Audio post pro Tim Wembly reviews iZotope Neutron 3 Advanced at PostPerspective. He gives an example of how Neutron 3 Advanced with Mix Assistant can be useful when mixing a commercial.

1. Jun 09, 2019  iZotope Neutron Advanced 3.0 Review. A powerful application with an innovative set of tools for audio mixing and music creation, iZotope Neutron Advanced 3.0 comes with a professional environment that allows the users to work effortlessly with different types of music.
2. Nov 14, 2019 With both previous versions of Neutron scoring 9/10, the pressure is on for the latest iteration of iZotope’s amazing ‘smart’ channel strip plugin to meaningfully improve on its predecessor. We’ll concentrate on the new features of v3 for the purposes of this review, but first, let’s get up to speed with a general summary.

Jul 18, 2019  Izotope Neutron 3 is one of the first plug-in (if not the first one) that listens or analyses your audio track and suggest an overall level mix to kick off the balance right off the bat. I don’t want to “lure” you into buying a tool you likely won’t use, which brings us to the question.

For example, if someone delivers a commercial with stems for music, a VO track and several sound effect tracks, you can still use the Balance feature; you’ll just have to be a little creative with how you classify each track. Perhaps you can set the VO as your focus and divide the sound effects between the other categories as you see fit considering their timbre.

Since this is a process that happens at the beginning of the mix you are provided with a session that is prepped in the gain staging department so you can start making creative decisions. You can still tweak to your heart’s content you’ll just have one of the more time intensive processes simplified considerably.

iZotope Neutron 3 Advanced

The Modern Way to Mix

It’s the easiest, most intelligent way to bring unrivaled quality and speed to your mix.

Neutron 3 is from the makers of popular audio plug-ins like RX and Ozone. It is designed to bring your mix workflows into the 21st century. Now with Mix Assistant! Neutron 3 is the first-ever plug-in that listens to your entire session to suggest an overall level mix to kick things off right.

To download a trial version, click on the product page.

Neutron in the News

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

The mighty Neutron just got an update with new important additions and features that include machine learning, virtual assistants and improved performance.

by Vince Bellanova, Jan. 2020

The well-known iZotope advances the all-in-one solution for mixing with the update of their incredible Neutron. iZotope Neutron 3 is a modular solution for mixing and mastering that offers seven different modules: Equalizer, two Compressors, an Exciter, Gate, the new Sculptor and the Transient Shaper (eight modules if we also include the visual mixer in the list).

New features include a brand new module, Sculptor (we’ll be on that later), a new look for the entire plug-in, a grown-up Masking Meter, the new Mix Assistant and enhanced performances with less CPU usage. All of these will take the capabilities of Neutron to the next level for easier, more precise and more efficient mixes.

Neutron 3 provides everything we need in order to mix, enhance, or fix our single channels or entire tracks, as we will see. The mothership can host all of them or just what we need; here in fact we can arrange them, swap them and use a Limiter on the Output, or, if we just need a single section of Neutron, we can use the modules as single plug-ins. Neutron comes in three different versions, Elements, Standard and Advanced (the version I am reviewing), and the possibility to use modules as plug-ins is available only with the advanced version. For a detailed comparison between the various versions, please check this link:

Modules and Sculptor

It would be very hard to go deeply into every module and every function provided by Neutron 3, so we will focus on the main aspects of Neutron and on the new features.

As already seen, Neutron offers a complete set of tools for our mix, from Exciters and Transient Shapers to EQ, Compressor and the new Sculptor. Many of the modules are capable of multiband processing, and while this is awesome for the Compressor and the Exciter, it is a true blast with the Transient Shaper. Here we can adjust the Attack and Sustain for up to three bands. We can also choose the Envelope Mode, or the type of envelope since Precise, Balanced and Loose determine the recovery time between transients. With the learn function, as in other multiband modules, it can analyze the incoming audio material and split it into three bands. This can be great for enhancing the attack-specific sections of the spectrum, and particularly useful with entire tracks or for precise tweaking.

The new addition we mentioned above is the Sculptor module. Sculptor is a spectral shaping tool that looks quite simple but has a lot going on under the hood. It is dedicated to track improvements by removing muddiness, taming harshness or enhancing some areas of the spectrum by compressing the signal in up to 32 frequency bands, a considerable number that allows for great control over the input material. The dynamic processing is going to point towards a Target Curve. When we load Sculptor we can choose the type of target curve between various instruments divided into categories (we can also choose general purpose curves like Add Punch and Instrument Bus). These idealized spectral curves will be our guide, and at this point we can play with the parameters Amount, Speed and Tone to further sculpt the spectrum.

This tool is capable of adding clarity and a bit of definition to almost everything, and its complex series of bands is capable of interesting spectral enhancements. I particularly like it on basses, pads and drums, where it really shines removing muddiness and adding punch. In this example I loaded a pulse I made that was a bit dark and tried to enhance it with Sculptor to give back some life.

