Izotope Earlybird Black Friday Deals

[LAGinz]

Is Nimbus, Phoenix plus ?

[Brian Walton]

1 minute ago, LAGinz said:

Is Nimbus, Phoenix plus ?

Yes

[Fleer]

Indeed. Nimbus is the newer Phoenix, as R4 is the newer R2. 

[Hillmy]

If you are lucky with sales. You can get Excalibur for $10, Nimbus for $29 and R4 for $29. I did this year from Plugin Boutique and Audio Deluxe! ;D

[fitzroy]

I don't know how many people here are new to Izotope (if any), but this is an awesome deal for those that are. No-brainer territory. 

[Starship Krupa]

1 hour ago, telecode 101 said:

a guy on another forum claiming R4 has too many parameters to tweak, hence why he prefers R2. ??

I haven't tried either of them, so I can't say for sure, but I think I understand this. At the moment, I have more plug-ins than I know what to do with, literally. It's great to have an effect that is incredibly versatile and deep in features, but with that can come a danger of too much choice.

I feel weird admitting this, but it was the default preset in Phoenix that knocked me out, and 90% of the time, when I use it, I leave it on that preset. On one hand, it seems kind of lame. Part of me says that as an amateur mix engineer I "should" be able to tweak all the parameters like pre-delay, early reflections, decay time, pre-EQ, post-EQ, etc, to get exactly what's right for the track. But then I remind myself that very many classic recordings were mixed using chambers and plates and even springs that had no or rudimentary parameter adjustments. Black boxes that you feed audio into and get a fully wet reverb simulation out of, and the most you can do is treat those signals on the way in and out. So I guess I'm using Phoenix on its default preset like that.

It has a zillion other presets as well, which is great, and a big complaint I have with TrueVerb: I like the algorithm a lot, and I know it's capable of a lot more than I've ever gotten out of it, but the (in my eyes) too few presets that it comes with are not so great.

Do I have time to delve deep into a reverb when I have yet to really get a handle on my Glitchmachines plug-ins?

[Starship Krupa]

5 hours ago, Christian Jones said:

Do you like and use Excalibur? 

I do indeed.

[53mph]

Damn!

Now I wish I hadn't jumped on that R4 offer so quickly.

I could have got so much more for my money. ☹️ And money sure ain't growing in trees right now. 

[mister_tea]

1 hour ago, Starship Krupa said:

I feel weird admitting this, but it was the default preset in Phoenix that knocked me out, and 90% of the time, when I use it, I leave it on that preset. On one hand, it seems kind of lame. Part of me says that as an amateur mix engineer I "should" be able to tweak all the parameters like pre-delay, early reflections, decay time, pre-EQ, post-EQ, etc, to get exactly what's right for the track. But then I remind myself that very many classic recordings were mixed using chambers and plates and even springs that had no or rudimentary parameter adjustments.

Around a year ago I started to watch several of the "learn from the pros"-style tutorials and interview videos, which are more "watch this person mix an actual session" than "enhanced instruction manual" that tends to be the focus of Groove3 (those videos do what they do well though!). It struck me that while several big-name engineers had hundreds of thousands of dollars in outboard gear, often the compressors and reverbs were frozen to a single favorite setting. Sort of like your preset case except in $2000 form. I keep trying to remind myself that a tool that can take away a parameter without affecting the overall product quality is beneficial, and "20,000 preset patches over 100GB!" isn't necessarily a good thing. I will probably forget this during Black Friday.

As a side note, another thing that struck me with those pro videos is that many of them were on fairly basic plugins. Stock plugins and Waves Gold-era stuff was more common than the latest and greatest from the last couple years.

 

[telecode 101]

3 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

I haven't tried either of them, so I can't say for sure, but I think I understand this. At the moment, I have more plug-ins than I know what to do with, literally. It's great to have an effect that is incredibly versatile and deep in features, but with that can come a danger of too much choice.

