iZotope RX7 officially announced

[noiseboyuk]

LDS - c’est la vie. I’ve found with iZotope that if you’re patient there’s usually a good deal somewhere for most users. I started with RX2 and have upgraded every year. On this latest release, I’ve gone from RX6 Advanced to RX7 Post suite for £175.

Also, I disagree that in RX at least the new features have been “relatively few”. I think every release has meant I can achieve things I never could have before. So for me it’s always the cost of doing business. For their effects the new versions have not always been so compelling, so I often skip those.

My only real beef with iZotope is their disastrous record on instruments. Abandoning the half-finished Breaktweaker was the dumbest decision they ever made, a very loud and clear message that they are not to be trusted in that area. With effects they’ve at least offered an upgrade path to a product that supersedes an old one.

[LDS]

Originally Posted by noiseboyuk

LDS - c’est la vie. I’ve found with iZotope that if you’re patient there’s usually a good deal somewhere for most users. I started with RX2 and have upgraded every year. On this latest release, I’ve gone from RX6 Advanced to RX7 Post suite for £175.

Also, I disagree that in RX at least the new features have been “relatively few”. I think every release has meant I can achieve things I never could have before. So for me it’s always the cost of doing business. For their effects the new versions have not always been so compelling, so I often skip those.

My only real beef with iZotope is their disastrous record on instruments. Abandoning the half-finished Breaktweaker was the dumbest decision they ever made, a very loud and clear message that they are not to be trusted in that area. With effects they’ve at least offered an upgrade path to a product that supersedes an old one.

I definitely think patiences is the key, to the point that Izotope actually rewards the customers who spend the least, the most. Case in point, £175 to upgrade from RX6 advanced to PPS2 is only £125 less than an RX2 advanced customer from 2010 would pay. Even more boggling is how PPS1 users pay the same upgrade fee as an RX2 advanced user to get PPS2. If history is anything to go by, you will be paying that same $399 sale price to upgrade to PPS3 as an old RX2 Advanced user when it is released in a couple of years time.

Don't get me wrong, I do really love RX, and am currently running RX6 Advanced. Their business model has the inner makings of a highly engineered, pay-to-play style IOS game though. The kind of game with layers and layers of the same thing presented in different packages, at different price points, where you think you are saving money but it is designed from the very beginning to be a zero sum game. Once you open your wallet, you've gotta keep doing it over and over again.

Compare that to Plugin Alliance. Spend $600 in a 12 month period, and you get over $600 in vouchers to buy stuff... no strings attached. I own an embarrassingly large amount of software, and I standby my statement that izotope's business model is one of the worst. At least from my experiences. I can appreciate that a lot of people can justify the expense, but it still doesn't make iZotope's business model any better.

[BScout]

But by your own admission,
(1) the cost of upgrade from the most recent or versions from years ago are the same.
(2) And (I quote you) "seem to be releasing updates and upgrades with comparatively little added to them on a yearly basis"

So isn't the most logical thing to not upgrade until there's something you want? Kind of case of issue two is negated by issue one. If there's nothing you want in the latest, don't upgrade and don't worry about missing out at a discounted price -- because the next update will cost the same. Shouldn't that make you happy? (not paying for something you don't want/need/use *cough* *cough* unlike other companies' upgrade lock-ins)

It's not exactly like the problematic situation with Pro Tools where you need to keep updated to keep working on the latest/greatest OS. RX works (and they continue to keep working) older versions for no additional cost.

[simon.a.billington]

I have found in the past that the added improvements isn’t usually worth the upgrade price they are asking, which is usually around $400. Even with the usual $100 off voucher I don’t think it’s quite worth that.

This usually forces me to wait yet another year and upgrade then to get better value for money. Hopefully, it will be different this time around.

Nectar is due for release too since they have already launched it’s “Elements” counterpart. I haven’t used it for a while and I cracked it out the other day, and I must admit, the UI needs an overhaul. Having controls handles on the actual notes is much more fluid interface than constantly having to move your mouse to the control panel.

I’m confident that’s can make this one better, going by the quality of RX. I just don’t know whether they will get it right “enough”.

Going by the timing of RX, I wonder if they are planing to throw it in the bundle. It actually would make sense.

[noiseboyuk]

(Dubbing today in a suite that's still on ye olde RX4. I hadn't realised just how much it had changed - there's so little in the right hand pane! Kept having to export to my laptop with RX6 on it to do things that are simply impossible 2 versions ago).

