iZotope RX6 - Released

[Guy Rowland]

Released on April 20th. No pricing yet, but JRR Shop (and others) are doing deals on RX5, with a free upgrade to RX6 on release.



Instabuy for me, mostly for Audio work (the word de-rustle makes me shed cash), but there's a few more musical applications this time too. Removing headphone bleed... interesting. They are clever sods, they really are.

[byzantium]

I have the Acon Digital suite. Inexpensive relative to Izotope and gets very good reviews, and seems to work well (needs a few seconds 'learn' period before the clip in order to work). Would just be curious if anyone has both, whether RX is really streets ahead.

[Guy Rowland]

Plenty of caveats here - obviously this is mostly a post-application, and there's no telling it if its quite as good as this demo, but if it works easily like advertised here - well, daaamn.

[wst3]

pretty impressive demo...

[Killiard]

I'm still on RX3 and use it everyday. Is it time for me to upgrade I wonder...

[Guy Rowland]

I'd say so, Jordan - three versions of improvements is too good.

I've just upgraded a 2nd version from rx4. That way for the same cost I keep rx5 on the MacBook without an iLok (machine authorised) and rx6 is tied to the iLok so I can also use it in impoverished dubbing suites. Almost clever, that.

[Udo]

How does it compare with the current version of Melodyne?

[Guy Rowland]

How does it compare with the current version of Melodyne?

Totally different products, Udo - not sure how to compare them to be honest.

[Udo]

How does it compare with the current version of Melodyne?

Totally different products, Udo - not sure how to compare them to be honest.

Yes, I know they're quite different. Are you an experienced Melodyne user?

[Udo]

Sorry, I was in the wrong thread. Revoice is what this relates to

[Guy Rowland]

ping Guy,
best price at..?

/Anders

Ooh exciting, it's out today, isn't it? Eagerly awaiting my free upgrade. I bought from Audiodeluxe, they were cheapest a week ago. They have the RX6 product up now, and think it's exactly the same price as RX5 with free upgrade was. You get a discount in-cart of nearly 20% I think - https://www.audiodeluxe.com/search/site ... now%3Atrue

[Guy Rowland]

The product page is now live, and currently downloading (my license hasn't yet arrived, so it'll be a trail version to start).

Here's an overview:



A quick de-bleed explanation for removing headphone spill - I'll be interested to try this on adjacent microphones too:



There's a load more videos, info, version comparisons etc on the website - https://www.izotope.com/en/products/rep ... it/rx.html .

OK, let's run some tests....

[Guy Rowland]

A very encouraging first few tests.

First example - me talking and smashing things about.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mnkojrs17z03b ... e.wav?dl=0

Now here's Dialogue Isolate, with everything turned up to the max

https://www.dropbox.com/s/krnltuidasuut ... x.wav?dl=0

And now here's what it removed

https://www.dropbox.com/s/lh4gupk4mleci ... t.wav?dl=0

Now, of course it's far from perfect, but that's a pretty impressive improvement for a one-click solution. In the real world, you'd likely need to match some ambience too to stop the gating effect, but that's easily doable.

The second example is from a recent real world dubbing project, a particularly nasty mic rustle that I couldn't very satisfactorily get rid of. Here it is, only 2s long, first the original, second the de-rustle set to max

https://www.dropbox.com/s/gja9wafxeh96z ... o.wav?dl=0

I'll do some more tests later including the headphone spill, but right now the sun and bike are beckoning.

[Guy Rowland]

POST REMOVED - this was my first attempt at a full track spilling out of headphones test on the de-bleed module. I did the test wrong, so I've removed the files as they're not representative of what RX6 can do. More on this in the post after next.

[Guy Rowland]

This is VERY impressive, though again it's a post-production use rather than musical - de-wind. This is a clip on a show I worked on last year, and the wind noise was atrocious. Not just boomy LF, but that nasty uneven roaring slightly further up the spectrum that's nigh on impossible to get rid of, save for drastic EQing. This was stock settings - first the original, then de-wind.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/kj9ua22mzqm0x ... e.wav?dl=0

I can hear artefacts, but its immeasurably better than untreated.

[Guy Rowland]

OK, so I watched the Pro Tools Expert video:



..and Mike got massively better results out of de-bleed than I did, so I thought I should redo my tests. I had indeed made a fundamental error - it's not enough to have the clip you need to fix and the source of the bleed as two separate WAVs, these two clips must be 100% in sync (ie the file starting at the same time to sample accuracy). RX6 cannot compensate for any phase error.

One done, the results are MUCH more impressive. This is with everything set on full so there are some artefacts on my voice - mainly an occasional loss of HF I'd say - but it does a pretty damn good job now.

First the clip as recorded:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xn0sytozkf3g5 ... e.wav?dl=0

...and here after de-spill

https://www.dropbox.com/s/qb3kynnchvmlr ... r.wav?dl=0

Now, I think this is a tool that would need to be used with care, but if you're working in the same project as a mic with bleed on it, it should be possible to clean it up very nicely without compromising the quality.

