Neutron 3 just dropped

[mcbpete]

Now did they update Elements to v3 or not? Anyone?

Yes they did - https://www.izotope.com/en/support/prod ... 3-download

[EnochLight]

Well, Izotope is just totally F'd up.

I have my email purchase receipt from Izotope dated Stept 8, 2017 when I purchased Neutron 2. When I go to my account to see what it would cost for me to upgrade to Neutron 3, it says I have no products. Okay, maybe I just didn't register my serial #. So I go to do that and it tells me it can't register it.

Forget that I also bought Iris 2 from them. According to Izotope I never bought anything and thus am not eligible for any upgrades.

SMH.

Their tech support is fantastic - just submit a case and they'll get you resolved. No big deal - obviously their website is wonky, though.

[Fleer]

Now did they update Elements to v3 or not? Anyone?

Yes they did - https://www.izotope.com/en/support/prod ... 3-download

Cheers

[DavidCarlyon]

On the fence with this one. Really like izotope. I also think this sounds better than a lot of people give credit for.
That said, i do get the impression that most of their recent innovations are in the 'auto mixer' area...which i don;t find to be that useful.
I prefer 'sonic' innovations....a push for higher quality. but it does look great as a mixing tool.
I like the idea of the visual mixer, but in use i don't know how useful it would be...after all i will be automating all of my volumes, pans etc in reaper.

trying to work out what a good workflow for this would be...produce your track, get it ready for mix - then put this on every channel ready for mixdown?

[jbone1313]

On the fence with this one. Really like izotope. I also think this sounds better than a lot of people give credit for.
That said, i do get the impression that most of their recent innovations are in the 'auto mixer' area...which i don;t find to be that useful.
I prefer 'sonic' innovations....a push for higher quality. but it does look great as a mixing tool.
I like the idea of the visual mixer, but in use i don't know how useful it would be...after all i will be automating all of my volumes, pans etc in reaper.

trying to work out what a good workflow for this would be...produce your track, get it ready for mix - then put this on every channel ready for mixdown?

Same thoughts here. I mix as I go. Seems like this is designed to be used in a mixing process that is completely separate from the composition and arrangement process.

[lwj]

I laughed at the AI assisted mixing stuff before, but I think this is a very impressive plugin. I mean yeah, if you feed it a bunch of random noises like my music... it’ll have no idea what to make of it. With material it can recognize, Neutron 1 already came up with interesting results.. and if you hit the assistant again it would actually attempt something different for you. I always thought that was pretty cool, just not that useful for me. That’s not a problem with the algorhythm though, it’s the music I make and how I work. I mix as I go as well, and I just don’t work that well when I have too many options.

If you regularly mix large pop and rock projects though, with a massive amount of tracks, vocals, recognizable instruments... I reckon it’s a huge time saver. Or if you’re a band recording your own tracks and don’t necessarily want to become the world’s greatest mixing engineer as well.

[noiseboyuk]

Hugely disappointing release IMO. The new UI is a basic design fail. Far less information visible, far less instant control. With the EQ, its an information desert, now a blizzard of fiddly button pushes to get to the controls you need, whereas Neutron 2 was an excellent clear design all laid out in a single glance - indeed its speed in use is why it turned into my basic go to EQ. There's no way to make the UI smaller, you can only make it bigger and it just takes up oceans of space for no good reason. And there's no way to restore the old view where the controls were clear under the main windows.

I'm an iZotope fan - RX is simply extraordinary. But this one is a major blunder IMO, and a perfect candidate to skip. I'll be reverting to Neutron 2 for day to day use. At least it was a cheap deal for me, and Vocal Synth 2 does seem considerably improved on 1.

[DavidCarlyon]

Lots of good comments here - i largely agree with all of this.
Yes if you are solely a mixer, who gets handed big sessions - this could be a time saver.
I think for most of us making electronic music, with an integrated writing/arrangement/production/mixing process - this will be pretty much useless.

That said, i do sometimes create in ableton then stem up and mix in Studio One. In those cases, putting Neutron on every channel may well be pretty good.

On the GUI design, some really good points made there. It does look impressive at first glance. but surely the whole point of a good GUI is to put all the relevant information UP FRONT and in view. Seems really bizzare to me to have everything hidden.

The look reminds me of an online mastering servive where you just hit the 'louder and betterer' button and thats it.

This is why i stressed my preference for SONIC innovations over AI innovations. When we look at DMG's multiplicity - that is a hyper modern product that is extremely innovative, but the innovations all have to do with SOUND and quality. It also has a very modern GUI which puts all the relevant controls right in front of you.
It is a bit frustrating, i really want to fall in love with neutron....but i can't help but think Equilibrium and compassion make a better channel strip.....

[jbone1313]

I have been thinking about this some more. In theory, you could use Neutron in the same project you use for creation and composition without having to stem-out everything.

It’s conceivable that you could get some kind of process and bussing setup where everything goes to like 8 buses and then have your Neutrons or Relays on those buses.

When you’re feeling reasonably done, you could run the Mix Assistant to get a leveling starting point and keep working. Then, if you want, run it again later.

Something along those lines.

No idea how well that would work in practice, and I would be interested to know others thoughts or experiences on the same.

