iZotope announces its newest mixing plug-in: Neutron

iZotope's new Neutron includes various automatic tools to free up creativity

The ever-active iZotope has just announced its new mixing plug-in, Neutron, which will be available from October 5 and features a couple of intriguing-sounding industry firsts.

Neutron is essentially geared toward simplifying and enhancing the mixing process by combining what iZotope says are the latest innovations in analysis and metering with state-of-the-art audio processing.

The industry firsts are interesting. Track Assistant uses intelligent analysis to automatically detect instruments, first analysing a track before recommending the placement of EQ nodes, compressor thresholds, saturation types, multiband crossover points, and the setting of optimal starting points for other modules. The operator still maintains full control over all mix decisions — this is an art not a science after all — but the idea is that Track Assistant gives them more time to focus on what’s most important and the creative aspect of the mix.

Masking Meter, meanwhile, enables users to visually identify perceptual frequency collisions between instruments, which can result in guitars masking lead vocals, bass covering up drums, and other such issues that can cause a muddy or overly crowded mix. Each track can be tweaked to carve away muddiness using the spectral shaping technology inherent in the company’s recent free release of Neutrino, and again it detects each instrument automatically, freeing up more time for more creativity.

Neutron can be used on every track with zero-latency, and five mixing processors are integrated into one channel strip to boost CPU-efficiency, combining both clean digital and warmer vintage-flavored processing paradigms.

Two versions are going to be available: Neutron at $199/€189 and Neutron Advanced at $299/€270. The Advanced version adds support for Surround Sound as well as individual plug-ins for the Equalizer, Compressor, Transient Shaper, and Exciter, and we’ll have a review soon to help you choose between the two.