RX Connect is available from the AudioSuite menu in Pro Tools, or as an AU or VST plug-in from your host's effects menu. Pricing Options Get RX Connect in these versions of iZotope RX.
Plug-in Only |
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Overview
The RX Connect plug-in sends a clip, or multiple clips, to the RX 6 standalone application for editing and repair. This gives you access to all of RX 6’s modules in one place, and provides the benefits of RX’s offline processing and visual interface. RX Connect is available from the AudioSuite menu in Pro Tools, or as an AU or VST plug-in from your host’s effects menu.
Controls
There are two modes for using RX Connect:
- Choose “iZotope RX 6 Connect” from the Plug-in Menu Selection 4. Click the purple Activate Current Plug-in button 5. Press the SEND button in Media Composer 7.0.x, or Optional in Media Composer 8.1.x to send the audio master clip over to RX 6. When you have finished editing your audio in RX.
- When the RX Connect plug-in window appears, select either “Reference” or “Repair” and click “OK” to send the clip to RX 4.- It opens RX4 but opens the file as a Stereo track instead of a mono track.
- Nov 25, 2014 Izotope RX Interface Tips & Tricks: Scrolling, Dragging, Zooming, Dbl-Clicking. Moving around audio, finding details, changing scales quickly.
- SelectionTools 50 SelectionModifiers(PC/Mac) 53 RXModules 58 WorkingwithRXApplicationModules 59 WorkingwithRXPlug-Ins 65 RepairModules&Plug-Ins 76.
SEND FOR REFERENCE: This is meant for analysis only. The clips are imported into RX 6 but cannot be sent back to your host.
Note about Reference Mode
This mode of RX Connect will not open RX 6 Audio Editor automatically. Opening the Audio Editor after using send for reference will reveal the file in the RX Audio Editor.
SEND FOR REPAIR: Selected clips are sent to the RX 6 Audio Editor for repair, and you can send them back to your host from the RX Audio Editor.
More Information
- For more information on using RX Connect in different hosts, please refer to the following sections, or refer to the knowledgebase for a more detailed list.
Host Specific Instructions
The following sections outline host specific instructions for using RX Connect to Send audio to the RX Audio Editor and back to your host application:
Adobe Audition CC RX Connect Workflow
- Inside of Audition, select the Waveform view.
- Highlight the area of audio that requires editing.
- In the Effects menu, load the RX 6 Connect plug-in from VST (or VST3) > Restoration> iZotope, Inc. (If you do not see the RX 6 Connect plug-in, open the Audio Plug-in Manager and Scan for Plug-ins, then make sure RX 6 Connect is enabled).
- When the plug-in window opens, click Apply.
- RX 6 will automatically load. Perform your desired audio edit, then click “Send Back” to send the audio back to Adobe Audition. The Waiting for Connect message will appear.
- Re-load the RX 6 Connect plug-in from the Effects menu. It will now display a message “Press Apply to commit changes.” Click Apply to apply the audio edit from RX to your audio file in Adobe Audition.
Avid Media Composer RX Connect Workflow
When using Media Composer, there are two separate workflows for using RX Connect depending on whether you are operating in Master Clip mode or Timeline Mode.
Master Clip Workflow
1. Open the AudioSuite Window from the Tools menu
2. Drag the Master Clip that you wish to edit onto the AudioSuite Window
3. Choose “iZotope RX 6 Connect” from the Plug-in Menu Selection
4. Click the purple Activate Current Plug-in button
5. Press the SEND button in Media Composer 7.0.x, or Optional in Media Composer 8.1.x to send the audio master clip over to RX
6. When you have finished editing your audio in RX, click the “SEND BACK” button
7. Back in the AudioSuite Window, press the OK button, and then Render Effect to commit changes
8. A new Master clip will now be generated into the designated bin
1. Open the AudioSuite Window from the Tools menu
2. Drag the Master Clip that you wish to edit onto the AudioSuite Window
3. Choose “iZotope RX 6 Connect” from the Plug-in Menu Selection
4. Click the purple Activate Current Plug-in button
5. Press the SEND button in Media Composer 7.0.x, or Optional in Media Composer 8.1.x to send the audio master clip over to RX
