Whilst at NAB 2013, between breaks demoing RX2, Mike chatted with iZotope’s Matt Hines and found out how the company started from a dorm room at MIT. Listen to the interview to find out the rest.

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Izotope, creators of all sorts of fantasic audio manipulation tools have licensed their Radius time-stretching and pitch-shifting technology to AIR Music Technology to be included in an upcoming version of AIR’s Ignite.

This is great news and will broaden the functionality of and make it even easier to manipulate your audio ideas with Ignite.

These kind of collaborations are just what the industry needs, taking the best of what is offered by several innovators and blending them into high-performance products that have the user’s best interest in mind!

This is an excellent series from our own John Perry taking you through how to get great sounding vocals using iZotope’s Nectar or Nectar Elements. 

Everything from mic placement to reverb settings can make or break the perfect vocal take. Fortunately there are plenty of of great advice and help for getting the most out of your vocals, when you’re tracking and when you’re mixing. John Perry (who has sung with artists like The Beatles, Elton John, and Roger Daltry) guides you through an 8-part Vocal Master Class featuring both Nectar and Nectar Elements.

You can even download the demo song to follow along on your own!

iZotope have just announced Nectar Elements, which is basically everything that Nectar is without the under-the-hood forensic tweaking. For those who want a great vocal plug-in with all the tools you need to get a great vocal, then check this out - especially at the killer price of $129! They say;

Introducing Nectar Elements, the new addition to the Nectar product family. Whether you’re recording or you’re mixing, Nectar Elements makes vocal treatment a snap. With 10 powerful vocal processors working hard behind the scenes, Nectar Elements offers dozens of Style presets and simple, intelligent controls that let you focus on your sound, not your set-up. More here

Our friends over at iZotope have produced an updated Mastering Guide for 2013.

The new 2013 Edition of our free guide, Mastering with Ozone, has arrived! Featuring fresh insights from Jonathan Wyner and other mastering pros, the revised guide covers a broad range of mastering principles and best practices, plus a healthy dose of Ozone 5 tips.

Download the PDF | Download the eBook via iTunes for iPhone/iPad

Sound on Sound have announced the results of their awards across 16 categories as voted for by their readers. Some of the results are predicatable and others are interesting…

• Audio Interface: Universal Audio Apollo
• DAW Software: Avid Pro Tools
• Effects and Processing hardware: Universal Audio LA2A
• Plug-in Effects: Sound Toys Native Effects
• Plug-in Processor: Izotope Ozone
• Hardware Controller: Apple iPad
• Keyboard/Synth: Access Virus TI
• Microphone: Neumann U87ai
• Mixer: SSL Duality
• Monitors: Genelec 8240A DSP
• Hardware Recorder: Zoom R24
• Mic Preamp: Neve 1073DP
• Software Instruments: Native Instruments Reaktor
• Sound Library: Native Instruments Abbey Road Drums series
• Headphones: Sennheiser HD800
• Live Sound: Allen & Heath GLD series

The least surprising result has to be DAW software, then Apollo being the best interface, especially as we awarded it our product of 2012. I wouldn’t have predicted the Plug-in Effects category but it is great to see Ozone get the Plug-in Processor award. Then there is the Hardware Contoller award going to the iPad but surely that has a lot to do with Neyrinck’s amazing V-Control app which does make the iPad an incerdiblely powerful hardware controller that doesn’t cost the earth even if you need to buy an iPad specially for it.

Those are my thoughts, what did and didn’t surprise you?

Just some of the shortlisted products of the Year 2012The team have been considering what gets our Pro Tools Expert Product of the Year Award 2012.

Without consulting one another we made recommendations for those products we wanted to win. We all threw in our own favourites and here is the shortlist…

• Universal Audio UA Apollo
• Moog Minitaur
• iZotope Alloy 2
• Nugen Audio ISL True Peak Limiter
• Neyrinck V-Control Pro for iPad
• Pro Tools HD | Native Thunderbolt
• Sugar Bytes AAX Wrapper
• PPG WaveGenerator iPad Synth
• Arturia Mini Brute

It may come as no surprise to many of you that the product that was unanimously voted as the winner with the most votes from our team is the Universal Audio UA Apollo. For many of us it sets a new benchmark for combining great features, sound and at a great price. All those short listed are worth consideration, so check them all out!