Izotope product opinions

[Jac459]

I hate izotope high pricing with suddenly a 50% sale... They really have a bad marketing in my view.

That being said their products are really really good in my opinion and I am using them all the time with fabfilter ones for mixing and mastering.
Using advanced...

[billinder33]

IMO nothing iZotope has is best in class. That said, the majority of their plugins are very high quality. CPU consumption can be relatively high in compared to other competitor's offerings.

They have some very attractively priced bundles that are good value.

[kidslow]

I'd like to know more around Neutron. I have Neutron 3 Elements, and thought I would hate it but don't. For those of you who love it, which functions and which versions are the sauce for you? Didn't they make some changes between 3 & 4 that were generally not considered better?

Came by iZotope first through RX. RX Advanced is likely the most I've paid for any single audio software item. It used to be, maybe, not best in class, but solid top three. Lot more products nipping at RX's heels today than 4-5 years ago.

I have touched pretty much some variant of most of their products. My experiences with their support have been generally favorable with the exception of feature requests. Bought and sold Ozone Advanced. Don't miss it. Have had Nectar 3. Don't use it. Vocalsynth is decent, more than it gets credit for, but I would recommend buy cheap and demo sufficiently prior. Not for everyone.

Their Product Portal could easily be so much more with a few easy features. The only thing I like is the eyeball view to show & hide products in the Portal. The rest of it oh man don't get me started. Years ago I placed a support request for them to add release notes into it. Still nothing. I'm not the only one who wants to see what is in the update before I install. Product Portal seems like it wants to be one-stop-shop but how can it be without release notes? They should pass an auth token from the portal to your web browser so you don't have to login repeatedly when passing between the two. While I'm going, they really should download the delta between the update and currently installed version for updates. Instead they download the full product installer and run through standard install process as if you downloaded the package from the website. If you are updating multiple packages, you have to agree to the stupid click-through legal terms and choices again and again and again. Why can't you do it once per session? It also litters your downloads folder with the installers instead of offering to clean up. It feels like the Product Portal team is one person who wears many other hats and has no time nor incentive to fix all these usability nits. I also wonder if there is some master plan to integrate NI, Izo, and all the other umbrella companies into a single product portal that is sucking all the air and blocking any changes?

Sorry Izotope it does make a difference whether your customers are pleased or annoyed with things like the Portal. Happy customers buy more. Unhappy customers look for alternatives. Don't know if I will give any more money to Izotope. What have they done to the Exponential product line except bury most of it, Trash was trashed, and Iris went as well, all unceremoniously. Could be considered a pattern. Not a good pattern. Just the types of moves to annoy customers.

p.s. If anyone is looking for a free Neutron 3 Elements, just message me. Somehow I ended up with 2 registered. I think because their website is also a confusing mess. The loyalty offers are a universal joke and just like the product portal could be a goodwill generator with a few tweaks. Instead they're a laughing stock.

[MattLeschuck]

I'd like to know more around Neutron. I have Neutron 3 Elements, and thought I would hate it but don't. For those of you who love it, which functions and which versions are the sauce for you? Didn't they make some changes between 3 & 4 that were generally not considered better?

If you didnt like Ozone, I wouldn't expect you to like Neutron 3 advanced or Neutron 4. Similar workflow and modules.

With that said, the Exciter, Transient Shaper and Compressor modules are all quite good and handy to use individually if you want. Exciter reminds me sound wise of Saturn 2. The gate is also handy to have. When i need to work FAST on something work related, I find Neutron can get me there quick as a strip.

[kidslow]

Exciter seems to be the one I universally read praise about. So it's mainly the workflow for you? Ozone was more than I need in one kit and I prefer a la carte for the types of tools it offers. Probably will hold true for Neutron but I will keep Elements installed and give it more than a cursory inspection and actually figure out what the differences are between 3 & 4 and Standard & Advanced. Maybe it was Neutron Elements 3 to 4 that I read was a step backward.

[MattLeschuck]

Exciter seems to be the one I universally read praise about. So it's mainly the workflow for you? Ozone was more than I need in one kit and I prefer a la carte for the types of tools it offers. Probably will hold true for Neutron but I will keep Elements installed and give it more than a cursory inspection and actually figure out what the differences are between 3 & 4 and Standard & Advanced. Maybe it was Neutron Elements 3 to 4 that I read was a step backward.