6. When you have finished editing your audio in RX, click the “SEND BACK” button
7. Back in the AudioSuite Window, press the OK button, and then Render Effect to commit changes
8. A new Master clip will now be generated into the designated bin
Timeline Workflow
1. Open the AudioSuite Window from the Tools menu
2. Select a single audio track in the Timeline, and then choose “iZotope RX 6 Connect” from the Plug-in Menu Selection
3. Click the Activate Current Plug-in button
4. Press the SEND button in Media Composer to send the audio master clip over to RX.
5. When you have finished editing your audio in RX, click “SEND BACK” button
6. In the AudioSuite Window press the OK button, and then Render Effect to commit changes
1. Open the AudioSuite Window from the Tools menu
2. Select a single audio track in the Timeline, and then choose “iZotope RX 6 Connect” from the Plug-in Menu Selection
3. Click the Activate Current Plug-in button
4. Press the SEND button in Media Composer to send the audio master clip over to RX.
5. When you have finished editing your audio in RX, click “SEND BACK” button
6. In the AudioSuite Window press the OK button, and then Render Effect to commit changes
Recommendations
When rendering RX Connect as an AudioSuite effect in Media Composer, the resulting audio will exist in a rendered effect container for the duration of that clip on the timeline. If the clip length is extended beyond those bounds, the rendered effect will become un-rendered, as indicated by a blue dot.
To avoid losing the audio in the rendered effect container, we recommend either:
To avoid losing the audio in the rendered effect container, we recommend either:
- Achieve locked picture prior to the audio edit
- Extend the bounds of the clip prior to the audio edit, perform the audio edit with RX Connect, mixdown the clip to a new audio file, and then reduce the bounds back to the original size
- If you make extensive repairs inside of the RX Audio Editor, you can also save an .rxdoc of the file, which will preserve all your adjustments so you can modify them later if you need to.
Monitoring the output of RX Audio Editor
With some audio hardware systems, Media Composer will has control of your audio drivers so that you aren’t able to hear the output of RX.
However, we’ve built the RX Monitor tool to solve just this problem.
- Create a dedicated auxiliary audio track for monitoring RX
- Insert RX Monitor from the “Noise Reduction” or “Sound Field” menus.
- Now, go to the “Preferences” menu in the RX Audio Editor by clicking on the wrench icon in the top-right of the window.
- In the “Audio” tab, set your Driver type to be “RX Monitor.”
- Now you can hear the output of the RX Audio Editor through the audio output chain that Media Composer is using.
Avid Pro Tools RX Connect Workflow
- Choose the audio to be sent to the RX Audio Editor by selecting the audio clip(s) in the timeline that you want to edit, and opening RX Connect from the AudioSuite ‘Noise Reduction’ menu.
- If you just need to load a noise profile or analyze some audio, choose ‘Reference’ to send the audio one-way, but for the complete round-trip workflow click ‘Repair’ and then hit ‘Send’. You’ll see this opens the audio in the RX Audio Editor.
- With HDX systems, Pro Tools will have control of your audio drivers, so you aren’t able to hear the output of the RX Audio Editor. However, the RX Monitor tool is built to solve just this problem. In Pro Tools, create a dedicated aux track for monitoring RX, and insert RX 6 Monitor from the ‘Noise Reduction’ or ‘Sound Field’ menus,
- Then, go to the ‘Preferences’ menu in the RX Audio Editor by clicking on the wrench icon in the top-right of the window. In the ‘Audio’ tab, set your Driver type to be ‘RX Monitor’. Now we can hear the output of the RX Audio Editor through your Pro Tools output chain.
- After you’ve made the desired edits in RX, click ‘Send Back’ at the top of the window. Back at the RX Connect window inside of ProTools, click ‘Render’, and the repaired audio will be placed back into your session.
Tips
- Some engineers might choose to create duplicate playlists before making any repairs to their audio, but you can ‘undo’ these RX Connect changes just like any AudioSuite process.
- If you make extensive repairs inside of the RX Audio Editor, you can also save an .rxdoc of the file, which will preserve all your adjustments so you can modify them later if you need to.
Audiosuite modes:
When using Audiosuite plug-ins, there are various user definable input and output options, which affect how you may use RX Connect. These options are:
Input
- Clip-by-clip: Recognizes individual clips in the timeline, as well as fades.
- Entire selection: Treats the entire selected area as one clip.
Modes
- Mono mode: Treats mono, dual mono and stereo clips, as well as multi-channel clips, all as discrete mono clips (e.g. a stereo clip will send as two separate mono files).Mono mode notePlease note, this can result in large groups of audio clips being sent to RX, potentially exceeding the maximum file limit of 16.
- Multi-input mode Treats dual mono and stereo audio clips as one entity.
Output
- Overwrite files Destructive processing of the audio clip(s) in the session, overwriting the original file with the new file sent from RX.
- Create individual files: Nondestructive processing of the audio file(s) in the session, replacing them with the audio processed in RX. This mode preserves individual clips and fades/handles.
- Create continuous files: Nondestructive processing of the original audio file. Creates a new audio file with the audio sent back from RX, consolidated into one continuous clip.
Izotope Rx 4 Connection
More Information
For the most up to date information on the expected behaviors when using the recommended configurations, please click here
Steinberg Cubase & Nuendo RX Connect Workflow
- In Cubase/Nuendo, select the audio clip for processing.
