Press Release - Zotope Announces RX Post Production Suite and RX 5 Audio Editor

Amsterdam, Netherlands (September 9, 2015) - At IBC 2015 (stand 8.D70), iZotope, Inc., a leading audio technology company, is announcing the new RX Post Production Suite containing a comprehensive suite of tools designed specifically to enable professionals to better edit, mix, and deliver their audio, as well as RX 5 Audio Editor, a significant new update to its RX platform.

The new RX Post Production Suite contains products aimed at every stage of the audio post production workflow, with solution-oriented tools for everything from audio repair and editing, to mix enhancement and final delivery. The RX Post Production Suite includes:

• RX 5 Advanced Audio Editor
• RX Final Mix
• RX Loudness Control
• One-year, All-Access Pass to Groove3 online video courses & training
• 50 free sound effects (customer's choice) from Pro Sound Effects

The new RX 5 Audio Editor and RX 5 Advanced Audio Editor efficiently repair and enhance common problematic production audio while speeding up workflows that currently require either multiple manual editing passes, or a non-intuitive collection of tools from different vendors.  

RX 5's new Instant Process tool lets editors "paint out" unwanted sonic elements directly on the spectral display with a single mouse gesture. The new Module Chain allows users to define a custom chain of processing (e.g. De-click, De-noise, De-reverb, EQ Match, Leveler, Normalize) and then save that chain as a preset so that multiple processes can be recalled and applied in a single click for repetitive tasks.

For even faster workflows between Pro Tools and RX 5, RX Connect has been enhanced to support individual Pro Tools clips and crossfades with any associated handles so that processed audio returns "in place" to the Pro Tools timeline, maintaining complete editing control.

In RX 5 Advanced, a new De-plosive module has been developed to minimize plosives from letters such as p, t, k, and b, in which strong blasts of air create a massive pressure change at the microphone element, impairing the sound. In addition, the Leveler module has been enhanced with breath and 'ess' (sibilance) detection for increased accuracy when performing faster than real-time leveling. Likewise, new enhancements for the Ambience Match module improve accuracy for creating noise profiles when matching background noise to mask edit points. Ambience Match is now also available as AudioSuite plug-in for constructing consistent ambience beds under constructed sentences and ADR lines directly from within Pro Tools and Media Composer.

"Our users have helped make RX the industry standard in audio post production. This evolution to the RX Post Production Suite is just the start of our continued journey into building the award-winning, workflow-enhancing tools our users dream of as they seek to deliver the best-sounding audio they can under increasingly tight and oppressive deadlines," said Matt Hines, Audio Post Product Manager for iZotope.

Compatibility

Both RX 5 Audio Editor and RX 5 Advanced Audio Editor can be used as a standalone audio editor, as a standalone audio editor connected to your host, or as a plug-in. Supported plug-in formats include AU, VST, VST 3, AAX, RTAS and AudioSuite.

RX Post Production Suite Availability and Pricing

RX Post Production Suite is available for purchase now.

Customers who purchase the RX Post Production Suite during the promotional period will receive RX 4 Advanced immediately, and will be given RX 5 Advanced Audio Editor when it is released.

Special promotional pricing is available through October 21, 2015:

• New customers may purchase the RX Post Production Suite for $1,299 USD / €1,189 EUR  (reg. $1,499 / €1,369).
• Customers upgrading to the RX Post Production Suite from previous versions of RX can view upgrade pricing at www.izotope.com/rx5.

RX 5 Audio Editor Availability and Pricing

RX 5 Audio Editor and RX 5 Advanced Audio Editor will be available for purchase in October 2015 for both new customers and upgrading customers.

Going forward from today, customers who purchase RX 4 or RX 4 Advanced will get a free upgrade to their respective version when RX 5 Audio Editor is released. In addition, any customers who have purchased RX 4 or RX 4 Advanced since August 8, 2015, will also a receive a free upgrade to their respective version when it is released.

