Nectar 3 Updated to 3.9.0

[Bruno de Souza Lino]

iZotope plugins also use hardware acceleration for the GUI.

[dubdisciple]

4 hours ago, Bruno de Souza Lino said:

iZotope plugins also use hardware acceleration for the GUI.

That might be why I don't seem to have issues with Izotope in that regard. 

[iNate]

20 hours ago, Bruno de Souza Lino said:

iZotope plugins also use hardware acceleration for the GUI.

I think most iGPUs are going to be able to handle that without issue, not even an Intel UHD 630 would break a sweat with plug-in GUIs.  I generally limit DAWs to the iGPU (in Windows 11 settings) precisely so they aren't ramping up laptop fans, etc. when producing music.  It should not be something that bogs down the CPU.  Also, it would manifest in choppy UI performance, tearing when dragging the UI around, etc.  A completely different set of symptoms.

[iNate]

22 hours ago, dubdisciple said:

Nectar will do that but allows for more than six. It also will account for tracks with other Izotope plugins and do the same. I haven't used Smart EQ to compare workflow and effectiveness, but I find Nectar pretty intuitive.  The Izotope system does allow for limited inclusion of non-Izotope products by using Relay plugin. What can be controlled via AI are mostly along the lines of relative gain and initial mix levels, but still a nice feature.

Relay is just a track utility plug-in.  It's used for setting Pan, Gain, etc. and it's made that way so that iZotope's IPC workflow can adjust these things without having to be customized for every single DAW out there (which can expose different settings differently).  This also allows them to develop a workflow where Mixing with iZotope plug-ins (or making certain adjustments) can automatically change Relay (and other iZotope plug-in) settings on the fly.  It doesn't really do anything with third party plug-ins.  It just adjust track levels, panning, etc.  It is similar to Cakewalk Channel Tools, except it ties into the iZotope workflow.

( ^ Explanation not specifically for you; more for other readers. ^ )

How Inter-plugin Communication Shows up in Your Workflow (iZotope.com)

If you actually follow their workflow, mixing is pretty nice.

I think people new to music production can benefit a lot from it, as it will allow them to learn a lot while also being productive and able to get "usable" mixes done.  The unfortunate part of that is that it wants you to go all-in with iZotope and does not work with Elements SKUs, so those newbies are likely to not have access to that workflow.

I wonder if they're going to sell another Tonal Balance Bundle (maybe Black Friday?).

[Bapu]

Installed!

[Jacques Boileau]

Relay can also be used as a quick dynamic track spacer to let the vocal poke through. Even if you are not using Nectar or Neutron as your effect chain.

• I use whatever plugin in my vocal effect chain I like
• I put an instance of relay on whatever instrument track or bus, I want to attenuate when the vocal is present
• I put Nectar last on the vocal track and run the unmask assistant with the target relay instance I have. There can be more than one and you simply run the assitant as many times as needed for all the instances of relay you have.
• Then I remove Nectar.
• Next, you create sends from the vocal track, or bus, to each of the relay's sidechain input.
• Switch all relays to sidechan and dynamic.
• You can also tweak the relays compression to your liking.

You can even do the same between kick and bass guitar to duck the bass on kick hits. Nectar is easiest to setup but with little control. Neutron can be used in a similar way for more precise control since it as more functionnality to carve the overlapping  frequencies, but it's more work.

[Jeremy Oakes]

Which version - my Nectar Advanced (note not Plus) is on v3.3

J

[Fleer]

No more Nectar Advanced. 

[iNate]

On 6/24/2023 at 5:48 PM, Jacques Boileau said:

Relay can also be used as a quick dynamic track spacer to let the vocal poke through. Even if you are not using Nectar or Neutron as your effect chain.

• I use whatever plugin in my vocal effect chain I like
• I put an instance of relay on whatever instrument track or bus, I want to attenuate when the vocal is present
• I put Nectar last on the vocal track and run the unmask assistant with the target relay instance I have. There can be more than one and you simply run the assitant as many times as needed for all the instances of relay you have.
• Then I remove Nectar.
• Next, you create sends from the vocal track, or bus, to each of the relay's sidechain input.
• Switch all relays to sidechan and dynamic.
• You can also tweak the relays compression to your liking.

You can even do the same between kick and bass guitar to duck the bass on kick hits. Nectar is easiest to setup but with little control. Neutron can be used in a similar way for more precise control since it as more functionnality to carve the overlapping  frequencies, but it's more work.

Relay doesn't do anything you can't do in any other DAW that is moderately decent at mixing.

In multiple cases, the DAWs provide their own Utility Plug-ins that basically do what Relay does.

The primary reason to use Relay is to enable Inter-Plugin Communication workflow with iZotope products.

Quote

On the surface, Relay is a low-CPU-overhead utility that lets you adjust your tracks’ gain, pan, stereo image, and filter parameters on the fly. When used in conjunction with other IPC-enabled iZotope plug-ins, it becomes your gateway to numerous automated processes designed to streamline your audio workflow. Relay enables tracks containing Neutron 3, Nectar 3, or VocalSynth 2 plug-ins to interact with one another for automatic mixing, unmasking, and more.

 

[Anxiousmofo]

Definitely one of my most used plugs. Love it. 

[Jacques Boileau]

4 hours ago, iNate said:

Relay doesn't do anything you can't do in any other DAW that is moderately decent at mixing.

In multiple cases, the DAWs provide their own Utility Plug-ins that basically do what Relay does.

The primary reason to use Relay is to enable Inter-Plugin Communication workflow with iZotope products.

 

I was just giving a recipe for something I do with Relay, not trying to contradict your original post or respond to it. Its just one usage you can do with Relay, which is actually part of what it is designed for. Unmasking is one of the reason Relay exist and it is part of the inter plugin communication between Nectar, Neutron and Relay. I would be curious to know which DAW offers this functionnality with stock plugins?

