iZotope Plasma

[Jac459]

This is a weird plugin. For instance, if I apply the full drum kit preset across a drum bus, I suppose it's trying to add harmonics to constantly adjust the momentary sounds to a static drum kit profile. So if the release is around 300 ms, it creates a swirly filter-sweep type of effect. Why would I want to snare drum or kick etc. to be spectrally shifted closer to a kit profile?... I don't think I would, but the sweepy effect does make the drum kit sound less mechanical, less synthetic. It would help enormously to have an output gain control, so that A/Bing the effect could be done without volume-induced bias. I find myself quite liking this 'enlivening' effect, though it's possible that it might easily get fatiguing if overdone.

Oh that's interesting. I didn't notice that when I demoed.
Izotope has a lot of plugins that matches genre, EQs in particular ... It makes sense here because what we are doing is very similar to EQ, except than instead of boosting frequencies, we add harmonics.

[billinder33]

I certainly don't NEED another saturator, though this one looks pretty cool and unique. In the video review I thought it sounded great on the individual instruments, making them sound really huge. Almost sounds like there's some kind of upward compression happening.

But not sure how those individual instruments would fit into a mix with all the "biggerizing" Plasma is doing. Wavesfactory Spectre (and Saturn, of course) is certainly a lot more targeted to a frequency range, which to me would be better when you're trying to create spaces for each instrument in a dense mix. Plasma seems like it would make more sense in sparse mixes where you want just one of the mix elements (usually vocals) to sound larger than life... just a snap judgement from the vid of course.

Not really in a rush to try it based on what I've seen so far, but like the other poster upstream (forget who), I own the iZotope Production bundle so maybe I'll get it someday via the bundle update.

[EfreetiSultan]

This plugin is amazing. It excels at most things but specifically bringing punch and knock to snares.
Works best as insert on a single sound then rendered down. Not great on busses - I'd much prefer Spectre for that

[simon.a.billington]

This is a weird plugin. For instance, if I apply the full drum kit preset across a drum bus, I suppose it's trying to add harmonics to constantly adjust the momentary sounds to a static drum kit profile. So if the release is around 300 ms, it creates a swirly filter-sweep type of effect. Why would I want to snare drum or kick etc. to be spectrally shifted closer to a kit profile?... I don't think I would, but the sweepy effect does make the drum kit sound less mechanical, less synthetic. It would help enormously to have an output gain control, so that A/Bing the effect could be done without volume-induced bias. I find myself quite liking this 'enlivening' effect, though it's possible that it might easily get fatiguing if overdone.

Oh that's interesting. I didn't notice that when I demoed.
Izotope has a lot of plugins that matches genre, EQs in particular ... It makes sense here because what we are doing is very similar to EQ, except than instead of boosting frequencies, we add harmonics.

Yeah, it seems to be a natural extension on what they already offer. Which I think is a good idea and certainly gives the plugin a bit of a niche.

As a result it also seems to be more "transparent" than many of the harmonic enhancers out there. Not that you necessarily look for transparency when it comes to that, but it is helpful nonetheless.

[Caine123]

how do you like it on Master?

[a9k1tp]

They could've just added the masking option to Neoverb.

[simon.a.billington]

how do you like it on Master?

So far I've only had a small play around with it. But I like it, especially if there is already quite a lot of saturation going on in the track. It will enhance areas that need it without the risk of over cooking the areas that don't need it...

Unless you want it to.

[Caine123]

how do you like it on Master?

So far I've only had a small play around with it. But I like it, especially if there is already quite a lot of saturation going on in the track. It will enhance areas that need it without the risk of over cooking the areas that don't need it...

Unless you want it to.

thanks! i will check it out, i dunno if it gives something more than bloom (bloom being no saturator though).

[hightyde]

They could've just added the masking option to Neoverb.

I think you’re thinking of Aurora which released today. Not Plasma

[ROTMetro]

A 10 day trial really isn't long enough to see if something like this is useful enough to be worth the purchase. Went to throw it on the second project that might need it and nope, trial over.

This isn't the kind of tool you throw on one project and go 'omg I need this' it's the type that you see fills a need over multiple uses. The fact that iZotope doesn't understand that makes them look like a software company that happens to make software for music, not a music focused company making tools for musicians. Or they fear that people won't find the tool useful past it's first use once they understand what it does. And because I can longer use it that opinion is the one that sticks. Bummer because I really liked what it did on the one project I tried it on.

[Ou_Tis]

While demoing this in Bitwig I noticed a significant bug---it sometimes fails to remember its saved state correctly and reverts to "Master - Balanced". It doesn't happen every time I deactivate and reactivate it, or every time the "continue trial" message comes up, but it happens frequently. Not sure if other parameters are being recalled correctly or not.

Is this happening in other DAWs as well? Is it just an issue with the trial?

[careyletendre]

I said it on gearspace, and I'll say it here too: this seems like a bunch of already existing izotope tech mashed into a single product...

What exactly makes it seem like that to you? (and with that much certainty that you feel a need to share your findings with the communities of two different boards)

Are you the forum police?

Irony just put on a tie in celebration of your post.

Close but not quite. Please try again.