iZotope RX9

[noiseboyuk]

Out now folks. Great demos for the new Dialogue Isolate and Ambience Match on the website made me pull the trigger.

https://www.izotope.com/en/products/rx.html

First results here, however, were nothing short of atrocious. The new Dialogue Isolate algorithm sounded either about the same as the old, or massively worse, and took about 5x the processing time. On the complex ambience (a water jet) I fed into Ambience Match, it had not the first clue what to do with it, a choppy jumbled mess.

Will be interested to hear how others get on. I'll be using it in anger this week - often these NR tools work better on some material than others. But I'd suggest doing what I didn't - demo first.

[noiseboyuk]

I've actually emailed support, this can't be right. On a challenging clip, the legacy Dialogue Isolate algorithm doesn't sound nice, but it has broadly identified the dialogue and chopped out the sound of a water jet in the background. No amount of tweaking the sensitivity, best quality etc can rescue the new algorithm - it just doesn't find anything at all.

Right now this doesn't feel fit for public release.

EDIT - maybe this is just me, but I can't make the Batch Processor work in RX9 either. Same files and settings in RX8 all working normally, in 9 the Process button is permanently greyed out.

[musicman691]

I had loyalty pricing on buying RX8 and get RX9 free when it drops. I hadn't moved to RX8 when it dropped as it didn't seem to have much in it over RX7 for the work I do. I figured I'd jump on the low price and that maybe RX9 would have things in it I can use. A little disappointed that nothing really transferred over from RX8 Advanced to RX9 Standard. Maybe in a point release.


One good thing is you can have multiple versions of RX on your system so if something doesn't quite work as one thinks it should you can always use an older version. I actually have four RX versions installed: RX6, RX7, RX8 and RX9.


As to the Batch Processor - did you make selections in all the sections? My render button was greyed out until I made a selection for where to put the output. My process: add a file in the left hand pane of the batch processor then select the processes I wanted to apply then in the right hand pane made my choice of where to put the rendered file and hit render. Took a little bit of time but it worked.

[noiseboyuk]

Originally Posted by musicman691

As to the Batch Processor - did you make selections in all the sections? My render button was greyed out until I made a selection for where to put the output. My process: add a file in the left hand pane of the batch processor then select the processes I wanted to apply then in the right hand pane made my choice of where to put the rendered file and hit render. Took a little bit of time but it worked.

Oh thank you - yes, that got that at least.

I wish I could post the examples I have for Dialogue Isolate, but they're all for a TV show so can't publicly share.

[gives]

Originally Posted by noiseboyuk

Oh thank you - yes, that got that at least.

I wish I could post the examples I have for Dialogue Isolate, but they're all for a TV show so can't publicly share.

I am in the middle of several things here including two series, so I see no reason to do anything with this yet, but have all my presets in RX8 Advanced now. I just upgraded today for $149.

I think it's a good deal until this is sorted out. Thanks for the heads up, but I was going to stay put until the projects are done. One thing I hate is that you can't import your presets from previous versions into new ones. That is one thing I wish they would fix. it’s annoying for mastering recalls too!

G

[gives]

BTW I did notice that there was an 9.01 version of the download for RX 9.
I wanted to make sure that maybe that what everyone else downloaded in case they had done some sort of updated fix at the last minute to address the issue described in this thread.

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by gives

BTW I did notice that there was an 9.01 version of the download for RX 9.
I wanted to make sure that maybe that what everyone else downloaded in case they had done some sort of updated fix at the last minute to address the issue described in this thread.

That was the version I downloaded right after it was announced that RX9 dropped yesterday.

[noiseboyuk]

Originally Posted by gives

BTW I did notice that there was an 9.01 version of the download for RX 9.
I wanted to make sure that maybe that what everyone else downloaded in case they had done some sort of updated fix at the last minute to address the issue described in this thread.

Yes, same as musicman - the version I have is 9.0.1.1139.

No reply yet from iZotope. It's not impossible that there was something like a last minute tweak to an algorithm to solve one problem that has suddenly exposed a much bigger problem. I'm desperately clinging to that hope.

As I mentioned before, nearly all NR tools vary wildly in their application. On some material, RX8's Dialogue Isolate is simply miraculous, saving me incalculable time at a single click. Yet on other material it seems to do almost nothing, and the few settings controls don't help, so I manually massage using other tools. The example I sent to them is classically tricky - water spray is pretty broadband, and it was far from brilliant in RX8 - the kind of example where I'd hope RX9 might have made a big leap forward, not fallen over completely. The thing is - it's super-easy to see visually what the water and the voice components are, so you'd think logically not a tough challenge for this tool.

Gee I hope they come good on this. iZotope has drawn a lot of flack in recent times for supposedly not delivering on new features, and pushing a subscription model. I've felt both criticisms to be unfounded - RX8 had a ton of great new stuff in it, and the subs are optional so I don't care. I updated without demoing based on my own personal experience with them, which has been terrific. I now feel an idiot for not demoing, and that's not a good thing from their perspective if that view is reflected among a lot of their users. Feels like there needs to be some trust restored.

TBH if they held their hands up and said "ok, something went wrong here we need some time to fix it" I'd be fine. These things happen. I'm fearing a reply that goes something like "this algorithm works better on some material than others which is why we included the legacy option". I'll be bitterly disappointed if so. It's much slower, and I've yet to find a case where it's better than the old. And it's the headline feature.

[spoons]

Just started today with RX9 .. Isolate now has one of those annoying options , Good or Best. Who isn't going to go Best ?
Saying that, Best is way to slow and so is Good. From a quick calc Best is over 5 x slower, which is fine for some jobs but mostly I have to move quicker than that.

[noiseboyuk]

Originally Posted by spoons

Just started today with RX9 .. Isolate now has one of those annoying options , Good or Best. Who isn't going to go Best ?
Saying that, Best is way to slow and so is Good. From a quick calc Best is over 5 x slower, which is fine for some jobs but mostly I have to move quicker than that.

I'd take the time hit if it were, well, best.

How do you find it compared to legacy quality-wise? Have you found any material where it is a noticeable improvement?