Izotope Music Production Bundle

    After reading about Izotope Neutron on another thread, I thought I'd check out the product and it seems pretty nifty, especially for someone with piss-poor music production values.


    I was thinking of picking up the production bundle, but I wasn't sure whether having both Ozone as well as Neutron would be overkill, since they seem to cover the same bases.


    Anyone have any suggestions? I would love to be able to tone match with Ozone and then get some help (I understand that it's not totally accurate) with determining appropriate EQing and compression.


    Or would I be better off going with something like the Slate Everything bundle for $14.99 a month?


    I really do want Ozone though.

    I think it depends on what your goal is. Do you want to get proficient at mixing and learn the ropes yourself, then I'd say work with the basic tools. I'd even say "stick with your stock plugins". But the slate stuff is nice too ;)


    If you want fast results but are not interested in being a mix engineer yourself, as such - then Neutron I think would be a good way to go (maybe - I don't know the product).


    Both approaches are valid; it's just a matter of what you want to achieve.


    I think Ozone is mainly intended for mastering (which of course doesn't preclude you from using it for mixing).

    I've recently gone for the Slate bundle - it was on at a good price for a year and I wanted the reverb so I'm a happy bunny anyway.


    I also read Ingolf's comment on Neutron. Damn you! :)


    I downloaded the demo and had a quick play last night. For someone who is not very good at making mix decisions (that's me with my hand up!) this thing seems very promising.


    The bad news? I use Studio One v3 and Neutron seems not to like it much. Just using it on a few tracks caused massive CPU spikes and locks to the extent that the track would have to finish playing by itself before you could interact with the DAW again (i.e. it wouldn't react when I pressed the stop button).


    I'll keep playing - I found that if I increased my buffer massively it helped but it seemed to upset Studio One far more than any other plugin of late. It's a shame because, on a recent track where I used the Slate bundle and didn't like the sound of my voice, this product did a better job than I did. That is not me saying that it's better than the Slate bundle - that wouldn't be a fair comment because in the hands of anyone who knows what they're doing the Slate bundle is fantastic. Even the likes of me can get decent results from it but I have a *lot* to learn. What would be a fair comment is that I'm currently not far removed from an idiot with mixing so, even with some of the best tools in the world, I made a mess.


    Yes, I should spend hours honing my craft. Yes, I'll get good at it eventually. No, that's not going to be any time soon because I enjoy writing and playing a lot more than I enjoy finding 'that annoying frequency that is making me sound like I have a cold'. :)

    @Gary_W: Sorry for causing some G.A.S.
    I have just finished mixing a song using a combination of inserts in the following order.
    1. Slate VMR
    2. Slate Virtual Tapemachine
    3. Izotope Neutron


    I used this exact combination on 11 tracks in realtime before Logic gave me a CPU overload (on my 2016 MacBook Pro).
    The result that I got was awesome though so I bounced the tracks and printed the inserts before going on with the mixing.
    Neutrino was particularly immensely helpful in helping to balance tracks that are potentially colliding/masking, like kick and bass or several guitars plus keyboards.
    I'll post some results soon as this work is for my band's new album.

    Quote from Gary_W

    Hi Ingolf,


    Thanks for this.


    Was it Neutrino or Neutron you used? I've just looked up Neutrino (the free one) and I didn't think it did the masking information from the video I just watched??

    Oh sorry. Of course it's Neutron and not Neutrino.
    Hear the result here: https://www.kemper-amps.com/fo…postID=347641&#post347641

    Quote from Ingolf

    You can't compare the Ozone products with the Slate bundle.
    Do it like me, get both. ;)


    Lol, that's wonderful and expensive advice!


    Unfortunately, not everyone can be like The Ingolf!


    I tried out the Neutron demo on a project and it seemed to add some clarity to the audio just using track assistant. Need to now mess with the Learn function to determine nodes and apply my own cuts. Also need to check out the masking and other features.

    Based on what I saw in the demos, I took the plunge and bought the production bundle. Seemed a no brainer, given that I got so many more plugins at a price that was much less than what it costs for them individually.


    And Wow. Tone match in Ozone 7. :thumbup:


    It seems a bit anal to have to do that with the Kemper, imo, but after trying it out, it just seems like the best way to get excellent guitar tones like some of the pros out there.


    By that I mean recording tones without being able to profile those amps. I've been quite happy with my live tone, but my tuning is so low that everything always sounded like mush coming out of my speakers.


    I use pretty good profiles and everyone compliments my tones, but this is just another level.