Masking Meter

The Masking meter is one of the favorite enhancements. Masking can be a real issue and one of the primary goals in a mix is clarity, definition and, probably, separation for some instruments. Some frequency clashing can glue the mix, but often times we talk about masking, that happens when two instruments or sounds sit in the same frequency range and compete for our attention. In the EQ module we can engage the Masking Meter and select which track will be the “masker” which is responsible for masking the material we are analyzing. To select a track as a masker it must have an instance of Neutron 3, Neutron 3 EQ or other compatible iZotope IPC plug-in.

In the above image I have a Bass track as a source and the Kick as a masker, and we can see that those orange bands going down from the top of the Spectrum Analyzer are telling us where the clashing occurs, indicating the problematic areas. We can EQ the instruments individually or use the magnificent Inverse Link function that links two EQ nodes in the different instruments and allows us to make space by boosting on an instrument while cutting, at the same time, on the masker, or vice versa.

Mix Assistant and Track Enhancement

Mix Assistant is surely one of the most advanced features of Neutron 3. Machine Learning, as we have seen it in Ozone and RX, now takes the shape of a virtual assistant and enters the world of Mixing too. What the mix assistant can do is listen to the tracks in our mix, learn and understand what type of instruments they are, and adjust the levels to deliver a well-balanced mix to start with. We need to have one instance of the free Relay on each track of the session to get started, so they can communicate with Neutron’s mothership and operate on the tracks.

In the mothership can activate the assistant in the upper section of the interface, and then choose balance. It is recommended to reset all the volumes of the various channels before starting. Then Neutron will ask us which tracks we want to include in the analysis and what we want it to focus on. We can choose more than one element as a focus, but at least one have to be selected. Then we can start the playback, and we need to play the song from start to finish.

Izotope Neutron 3 Review

Once the assistant has listened to our tracks, it will group the various elements into categories (Focus, Voice, Bass, Percussion, and Musical). These are available as group faders with which we can play and further adjust the balance. Also, we can Bypass the assistant for A/B and we can reassign the elements in the categories, in case something went wrong.

During the test the assistant worked great for grouping and balancing elements, providing a stunning starting point for further tweaking. The balance of the mix, though, was depending on the genres, way better on some genres than others. This tool can save some time (especially if your DAW has a function for assigning a plug-in in insert on multiple tracks) and make a rough balance, but I feel it can be improved. Despite being a bit genre sensitive, it is able to provide amazing results even with a large number of tracks.

In addition to the Mix Assistant, the Track Enhancement can analyze the material and suggest a processing chain for enhancing a single track. This is a huge help when starting with a track, or, if you make sound design and music loops as I do. It’s an amazing tool for giving those loops brilliance and sparkle, and cleaning them up to make them really shine. Let’s keep in mind, however, that both the Mix Assistant and the Track Enhancements are intended as starting points for further tweaking, although they do provide great suggestions.

Documentation and Tutorials

Something worth noting here is the quality of the documentation provided, from the well-written user guide to the simple tutorial videos to the articles that iZotope provides on a blog. Manual apart, when you can learn what every control does, the blog is the place where things get interesting because various contributors share their knowledge and experience explaining technical concepts, guiding us through certain techniques with practical examples or, in the case of Neutron, it can provide material on how to improve our mixes focusing on single aspects, like masking, for instance. The blog is free and constantly updated. I found a lot of useful information not only on the plug-ins, but on technical concepts that were explained in a plain language but without omitting important information. I find this an added value and a great way to train everyone.

Conclusion

The third version of iZotope Neutron is a complete suite for mixing that has several assistants included. The single modules are easy to use and surgical, and the visual feedback is always precise and clear. The new Sculptor module is excellent, the Target Curves are extremely useful for enhancements, and the whole concept of this module is a win. We could call in Sculptor in every situation, from sound design, to mix and audio post production. The enhanced GUI is even clearer, and the Masking Meter improvements make it a reliable instrument that is one of the preferred features here. Mix Assistant is very useful in a lot of situations, and it is able to categorize and balance well for the instruments, but I feel it can be improved to shine in more genres as it does in Pop, Rock and HipHop.

Izotope Neutron 3 Manual

The value of Neutron 3 goes beyond the modules and the tools, but I find that functionalities like the Masking Meter, to see where problems might occur is especially noteworthy, as is Sculptor and Track Enhancement as starting points for the mix or even for single tracks and sounds. I can personally recommend it to anyone involved in music creation, and not only as a set of tools, but as an instrument capable of transforming the way we mix, making us think to every step we take within a mixing session, from balancing levels, to masking problems, using EQs, controlling dynamics, clean things up and add brightness with Scupltor, add punch with a Transient Shaper and fatness with the Exciter. It would be great to see an Imager module as in Ozone – that’s a wish for Neutron 4, though.

iZotope Neutron 3 is available for Mac and PC in AU, VST, VST3 and AAX format and 64-bit only. The pricing depends on the version, and it is ranging from $129.00 of the Elements, to $249.00 of the Standard version to $399.00 of the Advanced version. More here:

Neutron 3 Izotope Review 2