To celebrate the coming of RX 5 Audio Editor, special promotional pricing is available through October 21, 2015:

• New customers may purchase RX 4 Advanced for $999 USD / €929 EUR (reg. $1,199 / €1,099)
• New customers may purchase RX 4 for $299 USD / €285 EUR (reg. $349 / €325) 

Customers upgrading to RX 5 Audio Editor or RX 5 Advanced Audio Editor from previous versions of RX will receive their promotional upgrade offers at product launch. In the meantime, special upgrade pricing can be previewed at www.izotope.com/rx5.

About iZotope, Inc.

iZotope makes innovative products that inspire and enable people to be creative. Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, iZotope has spent over a decade developing award-winning products and audio technologies for professionals and hobbyists alike. Used by millions of people in over 50 countries, iZotope products are a core component of GRAMMY-winning music studios, Oscar- and Emmy-winning film and TV post-production studios, and prominent radio studios, as well as basement and bedroom studios across the globe. iZotope also powers products made by industry partners such as Adobe, Avid, Microsoft, and Sony. iZotope was recently honored with an Emmy® Award for Outstanding Achievement in Engineering Development for its flagship audio repair suite, RX®.

For more information on iZotope products, please visit www.izotope.com

Britney Spears no Autotune: Why to believe the producer William Orbit

So, if you haven't heard the Britney Spears song "Alien" with no "autotune" its worth a google, but it's been a bit tough to find since the label has been systematically removing them.

Here is Britney's producer's response to the leak.

William Orbit

""

Dearest Music Lovers, I have heard that Britney vocal link that everybody’s been discussing. It has been impossible not to as there have been many comments directing my attention to it. [I won’t re-posting it here]. I'd like to affirm that ANY singer when first at the mic at the start of a long session can make a multitude of vocalisations in order to get warmed up.

Warming up is essential if you’re a pro, as it is with a runner doing stretches, and it takes a while to do properly. I’ve heard all manner of sounds emitted during warmups. The point is that it is not supposed to be shared with millions of listeners.

A generous singer will put something down the mic to help the engineer get their systems warmed up and at the right level, maybe whilst having a cup of herb tea and checking through lyrics before the session really kicks off. It’s not expected to be a ‘take’.

I think that 99% of you reading this will totally understand.

Whomever put this on the internet must have done so in a spirit of unkindness, but it can in no way detract from the fact that Britney is and always will be beyond Stellar! She is magnificent! And that’s that.

Sincerely, William"""

Now that we have that out of the way, let's really understand what happened. THIS IS JUST A RAW VOCAL SCRATCH TRACK to get timing and system levels. This is not real, nor Brittany's real take. 

Two pieces of evidence point to this: 

1) The background music is not produced at all. In fact, it sounds like 1987 Casio midi instruments. This is because it is JUST a scratch track. There is no polishing of the background instruments. If this was meant to be a final take, then they would have the background instruments more polished so that Britney could convey more emotion in the take. 

2) There is clearly no emotion in the take itself. Emotion is a bit tougher to pick up. You can detect it with variations in a performer's melody lines. There will be more energy during important words and during the chorus. This "leak"obviously lacking energy which again points to it being a starting point in the process. 

So people ask me "why was this even recorded then if it was a practice take"?

With the advent of digital recording, we as recording engineers tend to RECORD EVERYTHING because now we have the space to. We would do this with tape but it was really expensive to use tape media and not very practical to record an entire 8 hour session and then go back and re-edit it just to find the correct parts. Now with computer recording, we have almost unlimited space with unlimited ability to document our session. So we record practice takes, because sometimes, just sometimes... we get that magic moment that goes on the record. This can also lead to mistakes like putting the wrong take on the rough mix or having the wrong material "leak out" to the media. 

I want to ask this however, when you are at this stage of the recording process, only 3-5 people have access to the recording session files... The engineer, the producer, the assistant engineer (protools operator), the artist and maybe the publicist... so who leaked this?