[dubdisciple]

I don't know of any stock solution that does what Izotope does.  

[burtles101]

On 6/24/2023 at 4:48 PM, Jacques Boileau said:

Relay can also be used as a quick dynamic track spacer to let the vocal poke through. Even if you are not using Nectar or Neutron as your effect chain.

• I use whatever plugin in my vocal effect chain I like
• I put an instance of relay on whatever instrument track or bus, I want to attenuate when the vocal is present
• I put Nectar last on the vocal track and run the unmask assistant with the target relay instance I have. There can be more than one and you simply run the assitant as many times as needed for all the instances of relay you have.
• Then I remove Nectar.
• Next, you create sends from the vocal track, or bus, to each of the relay's sidechain input.
• Switch all relays to sidechan and dynamic.
• You can also tweak the relays compression to your liking.

You can even do the same between kick and bass guitar to duck the bass on kick hits. Nectar is easiest to setup but with little control. Neutron can be used in a similar way for more precise control since it as more functionnality to carve the overlapping  frequencies, but it's more work.

This is the exact way in which I use Relay as well. It is such a versatile and highly useful tool. Using it on kick and bass especially is super clutch. It's a cheat code to carving out space in a quick and concise manner.

[Marc Cormier]

On 6/24/2023 at 5:48 PM, Jacques Boileau said:

Relay can also be used as a quick dynamic track spacer to let the vocal poke through. Even if you are not using Nectar or Neutron as your effect chain.

• I use whatever plugin in my vocal effect chain I like
• I put an instance of relay on whatever instrument track or bus, I want to attenuate when the vocal is present
• I put Nectar last on the vocal track and run the unmask assistant with the target relay instance I have. There can be more than one and you simply run the assitant as many times as needed for all the instances of relay you have.
• Then I remove Nectar.
• Next, you create sends from the vocal track, or bus, to each of the relay's sidechain input.
• Switch all relays to sidechan and dynamic.
• You can also tweak the relays compression to your liking.

You can even do the same between kick and bass guitar to duck the bass on kick hits. Nectar is easiest to setup but with little control. Neutron can be used in a similar way for more precise control since it as more functionnality to carve the overlapping  frequencies, but it's more work.

Damn.  I thought you were gonna say "you push this little button thingy and then its done."

[iNate]

18 minutes ago, dubdisciple said:

I don't know of any stock solution that does what Izotope does.  

Most of what Relay does is directly on the Mixer in many DAWs. The plug-in exists to enable iZotope to change those settings on tracks without having to implement a dozen (or more) DAW-specific solutions.  Without it, they cannot easily change the panning on a specific track in say, Reaper, Cakewalk, Cubase, Pro Tools, Ableton Live, etc. without some serious development work (if possible at all in some cases, due to poor/lack of automation in a specific DAW).  In order to enable this, they have to abstract the Mixer with the Relay Utility plug-in, in which case you don't really touch the mixer for those tracks for those parameters. You do everything in the Relay Plug-in (or, the plug-ins do it by changing those parameters within Relay on those specific tracks).

If you read Jacques' post, he's basically using it as iZotope intended - via their IPC workflow - because Nectar 3 cannot unmask tracks except by using Relay to adjust Track Parameters.  Without it, it doesn't work.  He has to use the Relay there even after removing Nectar, because without Relay the settings that Nectar sets for those tracks will not persist 😉  He'd have to copy all of those settings to the DAW's native MixConsole, instead.  The sidechain stuff is unremarkable.

Almost everything on Relay is on the Cubase or Samplitude Pro X mixers.  The only thing that may not be there is Stereo Width, but both of those DAWs have a stock spatial plug-in for that, which uses less resources than an instance of Relay on a track.

Most DAWs don't need a "solution" for this.  It's basic stuff in the Mixer or Inspector.  Relay exists only to abstract this in a way that makes it available for adjustment by their other IPC-enabled plug-ins.  It is actually not very useful outside of that scenario, as a result.

 

[dubdisciple]

40 minutes ago, iNate said:

Most of what Relay does is directly on the Mixer in many DAWs. The plug-in exists to enable iZotope to change those settings on tracks without having to implement a dozen (or more) DAW-specific solutions.  Without it, they cannot easily change the panning on a specific track in say, Reaper, Cakewalk, Cubase, Pro Tools, Ableton Live, etc. without some serious development work (if possible at all in some cases, due to poor/lack of automation in a specific DAW).  In order to enable this, they have to abstract the Mixer with the Relay Utility plug-in, in which case you don't really touch the mixer for those tracks for those parameters. You do everything in the Relay Plug-in (or, the plug-ins do it by changing those parameters within Relay on those specific tracks).

If you read Jacques' post, he's basically using it as iZotope intended - via their IPC workflow - because Nectar 3 cannot unmask tracks except by using Relay to adjust Track Parameters.  Without it, it doesn't work.  He has to use the Relay there even after removing Nectar, because without Relay the settings that Nectar sets for those tracks will not persist 😉  He'd have to copy all of those settings to the DAW's native MixConsole, instead.  The sidechain stuff is unremarkable.

Almost everything on Relay is on the Cubase or Samplitude Pro X mixers.  The only thing that may not be there is Stereo Width, but both of those DAWs have a stock spatial plug-in for that, which uses less resources than an instance of Relay on a track.

Most DAWs don't need a "solution" for this.  It's basic stuff in the Mixer or Inspector.  Relay exists only to abstract this in a way that makes it available for adjustment by their other IPC-enabled plug-ins.  It is actually not very useful outside of that scenario, as a result.

 

 🙂

Edited June 27, 2023 by dubdisciple