- Select the RX 6 Connect plug-in from the the plug-ins menu (Audio > Plug-ins)
- The RX 6 Connect plug-in window will open.
- Depending on your requirements please select one of the following choices:
a. Send for reference: meant for analysis only. The clips go to RX, but do not come back.
b. Send for repair: the clips are sent to RX and, after they are cleaned up, you can send them back to your DAW. - Once you have made your choice, press the process button to send the audio to RX.
The RX 6 application will automatically open and receive the audio (if you selected send for reference, you will need to manually open RX and the file will appear). - You can now carry out any repair, restoration or cleaning using the full selection of RX modules.
- Once you are happy with the edits, you can simply press the “send back” button at the top of the open window to send the audio back to your DAW.
- Once complete RX will show a window asking to re-open the RX 6 Connect plug-in.
- Back in Cubase/Nuendo, select the RX 6 Connect plug-in from the “Audio Plug-ins” menu.
- Press the process button to commit the changes to the original audio file.
RX 6 as an external audio editor
Some hosts don’t support the use of RX Connect for round-trip editing, please refer to the instructions below for host specific workflows.
Adobe Premiere Pro CC with RX as an external audio editor
- Inside of Premiere, right-click on an audio clip in your timeline and select “Reveal in Finder” (OS X) or “Reveal in Explorer” (Windows).
- Open the resulting file in RX 6 Audio Editor.
- Perform necessary processing in the RX application
- When you have made the desired changes to your file, go to the RX File menu and select Overwrite Original File
Note
- If you have Adobe Audition installed as well, you can right-click on an audio clip in your timeline, and select “Edit Clip In Adobe Audition.” Then follow these steps for using RX Connect with Adobe Audition CC
Apple Final Cut Pro X with RX as an external audio editor
RX is a powerful audio editor that Apple Final Cut Pro X users can use to get better sounding audio in their video projects.
- Select the clip you want to edit in your Final Cut Pro project
- Hit Cmd-Shift-R to Reveal in Finder
- Open the revealed file in RX 6 Audio Editor and make any necessary edits.
- When you are done, in RX choose File>Overwrite Original File to automatically update the clip in your Final Cut Pro project, or File/Export to make a new file, and then import that edited file into Final Cut Pro
Apple Logic Pro X with RX as an external audio editor
RX is a powerful audio editor that Apple Logic Pro X users can use to get better sounding audio. To use RX with Logic, you must first set it up as an external audio editor.
How to set up RX as an external audio editor
- Open Logic Preferences and go to Advanced
- Under Additional options, enable the “Audio” check box.
- In Preferences, click the “Audio” tab and select the “Audio File Editor” tab.
- Under Audio File Editor, click on the External Sample Editor to select RX 6 from your applications folder
Workflow
- Select the clip you wish to edit in your timeline
- Click Edit > “Open in iZotope RX 6 Audio Editor”, [Shift+W]
- The file will open in RX 6. Once you’ve completed your edits, in RX 6 click File > Overwrite Original File
- Close the tab, navigate back to Logic Pro X and wait for the waveform to update
In its time, iZotope RX3 Advanced offered the most comprehensive suite of noise-reduction software—available as a stand-alone application and as bundled plug-ins—for post-production sound, along with extensive metering, time- and pitch-shifting processors, resampling facilities and other invaluable tools. RX 4 Advanced ($1,199) adds several workflow accelerators used to comply with various loudness standards and to quickly adjust level, timbre and ambience in tracks.
I reviewed Version 4.0.1 of RX 4 Advanced (its plug-ins in AU format) using Digital Performer V. 8.06 and an 8-core Mac Pro running OS X 10.9.5. For a refresher on RX 4 Advanced’s legacy features, check out my review of RX3 Advanced in the May 2014, issue of Mix.
Streamlined Interoperability
RX’s Spectral Repair plug-in—which was a bit of a kludge in previous releases—has been discontinued, made obsolete by the new RX Connect plug-in and alternative DAW interoperability. Roughly half of leading DAWs use RX Connect as a synchronized bridge to the stand-alone RX 4 Advanced application; you first select in your DAW the audio clip you wish to process, then launch RX Connect. Other DAWs (including DP) use RX 4 as an external editor: In DP, for example, you choose the RX application as DP’s external waveform editor and then open a region in RX via DP’s Audio menu.
No matter which protocol your DAW uses, after the RX application opens you can edit the selected clip using any processing (not just Spectral Repair) it provides. Different (fast and simple) methods are used, depending on your workstation, to return the processed clip back to your DAW in perfect sync with the original clip. Because some DAWs (including Pro Tools) monopolize the system’s audio drivers, an additional plug-in dubbed RX Monitor is included to enable hearing the RX application’s output; RX Monitor interacts with your DAW like an instrument to play the RX application’s audio through the DAW’s driver.