I feel weird admitting this, but it was the default preset in Phoenix that knocked me out, and 90% of the time, when I use it, I leave it on that preset. On one hand, it seems kind of lame. Part of me says that as an amateur mix engineer I "should" be able to tweak all the parameters like pre-delay, early reflections, decay time, pre-EQ, post-EQ, etc, to get exactly what's right for the track. But then I remind myself that very many classic recordings were mixed using chambers and plates and even springs that had no or rudimentary parameter adjustments. Black boxes that you feed audio into and get a fully wet reverb simulation out of, and the most you can do is treat those signals on the way in and out. So I guess I'm using Phoenix on its default preset like that.

It has a zillion other presets as well, which is great, and a big complaint I have with TrueVerb: I like the algorithm a lot, and I know it's capable of a lot more than I've ever gotten out of it, but the (in my eyes) too few presets that it comes with are not so great.

Do I have time to delve deep into a reverb when I have yet to really get a handle on my Glitchmachines plug-ins?

maybe i am an idiot and dont know what i am doing. i personally don't use reverbs that much on instruments. i will use it on a send bus for drums mostly. if i use it on an instrument, i will use the builtin reverb know the instrument has that way it keeps it own unique character. i might jump on this iZo deal though. I have nothing from Exponential Audio in my collection.

[chris.r]

5 hours ago, mister_tea said:

It struck me that while several big-name engineers had hundreds of thousands of dollars in outboard gear, often the compressors and reverbs were frozen to a single favorite setting.

Exactly, my observation as well. Setting the right amount of sends/returns seem to be the main factor. Plus why would I want to mess up something already done good  

[chris.r]

3 hours ago, telecode 101 said:

maybe i am an idiot and dont know what i am doing. i personally don't use reverbs that much on instruments. i will use it on a send bus for drums mostly. if i use it on an instrument, i will use the builtin reverb know the instrument has that way it keeps it own unique character. i might jump on this iZo deal though. I have nothing from Exponential Audio in my collection.

try the built in cakewalk rematrix with default preset if you want to give the instrument a sense of space (a live room), just set the dry/wet so you don't hear the reverb anymore but you can tell it's gone when you bypass it, I love it

Edited November 13, 2020 by chris.r

[filo]

21 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

For the $10 that second licenses for Phoenix and Excalibur each cost me, it's worth it.

Thing is, I have a total of 4 computers that I do DAW work on at least occasionally,

Could I ask you for details why you have had to buy a second license?  I'm quite confused because I have found this on Izotope page:

"We do allow users to install iZotope products on more than one machines as long as they are the only person using the software on these machines.So if you need to put your software on a desktop and a laptop you are allowed to do this. You would just end up using the same Serial Number to authorize each machine.  To do this, simply follow the same installation and authorization steps that you used for the very first time you installed the software.

In the case that you would need to utilize the software on multiple workstations or in a Multi-Room studio additional licenses must be purchased if you would like to run a plug-in on more than one system at a time."

https://support.izotope.com/hc/en-us/articles/360024955073-How-to-use-iZotope-Products-on-Multiple-Machines

[Starship Krupa]

5 hours ago, telecode 101 said:

i personally don't use reverbs that much on instruments. i will use it on a send bus for drums mostly. if i use it on an instrument, i will use the builtin reverb know the instrument has that way it keeps it own unique character. i might jump on this iZo deal though. I have nothing from Exponential Audio in my collection.

In my mind, it really comes down to what you're trying to do and your philosophy of mixing. My thing is creating a landscape, where it sounds like all of the instruments and elements exist in the same real life or virtual space. To that end, I make use of bus compression, for instance I route all of the guitars to a bus and put a bus compressor on it (my favorite is SoundSpot Cyclone, which is on sale at PB for $5). I also stick to using Phoenix and send individual instruments or buses to a single instance of it.

