iZotope Neutron 4
Posted on: Tuesday 19th of July 2022
Neutron was first released in 2016, reviewed in Resolution V15.8. Neutron had two major updates in the space of two and half years, as iZotope refined their ‘AI-powered’ mix assistant. Now, after a three year pause, iZotope has released version 4 of its machine-learning channel strip mixing plug-in. It features an improved mixing Assistant alongside a number of new features.
Elements and Advanced versions have been dumped, now there’s just the one package. Neutron includes the mothership plug-in that houses the mixing assistant and all modules . Usefully, there are separate plug-ins for the Equalizer, Compressor, Exciter, Gate, Sculptor, and Transient Shaper, the Tonal Balance Control, Visual Mixer, Relay and new Unmask plug-in. There’s a focus on visual feedback to aid with non-pro’s mixing decisions, with the toolset also useful for production pros looking to work fast and automate across a selection of cuts.
One of the main updates is the improved Assistant view with a single button that starts the process and works out what the source material is using machine learning. The user is then presented with several global macro controls for making changes, linked to parameters in the various modules. iZotope has named these ‘Intent Controls’: Tone Match, Punch, Distort and Width. Potentially extremely useful for pros is the Tone Match section, which shows the intended frequency shape of the selected instrument as an orange region, and the actual output frequency as a thin line. A single slider at the top controls the amount that your signal is matched, linked to an Assistant Pre-EQ (a Match EQ) slider in the Sculptor module, and also the Sculptor amount. At higher levels of adjustment, this will pull the frequency shape of your audio closer towards that of the target. The key addition is the ability to import audio to use as a blueprint, opening up the option for pros to process using the Sculptor module to dynamically adjust a batch of cuts (for example live recordings) to a target.
The new Unmask plug-in and bespoke tone-match make this upgrade particularly interesting
Neutron 4’s four new key features:
-Get started with Assistant View
-Match references with Target Library
-Make space with Unmask
-New Trash mode and Punch mode
Neutron 4 $399 Mix & Master Bundle $699 Music Production Suite 5 Universal Edition $999
https://www.izotope.com/en/products/neutron.html