I think the big complaint was that 4 wasn’t much of an “upgrade” over N3 advanced. It added some of the Trash modules to Exciter which was nice. And IMO Exciter is best module out of the bunch.

Main reason I like the advanced versions is the ability to use the modules separate. I use the Exciter and Comp quite a bit in a mix. The MB Transient shaper is also really good on drums.

[Jac459]

Well, I am not using a lot neutron but I do use ozone a lot.
On my channel strip I have most of the time Bitwig EQ or FF pro Q3. I side chain a lot and use a bit of OTT and FF saturn2. From time to time I use neutron compressor. It works well for me, no issue at all. And you have the choice of many flavours and presets to keep you started.
I didn't use enough the assistant to have a proper opinion but initial tries weren't encouraging. I use unmasking sometimes as an alternative to side chaining when I am not sure of what frequencies to side chain. Sometimes it works sometimes not.

Ozone is a different story. I find the limiter very very good for me, the AI assistant works reasonably well as a kick start and there are a few good spectral tool that I use. EQs are good enough. Compressors, exciters are ok for me.
CPU usage is terrible.... But overall I considere Ozone as my go-to mastering... One day I'll compare it with the FF suite.
So far I only own the creative suite of FF and pro Q3.

[AdvancedFollower]

I like Ozone Standard, as I don't use/need any of the fancy stuff like Tonal Balance. It has good EQ/dynamic EQ, compressor and limiter, which are about all I use. The "AI" does a good job of identifying obvious flaws and provides a good starting point. I don't like Elements since it does so much "behind the scenes" without giving you much control or feedback, but with Standard you can be as subtle as you need.

The upgrade pricing is kind of all over the place. Currently running V10 which I got when I upgraded my Komplete, but I see no reason to upgrade to V11. I was using version 7 or 8 for a long time which would probably still have been fine for my needs.

[Jac459]

I like tonal balance actually... Use it a lot.

[ben_ita]

For those who use Neutron, have you tried other AI products? How does it compare with the Sonible Smart Bundle or to the Focusrite FAST bundle?

[gjunk]

Some great products but the cpu usage and discontinuation of trash 2 is unfortunate

[Trancit]

Having just installed a bunch to try again... I don´t find a way to scale them up on my 4k system!!

Sure I can resize the window but the fonts and controls stay tiny... am I missing something here or did they still don´t do it it (in 2024)??

[noiseboyuk]

I like tonal balance actually... Use it a lot.

Yes, I've learned to love Tonal Balance. It's across the output of everything I do now.

I use Neutron for the EQ and the ability to see several instances at once - that's about it. I like the harmony module in Nectar 3, it's all I use that for.

RX, as someone said above, isn't the only game in town any more but it still packs a punch. RX10 offered little extra though, so I'm still on 9.

The thing that has surprised me the most over the past year or two after the merger is that the deals have got massively worse for existing customers looking to upgrade - they seem to have moved to the model where they lure in new custom with cheap bundles but then get you on the upgrades. That's no bad thing for me perhaps - with lacklustre upgrade features, crazy high prices mean I'm never remotely tempted to buy something I don't really need, so I've probably saved a fair bit as a result.

[HOTF]

For me Neutron, nectar and others never made it to my workflow unfortunately. The AI felt a bit dumb imho but i am a few version behind. I Still use Trash 2 and Tonal balance and have used ozone in the past not so much these days. Also Because i have skipped two upgrades for my Music Producer bundle (it was really expensive at the time) I don't get any upgrade path to newer version so I don't feel comepelled at all to try them out.

[Jac459]

For me Neutron, nectar and others never made it to my workflow unfortunately. The AI felt a bit dumb imho but i am a few version behind. I Still use Trash 2 and Tonal balance and have used ozone in the past not so much these days. Also Because i have skipped two upgrades for my Music Producer bundle (it was really expensive at the time) I don't get any upgrade path to newer version so I don't feel comepelled at all to try them out.

So what do you use instead? Fabfilter?