The wait is over, iZotope RX8 is finally here, stronger and more powerful than ever.
- Ctrl/Command-: zoom left edge. Ctrl/Command-: zoom right edge. F1: help You can add module-specific and processing keyboard shortcuts in RX 7 Preferences Keyboard Note: These Keyboard Shortcuts do not work with the RX Plug-ins.(RX modules in a host application).
- I feel iZotope RX is the most comprehensive, customizable and best-sounding audio restoration and repair tool currently on the market. Available for less than $300 on the street, it puts RX easily within reach of any studio looking to generate extra revenue from audio-restoration sessions.
by Vince Bellanova, Nov. 2020
Add an edit point - Left-click, displayed as gray box along envelope curve. Remove an edit point - Right-click (CTRL click on Mac) or drag it outside the screen. Envelope Show - This controls whether or not the suppression envelope points are visible or hidden. The modified envelope will always be applied even when edit points are hidden.
As it says just above, the wait is over. iZotope RX8 is here. I must confess that I am an RX addict since version 4, and I had the pleasure to test and review it in multiple versions watching it have more and more features and improvements added year by year. Used right after a field recording session, or for audio post production works, or to clean up voiceovers, RX has always been a trustworthy companion. I hope you experienced the same excitement with announcement of version 8 as I did, because, as usual, there are a lot of brand new features, modules and improvements.
Please welcome Spectral Recovery, Wow & Flutter and Guitar De-noise modules, an improved Music Rebalance, De-Hum and Batch Processor, the new Loudness Control Module and several other new features such as horizontal scrolling and ARA integration for the Music Rebalance module.
The new improvements are found among different fields of application: music production, audio repair and restoration, audio post production, forensic audio and much more. The machine learning brought these modules to unprecedented levels of accuracy and, as we will see, year after year their intervention is becoming much more transparent and respectful of the original material.
We will try to describe the new features during this article, and if you want to see them in action, these short videos are perfect for following our discussion.
Spectral Recovery
Spectral Recovery is a brand-new module that is designed to address missing upper frequencies in content that might be missing it for compression artifacts or bandwidth limited speech content. If you think of phone calls, that can be a great example, because they have a limited frequency range and, in some cases, lack of higher frequencies will result in barely intelligible material. VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) recordings are candidates too (Zoom or Skype are examples). In this case there is no audio content at all above a certain Cutoff, so this module intelligently analyzes the material and resynthesizes the missing content.
We have a handy Learn button that will perform an analysis to determine the value of the Cutoff and to suggest a Smoothing value, a transition between the original and the resynthesized material. We can control the Amount of intervention and the level of Sibilant sounds with a dedicated slider. There is a Spectral Patching box that enables the restoration of gaps below the threshold too. Enabling it and increasing the Cutoff can improve the quality of the file even below the resynthesized part of the signal.
Podcasts and interviews are the perfect field of application, and I consider this module a particularly smart addition to the suite’s arsenal, not only for the particular growth of online meetings due to this specific historical period, but also for the help it can give in forensic applications. Phone call recordings are on the list, and I can’t count how many times I could have been helped if this module had existed a couple of years ago.
Bad .mp3 files are targets too, as we can see from the preset list. While the module is more than useful in more than one situation, the quality of the resynthesis can be improved and I am sure that we will see improvements on this module as for other ones that surprised me (no spoilers).
Wow and Flutter
This new module is specifically designed to correct pitch fluctuations, from the slower Wow to the much faster Flutter. With the spreading popularity of LoFi music these are sometimes wanted and recreated by musicians with the help of plug-ins that emulate the behavior of tape recorders and their inconsistent speed that causes them. Trends and creative uses apart, VHS and old tape restorations are now easier than ever. We can select if the module needs to address Wow or Flutter, and we can also select the speed of the first one. The sensitivity can be adjusted in case the intervention is too aggressive, and, in addition, we can display WoF on the spectrogram in order to see the problems clearly.
The process of the correction is very smooth and I loved how it could be adjusted in terms of strength: I tested it creating a LoFi piano loop with Flutter and then tried to bring it back with Wow and Flutter.