Eventually, I’ll try it.

[noiseboyuk]

I have been thinking about this some more. In theory, you could use Neutron in the same project you use for creation and composition without having to stem-out everything.

It’s conceivable that you could get some kind of process and bussing setup where everything goes to like 8 buses and then have your Neutrons or Relays on those buses.

When you’re feeling reasonably done, you could run the Mix Assistant to get a leveling starting point and keep working. Then, if you want, run it again later.

Something along those lines.

No idea how well that would work in practice, and I would be interested to know others thoughts or experiences on the same.

Eventually, I’ll try it.

I'm not entirely sure I follow any of that in truth. I never stem out - much as I like PT for audio work, its not worth the faff, and I mix everything in Cubase in the same projects that I create in.

And setting up all these instances of Neutron just to do a vague automix on it... this feels like solving a problem that doesn't really exist. Just mix it! Use Neutron for where the mix needs extra love and care.

I'm a bit depressed about this release and where it indicates iZotope is going. As I say, I really love a lot of iZotope products, they're preaching to the choir with me usually. Not this time. Never before had an experience where a paid upgrade is a retrograde step.

[jbone1313]

I'm not entirely sure I follow any of that in truth. I never stem out - much as I like PT for audio work, its not worth the faff, and I mix everything in Cubase in the same projects that I create in.

And setting up all these instances of Neutron just to do a vague automix on it... this feels like solving a problem that doesn't really exist. Just mix it! Use Neutron for where the mix needs extra love and care.

I'm a bit depressed about this release and where it indicates iZotope is going. As I say, I really love a lot of iZotope products, they're preaching to the choir with me usually. Not this time. Never before had an experience where a paid upgrade is a retrograde step.

Yeah - I see where you are coming from. As you said, just mix it! And, who needs to go through all the hassle just for a vague automix (as you said)?

On the other hand, one could think about it differently. If you take the time to setup a template project for using Neutron like this, you are getting a second set of mixing ears - for free. That can be very valuable, and it is sometimes the most valuable part of having someone else mix your stuff.

But, on the other hand, it seems all Mix Assistant is doing is leveling, so it is kind of limited. I mean, the more challenging aspects of mixing are EQing and creating space for each track, and Mix Assistant does not really help with that AFAIK.

The ability to create mix snapshots with instant recall is really cool. Part of me thinks the Neutron + Ozone combo is greater than the sum of the parts. But, those things were present in the previous version.

But, I am not sure about the whole thing yet, hence I am enjoying the discussion.

I do like the direction they are going with trying to leverage AI and machine learning to solve music problems. It might not be completely there yet, but I do like it.

[lwj]

If the user interface is a major issue there is of course this other brand, you know..

[SoundPorn]

I had no idea Relay and Visual Mixer were free until this post and I still have no idea what a Neutron 3 Elements is lol

[DavidCarlyon]

I have been thinking about this some more. In theory, you could use Neutron in the same project you use for creation and composition without having to stem-out everything.

It’s conceivable that you could get some kind of process and bussing setup where everything goes to like 8 buses and then have your Neutrons or Relays on those buses.

When you’re feeling reasonably done, you could run the Mix Assistant to get a leveling starting point and keep working. Then, if you want, run it again later.

Something along those lines.

No idea how well that would work in practice, and I would be interested to know others thoughts or experiences on the same.

Eventually, I’ll try it.

This is how i initially thought i might use Neutron. In practise, by the timei was at that point i already had a pretty good mix going, and the assistant just threw it out quite a lot.
Even then, i wouldn't mind - because i am not intersted in this for the assistant (i almost cvertainy would never use it)
I did still think it might make a good mixing tool, as you have a pretty decent set of tools, along with the visual mixer AND importantly, the ability to look at freq collisions, SC dynamic eq etc.

But in practise i found it too heavy on CPU

i would do something similar to what you were talking about except -
i generally use folders as busses. So my kick elements in a folder, claps, basses etc
They get summed to 4 busses and then mixbuss

I was putting neutron on each folder - it would actually be perfect in theory. but as i said it was a bit heavy.
Now of course, this version supposedly is much more efficient...so could be worth a look.

But i also wonder about the efficacy of the visual mixer, when ultimately i am going to be doing a ton of volume and pan automation in the DAW.

Part of me thinks i would be better off just getting the mix ready, then using the studio one plugins (which allow you to see controls in the mixer, also you can use metering, scopes etc in the mixer)
Still searching...

[DavidCarlyon]

I'm not entirely sure I follow any of that in truth. I never stem out - much as I like PT for audio work, its not worth the faff, and I mix everything in Cubase in the same projects that I create in.

A
The ability to create mix snapshots with instant recall is really cool. Part of me thinks the Neutron + Ozone combo is greater than the sum of the parts. But, those things were present in the previous version.
But, I am not sure about the whole thing yet, hence I am enjoying the discussion.

I agree, the Ozone/Neutron combo is appealing, more so than each individual plugin.
That's why i had the idea of getting my mix ready, then putting an instance of neutron on each folder, then ozone on each of my 4 main buses. But my computer simply cannot handle that at this point, so that is out the window.