Naturally guitars and keyboards will occupy much of the same portion of the spectrum, so where these collisions are ‘problematic’, a little red exclamation mark appears. The GUI changes to show two EQ curves, one for each track, and grey shaded areas appear to display where frequency collisions are occurring as the track plays.
By clicking the Masking button in the EQ processor on either track, you select which of the other Neutron-loaded tracks you’re wanting to ‘investigate’ - in this case, let’s say guitars. It only kicks in if you have Neutron instantiated on more than one track in your session say the guitar and keyboard buses. Masking Meter is a bit closer to that ideal. It does a respectable job, though the logical next step would be to have enough CPU power for the algorithm to weight up each track in the context of the entire mix. More often than not you EQ an instrument very differently in solo than in the context of a mix. What could be seen as an oversight is that Track Assistant doesn’t process your track from a whole mix perspective - it only bases processing decisions upon hearing a track in isolation. Overall, I thought it produced the most usable results in Subtle mode.
Three more options - Broadband Clarity, Warm and Open, and Upfront Midrange - alter the flavour of Track Assistant’s settings. You can choose between Subtle, Medium and Aggressive modes which affect the intensity of the created settings. iZotope says Neutron’s Track Assistant “acts like an assistant engineer getting you to an optimal starting point so you can start mixing creatively.” Chris Lord-Alge eat your heart out! In use, the spirit of Track Assistant is to iron out wrinkles in a track, not to assume artistic license. Neutron’s brain has two main assistive components Track Assistant and Masking Meter. Would it be another one of those algorithmic mastering duds? TRACK ASSISTANT While that sounds more tolerable than a plug-in getting its digital mitts all over the faders, I still approached the plug-in with suspicion.
IZotope’s marketing may allude to the auto-mixing paradigm, but the real purpose behind Neutron’s artificial intelligence is to simply ‘assist’ by alerting you of potential pitfalls in your mix’s frequency balance and optimising each track to make it more mixable. Being the control freak I am, when algorithmic plug-in wannabes try to take the reins of my mix with their so-called ‘intelligence’, I typically bow out with a polite, ‘thanks, but no thanks.’ When iZotope debuted Neutron with the bold claim it would be your ‘personal mixing assistant’ I was naturally skeptical.Īfter using the plug-in for a few weeks now, let me say upfront: Neutron won’t mix your song for you… and that’s a good thing.
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