[reidj]

I'll have to see what's new but since I bought RX Advanced at V2 I've skipped V3 and V5 and I don't think my work suffered.

Being an advanced RX6 use they did offer me an amazing deal on Ozone 7 + Neutron. Currently waiting on Ozone V9 and Neutron 3 before considering an upgrade.

[Benoni]

Originally Posted by LDS

RX is great... but man am I sick of Izotope's business model. It is like they rolled the worst elements of every other business model into one. If you own 5 out of 6 plugins in one of their bundles, it will still cost you the same to upgrade as someone who only owns 1. Likewise if you have spent money each RX release upgrading... you will still pay the same price as someone who hasn't upgraded their license in a decade. And they have taken a page out of Apple's book and seem to be releasing updates and upgrades with comparatively little added to them on a yearly basis.

I love iZotope plugins. I have pretty much all of them. But this is exactly the issue I have with them too. When you buy the bundles and have almost all the plugins, then one plugin is updated, you are paying the same price as someone who only has one plugin. And their bundles overlap and you end up with multiple licenses instead of a reduced price. And it's true that they usually only go a year for each version and instead of updating the current version, they make a new version.

I'm all for quick updates, but paying to stay current with few improvements is getting expensive, especially when it's not just iZotope you have to keep current.

That said, RX6 is pretty great already, so I don't see the need right now to upgrade. I'm still waiting for Nectar 3 though...

[LDS]

Originally Posted by BScout

But by your own admission,
(1) the cost of upgrade from the most recent or versions from years ago are the same.
(2) And (I quote you) "seem to be releasing updates and upgrades with comparatively little added to them on a yearly basis"

So isn't the most logical thing to not upgrade until there's something you want? Kind of case of issue two is negated by issue one. If there's nothing you want in the latest, don't upgrade and don't worry about missing out at a discounted price -- because the next update will cost the same. Shouldn't that make you happy? (not paying for something you don't want/need/use *cough* *cough* unlike other companies' upgrade lock-ins)

It's not exactly like the problematic situation with Pro Tools where you need to keep updated to keep working on the latest/greatest OS. RX works (and they continue to keep working) older versions for no additional cost.

That is largely what I was getting at when I mentioned patiences and being rewarded when spending less. Avid definitely isn't a shining light of a business model, but I think parts of what have driven me nuts about Avid over the last few years iZotope is also doing. The convoluted and every morphing product line for example.

Remember RX Plugin Pack? It seems like it existed for 6 months, costing $129... then disappeared. It was replaced with RX elements for $129, which existing RX Plugin Pack owners could upgrade to for an extra $49. I am still not sure what the actual difference between the two is. Izotope seem to basically operate like Apple, except when they release an incremental point update each year they call it a new version number and slap a price tag on it, then morph it into a half a dozen other products and bundles each with additional upgrade fees.

It is actually funny that you mention Avid. The greatest deal ever offered on iZotope products was through Avid. They gave RX Elements away to everyone for free. They are even currently offering Empirical Labs Arousor for $149 for the rest of the month in the Avid store.

Originally Posted by reidj

I'll have to see what's new but since I bought RX Advanced at V2 I've skipped V3 and V5 and I don't think my work suffered.

Being an advanced RX6 use they did offer me an amazing deal on Ozone 7 + Neutron. Currently waiting on Ozone V9 and Neutron 3 before considering an upgrade.

The offers aren't user specific though. I think they are just calculated on what will have the widest reach and greatest impact along the whole iZotope user base. Companies like Waves, Fabfilter, Plugin Alliance, Native Instruments, etc calculate discounts and deals on a user by user basis. In all likelihood, I was probably offered the same deal as you... despite owning both RX6 Advanced and Ozone 7.

[BScout]

I find it funny Insight was part of RX Advanced. And then it wasn't.

But if you had upgraded through versions you have an Insight license.

But honestly, Izotope's business model doesn't bother me. If the latest has something I want, I'll buy.

[dwaynedelario]

Originally Posted by noiseboyuk

Googling around, the features so far I've seen being mentioned are:

Rebalancing mixes
Removing vocals
Surround workflows up to Atmos 7.1.2
Change intonation of dialogue
.

Hey Guy. Where did you see the thing about surround workflows? I have been waiting for that feature since RX3! I’m on RX5 now and have the offer to buy 6 as a path to 7, but why would I buy it if they won’t plainly tell us what the new features are????

I work in film music so every file I deal with on a dub is interleaved surround. I don’t use RX anymore because it’s a massive PITA. Really hoping this feature is coming.