Guitar De-noise
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And we have a new module that mixing engineers and guitarists will absolutely love. Say goodbye to squeaky recordings, excessive pick noise and to time spent re-recording takes or trying to clean them manually. This module features three parts, each dedicated to a specific problem: Amp, Squeak and Pick. Each of these sections has a couple of faders that control the Sensitivity and the amount of Reduction, while the Amp section has a Resolution fader which controls the number of harmonics being removed. Buzz, Hum or other Amp problems now can be easily addressed with a couple of clicks. If we have a part with only the Amp noise, we can use the Learn function to help the module diagnose the problem.
The idea of a dedicated module for these type of problems is interesting and, being easy to use, even musicians without specific studio experience can benefit. Again, the intervention of RX here is very clean and respectful of the original material.
Improvements: Loudness Control and De-hum
RX8 improves the functionalities of other two modules, Loudness Control and De-hum. In the first case, the Loudness Control has been redesigned for even faster operation. The module can display or hide the graphic analysis, for a more compact view or a more detailed history of the program loudness. All we need to do is to select a preset for the compliance and click render. That was quick, wasn’t it? If we want to refine the parameters manually, we can do that with the sliders on the left part of the module. The manual also offers a handy table for the loudness standards in different nations.
De-hum’s detection and reduction algorithm has been improved too. Now it is even more precise in finding and addressing low frequency hums. With up to sixteen harmonics, it is easy to use and more flexible than its previous version. With the LP and HP filter we can have more control over the intervention, and we shouldn’t fear hum that changes its pitch over time with the Adaptive Mode. The learn button will let De-hum analyze and suggest its settings.
Please read this Agreement carefully before beginning download. Trucount t 10 user manual pdf.
Music Rebalance
This new and improved version of Music Rebalance is something worth talking about. Back when it was introduced, the Music Rebalance represented a great intuition and a powerful resource for both isolating entire sections of a mix providing stems for a remix for example, or just (surprise) rebalance a scene or song. While the idea sounded great, not in all cases, during my tests, it provided the cleanest results. When I read that it has been improved, Music Rebalance jumped to the first place of the priority list of my test. I have to stress the improvements that the iZotope team made on this module. In many cases the isolation is way better than it was before, with less artifacts and less bleeding of other instruments.
I took an entire song and tried to isolate the vocals, here is the result:
Entire SongVocalsWhile it wasn’t the most crowded part of the song, the separation is magnificent and surprised me, especially if I think about how difficult it can be to separate instruments. It is still not perfect and I feel there is still room for improvements, but there is a noticeable improvement here.
The algorithm improvement is not the only one, now we can solo the single tracks and export them as stems in a single click with the Separate button. Music Rebalance supports ARA 2.0 in Logic 10.5.1.
Other Features
With RX8 we are finally breaking the limit of sixteen tabs per session, doubling the number to 32.
The suite now features the horizontal scrolling for both mouse and trackpad gesture, making navigation through the file faster.
The Batch Processor has also been improved, and this tool is something that will make life easier to a lot of professionals. Now we can create and apply a Module Chain directly into the Batch Processor’s interface, processing an entire list of files with more modules is very easy. We can set the output file type, naming and location for maximum flexibility.
Conclusion
The wait is over and has been rewarded with new modules and functions that not only expand the number of situations in which RX8 comes in handy, but also some modules are even more efficient, particlarly Music Rebalance and De-hum. RX is already a standard and it is incredible how, release after release, its action improves in transparency.
iZotope RX8 comes in three different versions, RX8 Elements, Standard and Advanced. The suite is available as a Standalone with the Editor and some of its modules are available as AU, VST, VST3, AAX and AudioSuite plug-ins too. The installation process is very easy through the iZotope Portal, an application you can download on iZotope’s website and that will guide you through the steps for installing the product.
RX 8 Elements: $99 USD introductory ($129 USD regular)
RX 8 Standard: $299 introductory ($399 regular)
RX 8 Advanced: $999 introductory ($1199 regular)
RX Post Production Suite 5: $1499 introductory ($1999 regular)
For more information, go here.