iZotope RX8: great updates & music-production features

Posted on: Friday 4th of September 2020

The two-time Engineering Emmy Award-winning RX Advanced now allows audio professionals greater audio fidelity, whether repairing streamed dialogue with new features like Spectral Recovery or correcting pitch modulation with Wow & Flutter. The Batch Processor and Loudness Control have also been revamped, saving users precious time when they are repairing or delivering audio files.

New RX 8 Standard features allow musicians to instantly adjust guitar recordings with Guitar De-noise, to rebalance their mix and create or isolate stems with the improved Music Rebalance, and to prep music for streaming with the updated Loudness Control. Both the standalone audio editor and the included plug-ins allow users to surgically fix audio problems and music performances with RX 8.

The new RX Elements is a budget-friendly noise reduction and audio repair tool for small home studios that need the basics. It includes a standalone audio editor with spectral editing as well as four essential, real-time noise reduction plug-ins to fix clipping, hums, clicks and other unwanted background noise, like amp hiss or air conditioner noise. Its Repair Assistant continues to use the digital signal processing in RX Elements to analyze your audio and provide solutions to common audio issues.

New & Improved Features:

• NEW – Spectral Recovery (Advanced Only) – Restores frequencies above 4 kHz, turning bandwidth-limited audio into clear, articulate recordings.

• NEW – Wow & Flutter (Advanced Only)  – Corrects pitch variations and fluctuations associated with tape, vinyl and optical transfers. Use Wow to fix longer, sustained pitch drift, and Flutter to correct pitch variances that occur at faster rates.

• NEW – Loudness Control (Advanced and Standard) – Instantly load preset loudness targets and conform production audio to broadcast requirements in seconds, and monitor levels using the built-in numeric and history plot readouts for integrated, short-term, and momentary loudness.

• NEW – Guitar De-noise (Advanced and Standard) – Allows refining to guitar recordings for maximum clarity in seconds. Manage sounds that can unintentionally be emphasized by the effect of compression or limiting, like electrical amp noise and interference, distracting fret or string squeaks, and harsh pick attacks.

• NEW – 32 Audio Tab Limit (All Versions)  – RX 8 doubles the previous 16-tab limit, now allowing users to view and edit up to 32 files within RX Audio Editor.

• NEW – Horizontal Scrolling (All Versions) – Horizontal scrolling is now built into the intuitive Spectrogram Display. Use the scroll gesture on a trackpad or mouse to scroll through your audio across the X-axis for lightning fast edits.

• IMPROVED – Music Rebalance (Advanced and Standard) – Users can easily re-animate a mix, make room for scene dialogue in post, remove or isolate vocals for a remix, or even create and export new stems for further processing and mixing.

• IMPROVED – Batch Processor (Advanced and Standard) – Process many files at a time, view pertinent metadata in your audio, then apply a full series of processors with Module Chain.

• IMPROVED – De-Hum (All Versions) – Now features independent frequency reduction bands, and a redesigned, intuitive interface.

“Since we first released our flagship RX product, additional years of research and innovation in machine learning have allowed us to continue to provide the industry with timely solutions to audio repair issues that were previously impossible,” said iZotope Principal Product Manager Mike Rozett. “Our latest edition of RX continues this tradition with new features such as Spectral Recovery, Guitar De-noise and Wow & Flutter, all designed to help people solve the unsolvable in audio.”

iZotope has also released RX Post Production Suite 5, which features its most powerful tools for post production, including RX 8 Advanced, Dialogue Match, Neutron 3 Advanced, Nectar 3 (with Melodyne 5 essential), Insight 2, RX Loudness Control, Relay, Symphony 3D and Stratus 3D by Exponential Audio, and Tonal Balance Control 2, plus a one year all-access pass to Groove 3, a video training tool.

In addition, Music Production Suite 4 will release this autumn, which will include RX 8 Standard, Ozone 9 Advanced, Neutron 3 Advanced, Nectar 3 (with Melodyne 5 essential), Insight 2, NIMBUS by Exponential Audio, and Tonal Balance Control 2. Those that have purchased Music Production Suite 3 after September 2, 2020 will receive a free upgrade to Music Production Suite 4.

RX 8  is now available at www.izotope.com and select retailers
RX 8 Elements: $99 introductory ($129 regular)
RX 8 Standard: $299 introductory ($399 regular)
RX 8 Advanced:  $999 introductory ($1199 regular)
RX Post Production Suite 5: $1499 introductory ($1999 regular)