Oh, one major mark down - Cubase 9 has blacklisted all the RX6 plugins. RX5 was fine. I'll let iZotope support know.
EDIT - actually the VST3 versions are fine, it just blacklisted the VST2, so no real problems there.

[Luciano Storti]

That's very impressive stuff, Guy. On a slightly different note, some might remember my quest for an audio editor a while back (the search went on for a long time until I compromised and settled). I've just been notified by iZotope that since I bought the RX plugin pack in March, I get a free update to RX Essentials, which includes an (new?) Audio Editor. And what an audio editor it is! Basically checks every one of my boxes.

Don't really have a need for RX, as I don't do any dialogue work, but once in a while you need something for the odd clicking in a recording so I picked up the plugin version on a whim. Will definitely be a return customer.

Sidebar over, back to the topic at hand...

[Guy Rowland]

RX Essentials looks like a terrific junior product to me, far more appealing than the old RX plugins bundle. You're right, I think that's a very useful audio editor now - the spectral repair tool is so powerful (if fiddly), it will come in all kinds of use. That phone going off / 2nd violinist chatting at the end of a sample? Gone.

Here's something I've been appallingly slow to wake up to - iZotope's licensing is, imo, the best in the entire audio business. You get three authorisations - I knew that already, but what I didn't realise is that an iLok counts just as ONE. It's not either / or, you can have both. So you can have one on a laptop with no dongle needed, another on your main machine, and a third on an iLok for if you have work elsewhere. Fantastic.

[Luciano Storti]

Yes, I agree on the licensing. I think UVI has followed suit with that as well, providing three licenses and being able to authorize to a machine as well. I'm hoping others will see the light too, it would make having separate setups easier (can you tell I often forget my iLok when moving between home and studio?)

[Killiard]

Thanks for the Audiodeluxe tip. Cheapest upgrade price I've come across. Just ordered it now!

[Guy Rowland]

Yes, I agree on the licensing. I think UVI has followed suit with that as well, providing three licenses and being able to authorize to a machine as well. I'm hoping others will see the light too, it would make having separate setups easier (can you tell I often forget my iLok when moving between home and studio?)

It's the dream ticket, eh? I guess there are two big reasons why more don't do it. First, you open yourself up to piracy if you allow a non-iLok option (I can only presume iZotope etc take the view that iLok is purely an extra option for customers if they find dongles useful, rather than their defence against piracy). Second, it would seem rather easy to share a license. I'm a good boy, so it's all wonderful to me, I just hope it doesn't get widely abused.

Jordan, let us know how you get on with it. It's such a miraculous bag of tricks now, having fought so many of these problems for years, it's amazing to be able to routinely achieve the impossible.

[Killiard]

Will do. I remember demoing RX5 and the dereverb came in very handy while working on a scene in a glass-walled office. For some reason the sound recordist only used a boom and seemed a bit shy with getting even remotely close to the actors :-(

I use RX3 every single day at the moment. For my audiobook work I process the whole thing (800mins average) with Decrackle the night before I start editing and it saves me literally hours of work!

[Guy Rowland]

Will do. I remember demoing RX5 and the dereverb came in very handy while working on a scene in a glass-walled office. For some reason the sound recordist only used a boom and seemed a bit shy with getting even remotely close to the actors :-(

(tangent in defence of boom ops everywhere - obviously I've no idea of this case, but in general it can be such a thankless job. If you have an unhelpful lighting person and / or a director who insists on keeping a protected wide shot, you're stuffed. It always sounds better than radio mics if you're allowed near the actors, but so often you're not...)

[Luciano Storti]

Yes, I agree on the licensing. I think UVI has followed suit with that as well, providing three licenses and being able to authorize to a machine as well. I'm hoping others will see the light too, it would make having separate setups easier (can you tell I often forget my iLok when moving between home and studio?)

It's the dream ticket, eh? I guess there are two big reasons why more don't do it. First, you open yourself up to piracy if you allow a non-iLok option (I can only presume iZotope etc take the view that iLok is purely an extra option for customers if they find dongles useful, rather than their defence against piracy). Second, it would seem rather easy to share a license. I'm a good boy, so it's all wonderful to me, I just hope it doesn't get widely abused.

Jordan, let us know how you get on with it. It's such a miraculous bag of tricks now, having fought so many of these problems for years, it's amazing to be able to routinely achieve the impossible.

On point 2, I can see developers be ok with this. In comparison to outright piracy, this would be a limited number of copies, and if shared and then retired by the original user, it might further entice purchase by the person who was using it without buying. The point for me is that we need to have a bit more flexibility with hardware dongles so we can work anywhere anytime without having to think about them. And I think we're inching closer.

[Guy Rowland]

Anders - you're booked on my next gig :-)