant, will make corrections even easier, showing you the essential techniques, problems and how to fix them. The different versions of RX also offer flexibility in terms of needs, price and use. RX is getting closer and closer to musicians, and the new Music Rebalance module is a demonstration of the attention iZotope pays to the different targets.
In this review we will focus only on the new elements, but if you’re new to the RX world, you might be interested in reading more about what is RX and its amazing modules in the two previous reviews on the Soundbytes Magazine website.
RX 5: https://soundbytesmag.net/rx5-by-izotope/
RX 6 Advanced: https://soundbytesmag.net/review-rx6-advanced-from-izotope/
What’s New
As anticipated, the list is not short, starting from a light UI refinement, to multichannel support and, of course, entire new modules.
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Pro Tools users now can enjoy Dialogue Isolate, De-rustle, Breath Control and the new Music Rebalance modules as AudioSuite plugins. AudioSuite is a Pro Tools format of audio plugins which can be used on a single audio clip or on multiple clips at once instead of on an insert track. The processing through AudioSuite plugins needs to render the processed files, replacing the clips we treated with new ones.
Multichannel is now supported up to 7.1.2 (10 channels) Dolby Atmos, meaning that you can process one or all the channels with the same module and in just one instance. Such a powerful new feature that will further speed up the work of audio engineers working on films or where multichannel audio is required.
Dialogue Isolate and De-Rustle modules’ performance has been enhanced, starting from the new Preview function for checking their operations on the go.
Another important new feature is the possibility to select a frequency range of action for the modules directly in the Module Chain. This truly gives extra power to the Module Chain, allowing to arrange even more specific corrections per single module.
New Modules
Let’s start from the new Dialogue Contour module, which is designed to shape and modify the pitch and inflexion of dialogue parts. Intonation and inflexion are obviously fundamental (not to mention that in some languages they have a distinctive function, and can alter the entire meaning of a word). In some languages, like Italian, for instance, intonation might distinguish an affirmative sentence from an interrogative sentence, because the position of the terms is the same in both cases. Linguistics apart, perfecting inflection before could involve micro pitch shifting or formant shifting using automation or external tools. Now we are just a few clicks away from our goal. Insert the module, isolate a section or the entire file and create your custom curve by adding, moving or deleting individual points, and smoothen the final result. Formant scaling is also available in order to shift specific resonances or attenuations in the spectrum, respecting the natural formants of the human speech.
Dialogue De-Reverb is the new module specifically designed for removing reverb from voice. RX also has a De-Reverb module, but the new one does not require to learn the reverb profile, and it is based on machine learning algorithms. Particularly useful both in audio post, if we don’t have the chance to get our interview in a proper room, or in music production, if we need to record vocals in a reverberant environment. Its controls include Sensitivity and Ambient Preservation in order to balance the result and to identify how much of the incoming signal can be considered as reverb.
Variable Time and Variable Pitch allow the user to select a portion of the audio file and design a custom shape for pitch or time variations in the same way we described for the Dialogue Contour module. What deserves attention here, is the incredible, crystalline audio quality of these tools. Not to mention that these can absolutely wink an eye to Sound Design. I tested Variable Pitch on an entire song, with both time changes and Preserve Time enabled (with the first, the module will behave like a Tape play head changing pitch and speed of the file), and I barely heard artifacts, even with generous pitch variations. Here, too, possible applications are countless, from extreme pitch shifting on raw sound sources to morph them into bizarre effects, or gentle shifts with time changes which reminded me of the old days of sampling material for musical purposes. Pitch Coherence and Transient Sensitivity controls appear on both the modules, allowing for timbre and transient preservation.
Last but not least, the Music Rebalance module, which created a quite a stir when first announced. People are probably asking if it’s true that it can remove vocals from a song or an instrumental leaving just vocals. The answer is yes. Simply divided in Voice, Bass, Percussion and Other, Music Rebalance allows us to set the Sensitivity of the analysis, letting know the module how much of the incoming signal should be considered as Bass, Vocal, etc., and we can set the gain for each of the parts. Low Sensitivity values can reach precise results by completely muting tiny parts of other instruments that might come in the analysis, but at the cost of small artifacts, while if we are after complete clarity, higher values can eliminate glitches, but other instruments might end up in the result. Sometimes reverb can be an enemy of Music Rebalance, probably because of the long tails which can be confused with the voice or the behavior of other instruments. But despite some artifacts, Music Rebalance works very well and it is capable of extracting a cappella voices from an entire song which is more than useable.