There is also the Gary Katz/Steely Dan thing, which sounds to me more like they are reverbing individual elements each in their own space. And that sounds mighty good too.

As you point out, though, virtual instruments often come with their own reverb built into patches, which make for the individual character, so I use a judgment call for that. If it's an orchestral instrument, I turn it off, but for synths, maybe, maybe not. The thing to listen for is having your reverbs "pile up" and turn into a big wash (unless you like that sort of thing 😎), or stomp on each other.

I don't know what kind of music you do, but if you have nothing from iZo/Expo, this is not one to pass up. I dropped the same amount of money on just buying 2 licenses each of Excalibur and Phoenix. I can't say enough good about Phoenix. I'd been using TrueVerb and the highly regarded freeware OrilRiver and it was like going from a Chevy (and I'm a Chevy man!) to a Ferrari. I'm thinking of pulling the trigger even though I already have Iris2, Trash2, Excalibur, Phoenix, and all the Elements Suite. Maybe some of them will make a good holiday present for a recordist friend.

Anyone know if iZo allow you to split a bundle?

[Brian Walton]

53 minutes ago, filo said:

Could I ask you for details why you have had to buy a second license?  I'm quite confused because I have found this on Izotope page:

"We do allow users to install iZotope products on more than one machines as long as they are the only person using the software on these machines.So if you need to put your software on a desktop and a laptop you are allowed to do this. You would just end up using the same Serial Number to authorize each machine.  To do this, simply follow the same installation and authorization steps that you used for the very first time you installed the software.

In the case that you would need to utilize the software on multiple workstations or in a Multi-Room studio additional licenses must be purchased if you would like to run a plug-in on more than one system at a time."

https://support.izotope.com/hc/en-us/articles/360024955073-How-to-use-iZotope-Products-on-Multiple-Machines

The exponential audio plugins do not have the same "rules" as the rest of izotope plugins....thus my comments above regarding IF they would just use the Izotope licensing it would all be a no brainer.  As it is, I literally had to buy each plugin twice.  

[Starship Krupa]

50 minutes ago, filo said:

Could I ask you for details why you have had to buy a second license?

The reason is that iZotope bought the entire Exponential Audio line (and I presume IP), which had been licensing strictly via iLok single seats. iZotope's licensing is everyone's favorite "sane" method, where you can do it using their authentication, which allows for 5 machines before you must reset, or use iLok if you are an engineer who works at multiple locations and want to be able to carry your licenses to any machine. I don't own a physical iLok, so I can't easily move my licenses around if I want to go laptoppin'.

When they absorbed Exponential, they pretty much just added their branding to the UI's and that was it and the iLok single seat licensing came along with that. You'll notice that the UI's on the Expo stuff isn't done with the usual sexy iZotope panache, although they're quite functional and logically laid out. They've since come out with a whole new reverb called Neoverb, which uses the Exponential algorithms and has an iZotope-y UI and what look to be some amazing features. It would probably be my cost-no-object 'verb, just guessing without having listened to it (or Bricasti). And I'm sure Neoverb has the usual iZotope licensing.

[filo]

7 minutes ago, Brian Walton said:

The exponential audio plugins do not have the same "rules" as the rest of izotope plugins

Thanks, i didn't know that. I thought Izotope bought Exponential Audio so e.g. PhoenixVerb is Izotope PhoenixVerb now.

[Brian Walton]

37 minutes ago, filo said:

Thanks, i didn't know that. I thought Izotope bought Exponential Audio so e.g. PhoenixVerb is Izotope PhoenixVerb now.

They bought them but didn't actually integrate them.  About the only change was to the UI where they put in small type "an izotope company"   😆

 

It is frustrating as I think Izotope has a good model...but all of the Exponential stuff is treated like an outlier and obviously they could give 2 ilok authorizations but they choose not to.  Not sure why.

[antler]

Has anyone used NeoVerb? Would be interested to know how it compares with the Exponential Audio ones.