Izotope neutron review software#

Neutron is a complete solution for mixing, with a variety of powerful tools and ways to use them.

Izotope neutron review software#

With Neutrons loaded on your individual channels, the ability to go into their EQ settings from the Tonal Balance Control plugin is great, helping you вЂњthink globally and act locallyвЂќ, as the UN would say.Д®lsewhere, NeutronвЂ™s masking detection features, dynamic EQ, vintage compression and multiband functionality (be sure to check out the Transient Shaper and Gate modules on their own) make this software package a comprehensive mixing platform, however you use it. Tonal Balance Control, available only with Neutron Advanced or with iZotope Ozone, profiles the distribution of frequencies on your master channel, comparing them to commercial averages that have been analyzed by iZotope. This is largely unchanged from Neutron 2, and still works using absolute values rather than analyzed relative perceptual values. NeutronвЂ™s Visual Mixer (Standard/Advanced versions) has you controlling gain, width and panning for every loaded Neutron plugin along X/Y axes. There are more elements that tie the package together. After trying more material for this review, IвЂ™m still unconvinced in the accuracy or usefulness of this feature. IвЂ™ve never achieved a decent-sounding starting point using Balance Assistant on the contrary finding that it tends to make things worse. So how does Balance Assistant work? In my opinion, not as well as it could. At the end, the levels will be set in an initial state, with all gain changes happening using each instance of Neutron/Relay. Balance Assistant will ask you to playback your track, start to finish, and analyse whatвЂ™s happening through every Neutron and Relay plugin. With that in place, select the Balance Assistant and choose one or more focal points. With Balance Assistant (Advanced version only), youвЂ™ll need to have an instance of Neutron placed on every track in your project, or a Relay plugin (included) if you want a track to be heard but donвЂ™t want to add effects to it. Neutron 2вЂ™s Track Assistant has been replaced by dual processes to help you get a starting point on mixing: Track Enhance, which sets up the channel strip for one mix channel (one instance of Neutron), and Balance Assistant, which attempts to give you a starting point for track gains, based on what Neutron hears. When applied subtly, though, Sculptor can aid in the basic accentuation of tracks, for certain. SculptorвЂ™s not a go-to processor for every track, which is why it feels strange that NeutronвЂ™s Track Enhance (see below) seems to add it to every track. Sculptor seems to act something like a high-res EQ or many-multiband-compressor, affecting tiny bands of the audio to give the whole thing a different character вЂ“В vocals can be ASMR-ized, drums can be made deep and powerful, and everything can be pushed to feel like a more intense version of itselfвЂ¦ if that makes sense. Sculptor is a вЂњspectral shaperвЂќ that, simply put, can mess with the tone of a track. Version three adds one new module, the SculptorвЂ¦ ThereвЂ™s an EQ, which is endowed with dynamic bands, masking metering and a Learn function a compressor, which can be made multiband, set into vintage mode, and instantiated twice within the channel strip an Exciter with an X/Y controller for its modes, then multiband-capable Gate and Transient Shaper modules. If youвЂ™re rocking the Advanced version of Neutron 3 (as opposed to its Standard or Elements incarnations), you get all these available single plugins as well, each with its own signal-analyzing Learn control. If Ozone is the industry-standard mastering effects plugin, Neutron is the same for mixing, letting you set up a re-orderable chain of effects. The ModulesДЄs a channel strip, you could draw parallels between Neutron and iZotopeвЂ™s Ozone package. Sure, the one-click Mix Assist function will analyze any track that contains an instance of Neutron and start setting EQ cuts, compression settings and so on, but the idea is to use Neutron as a starting point, directing you towards potential problems in a project and giving you some general processing ideas. Neutron may be advertised as an AI-endowed super toolbox, but the aim actually isnвЂ™t to have your tracks mixed automatically. Neutron is iZotopeвЂ™s artificial intelligence mixing software package, comprising one master plugin, Neutron, which acts as a channel strip with some familiar processes (EQ, compression, transient shaping et al.), and a few other elements to help you take command over the mixing process in your DAW. What does iZotopeвЂ™s Neutron offer in its third version and how does it manage to share a modus operandi with the UN? James Russell takes us through it.

This AI mixing assistance technology has been around for a while now.