Apart from the vocal extraction, Music Rebalance’s main role, I think, resides in other uses, like an intelligent way to give space to various sections, moving entire instruments inside or outside the mix. Or it can completely reshape a song with problems, and in this, Music Rebalance excels, especially for the idea of changing the balance of a track with just a few and intuitive parameters. When everything seems lost, and we probably are in front of a single WAV file, without the possibility of touching any fader in the DAW, it can save the day.
Repair Assistant
Probably the most interesting addition to the whole Suite, Repair Assistant can intelligently analyze an audio file, identify problems and suggest corrections. In the top right of the RX7 standalone interface, just click on the Repair Assistant tab to engage this tool. It is absolutely wonderful to have a personal assistant which will analyze and possibly speed up even more the work. Repair assistant will ask if the file contains musical, dialogue or other material, then starts the analysis searching for clipping, clicks, hum and noise. In the settings, we can also customize its analysis bypassing one of the problems, for instance, we can exclude the hum analysis.
Clever, fast and powerful, Repair Assistant is another magical element in RX that will make the entire suite even easier and quicker to use, and I personally love how smart plugins are becoming lately. Surely, this won’t mean that the human touch is completely bypassed, and the ability to identify problems, solve them, tweak the modules, is still required, but Repair Assistant can work as a huge “learn” function on the entire audio file, allowing us to complete a task in a matter of clicks.
Izotope Rx 5 Review 2016
There’s more, and this is another great proof of flexibility: if problems are found, Repair Assistant will purpose three different solutions, each of them containing a different module chain, so different modules arranged in various ways. Below the various solutions, labelled as A, B and C, if we click on the faders icon, we can set the intensity of the corrections, which is like controlling the overall Dry/Wet of the modules, or, if we aren’t satisfied and we want to use the Repair Assistant’s suggestions as a starting point, we can open the module chains and tweak the single module’s parameters to taste.
Conclusion
RX7 confirms itself as a must have tool of incredible value, for its vast array of modules, precision, clarity and true gems like the possibility to arrange, save and recall entire chains. Absolutely suggested for everyone who is looking for saving, preserving or “only” asking more for their files. Pro Tools users can now enjoy more AudioSuite tools, and engineers working on multichannel files can be enthusiast too. Having a look around, lately the word Ambisonics is popping out more and more, this is the direction I really hope the next RX will take.
Since my latest review of RX (version 6), I must confess I have used the suite almost daily on both musical and sound design jobs, easily rescuing a lot of files, and rarely opening the manual again because of intuitive functions of this software. Now, with the Repair Assistant, these operations will be even quicker.
The new modules and improvements add some shine to the whole tool, especially Music Rebalance, getting even closer to musicians. I think it will be perfected, analyzing and isolating the various parts even better in the future. Separating single instruments from a track wasn’t something I was thinking about very often before seeing this module. I can just guess what will come next. Variable Pitch and Time, let’s say it again, are tools that easily adapt to musical and Sound Design applications, with a really impressive quality.
iZotope RX7 is available in different versions: RX Elements ($129.00 USD), RX7 Standard ($299.00 USD), RX7 Advanced ($1199.00 USD) and it is also included in the Post Production Suite 3 ($1499.00 USD), bundled with Insight 2, Neutron Advanced 2 and Tonal Balance Control. RX7 Advanced is available for both Mac and PC platform, 32 and 64 bits, in AAX (64-bit), Audiosuite DPM, Audio Unit (32-bit and 64-bit), RTAS (32-bit), VST 2 (32-bit and 64-bit), and VST 3 (32-bit and 64-bit) format.
Supported plugin hosts: Audition CC 2017, Cubase 9, Final Cut Pro 10, Live 9, Logic Pro X, Media Composer 8.8, Nuendo 7, Premiere Pro CC 2017, Pro Tools 10-12, Studio One 3.
Izotope Rx 5 Review 1
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Izotope Rx 5 Review 2016
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