    I wonder if there could be a market for tone-matched profiles of the stars. Some smart man could make a lot of money! 8)

    I just bought Neutron too. Naughty!! I played further with buffer sizes and it seems to be OK with a massive buffer.


    I did not have another Izotope product so was looking at the 'special holiday price' of 199 dollars. I then noticed that Audiodeluxe were doing a deal whereby you could buy Trash 2 for 25 dollars. When I put it in the cart, it rang up at 20 :)


    After registering, I was then able to crossgrade to Neutron for 99 dollars which again rang up at 89 via Audiodeluxe. So instead of 199 of one product, I paid 110 for two products :)


    The thing I really like in it is the dynamic EQ so as it doesn't kick in till it needs to when I shout out the chorus.... I don't have the sense to know how to do this outside this program and, as I'm bone idle and this does it for me? Rude not to use it!


    That sounds like an awesome deal. Wish I had shopped around too.


    Those were my impressions too. It makes helpful suggestions, but rather than use the assistant blindly, I'd say just use the learn function to identify problematic frequencies, then do the boosting and cutting by yourself. It's quite simple to make a node dynamic (one of the options below) and you can also side-chain it so that when you are singing, certain guitar frequencies are cut down (while those vocal frequencies are boosted).

    Quote from nightlight

    That sounds like an awesome deal. Wish I had shopped around too.


    Those were my impressions too. It makes helpful suggestions, but rather than use the assistant blindly, I'd say just use the learn function to identify problematic frequencies, then do the boosting and cutting by yourself. It's quite simple to make a node dynamic (one of the options below) and you can also side-chain it so that when you are singing, certain guitar frequencies are cut down (while those vocal frequencies are boosted).

    Thanks for the tip there - I have got a lot to learn with this product for sure. It does seem to make a bunch of sensible stuff much simpler to do all in one place.

    Darn, I thought Ingolf was going to derail the thread and plunge headlong into a treaty on particle physics! (love that stuff)


    But alas, just EZ-Mixing, haha.


    I got an iZotope (not isotope, sorry) bundle and Neutron is really quick and dirty.
    It can take you in a more exciting direction in 10 seconds for an otherwise lifeless track.
    You need to be careful with using it with too many other plugins, so Ingolf's simplicity is best.


    But I agree, it's for those of us who either aren't experience mixers or, the more pertinent reason: professionals elsewhere and have limited time. The best results are of course building up from the foundational plugins.


    Typically I like to Trim, EQ out some bottom, then Compress, then Carve EQ, then Reverb.
    But since I'm inexperienced, Neutron can in 10 seconds do better than I can in 2 hours, so...

    That's the real trick with Neutron, I think. I find some of its suggestions obnoxious, but if I turn it off and do my own mixing, my results are often less "predictable".


    I find this a huge problem when trying to mix several tracks for my EP, the results vary so much that it doesn't seem like a homogenous product.


    With Neutron, I'm guessing that I will be more or less in the same ballpark region. Still plan to keep trying my own EQ tweaks and A/Bing with the Neutron results to improve my mixing skills.

    FWIW, I have been using Neutron quite a bit with a project I'm mixing. How I like to use it is to see what it comes up with, then approximate it with EQ and compression I prefer to use instead. So I like using it for "analysis" purposes more than anything. Sometimes it's good by itself, so I leave it. But if you pull up it's settings, then pull up your own EQ and replicate what it did that you like, then move to the compression, etc. tweak it to sound the way you want and remove Neutron after you are done, it's really helpful that way. I personally hate the Exciter it likes to put on things--especially on bass. Neutron overall likes to add a bit too much high frequencies for me (as does Neutrino), so if you use it across the board on everything, it will be a pretty top-heavy mix. At least that's been my experience. For less experience mixers, all that extra high end across all the tracks may sound more "exciting" when each one is isolated, but it's ear-piercing once it's all added together. But that doesn't mean it's not an excellent tool when used to help you make decisions and spot problem areas faster.


    Ozone is used for a very different purpose--mastering when all is done. You can use it for other things, but that is what it's intended for. I don't see much overlap in the two products at all. Plus, the CPU hit if you tried to run a ton of Ozone instances across a bunch of tracks would be major. The individual Ozone plugins that come with Advanced may be a different story though. I got the Standard for both, since I already have a lot of great EQ and dynamics plugins. I didn't see any need for the Advanced versions myself.


    Just my observations. Both GREAT tools to have though.


    J