The updated Remove Hum plug-in and module—all modules belong to the standalone application—include an Adaptive mode that analyzes your audio and automatically notches out fundamental hum-related frequencies that change over time (such as in audio for a scene that was shot in multiple locations).
The updated Time & Pitch module provides an option to run Radius processing in real time, for those tasks in which you need fast processing. The tradeoff is lower quality than with offline processing (which is still available).
New Modules
The new Leveler module uses a compressor with automatic makeup gain to curb fluctuations in signal level. Use its Target RMS slider to adjust the K-weighted RMS level of your clip. The Speed slider alters how quickly gain is adjusted. Drag the Amount slider to limit the maximum amount of gain (boost or cut) that can be applied, and raise the Noise slider to reduce potential pumping when breathing or other broadband noise occurs during gaps in dialog. You can view the gain changes that Leveler applies and edit them by dragging up and down one or more nodes at once on a graphical curve (dubbed the Clip Gain envelope; see Figure 1).
The new Loudness module automatically applies a fixed amount of gain to your entire clip (or a selected region) to instantly make it comply with a specific standard, such as BS.1770, selected from a drop-down menu. Alternatively, you can use two sliders to manually set the desired loudness (in LKFS units) and maximum true peak level of the clip. A post-limiter is automatically applied as needed to meet the selected true-peak spec.
The new EQ Match module applies static equalization to purportedly make one region’s spectral balance conform to that of another. Simply select a region (such as a phrase in a VO track) that sounds great, click Learn, select another region that sounds bad, and click Process. EQ Match lets you save spectral profiles as presets, speeding your workflow.
The Ambience Match module does for noise what EQ Match does for timbre, with one caveat: It can’t decrease the amount of ambience that already exists in a selection; it can only increase it. This is an invaluable tool for matching an ADR track’s ambience to that of the recording being replaced. You simply make a selection of the noise in the live recording, click the module’s Learn button, make a selection in your ADR track where you want the same-quality noise added, drag the Trim control to adjust the level of the ambience to be added, and click Process. Noise snapshots can be saved as custom presets.
In Post-Production Sessions
![Mazda Mazda](/uploads/1/2/6/0/126000720/900438051.jpg)
I used RX 4 Advanced extensively while working on five video projects containing many dialog tracks, music and B roll. The new Leveler module gave me excellent results easily and exceedingly fast, smoothing levels no matter the track’s spectral balance. It controlled boomy-sounding peaks beautifully, often precluding the need to de-boom using multiband compression. With moderate settings—the Amount control set no higher than 4 dB—I got more natural-sounding results than when using my go-to compressors and limiters. After rendering the processing, I could mouse-drag one or more nodes at once in the automatically generated clip-gain envelope to alter Leveler’s gain changes in select spots (see Fig. 1).
The Loudness module conformed my mix to any of seven different loudness standards with just a couple of mouse clicks—a real timesaver. Using the Ambience Match module, I could capture the room tone on a dialog track and add it to another track that sounded too dead; a trim control let me adjust the level of the ambience ±6 dB without affecting the level of the dialog. Listening to the generated ambience in isolation, it was apparent it was synthesized. But in the mix, it worked inconspicuously if applied sparingly to tracks in select, short gaps.
I tried a couple dozen times to use EQ Match to smooth spectral balances on dialog tracks, but I always found I got better (and more predictable) results using a combination of static and dynamic equalization plug-ins.
Any editing performed on tracks in the RX application is destructive once sent back to DP (overwriting the original file everywhere it occurs in DP), a disadvantage compared to working with RX 4 Advanced’s nondestructive plug-ins. Overwritten files initially played back as—and looked like, in DP’s Sequence Editor—full-scale, broadband noise in DP; rebooting DP would always permanently restore pristine playback, but I’d sometimes also need to bounce the file to a new track to restore proper waveform display. This appears to be a bug in DP, not in the RX application.
On startup, the RX application would often arbitrarily reroute consistent output assignments to different MOTU I/O boxes or banks—sometimes to those disabled in the MOTU PCI Audio Setup utility. And I often heard distracting crackling noises and clicks while working with the application, especially while previewing a module’s processing. (An associate of mine confirmed hearing the same artifacts using RX 4 with a different system.) Thankfully, the artifacts did not print when files were overwritten back to DP; nor did they ever occur when using the RX plug-ins.
Purchase in Advance?
iZotope also offers a less-expensive “standard” version, which doesn’t include the Dereverb, Deconstruct, Leveler, Loudness, EQ Match, Ambience Match, Radius RT (Time & Pitch) and Insight (metering suite) modules and plug-ins. It also lacks the center-channel extraction and azimuth alignment features for the Channel Operations module and some extra controls for Denoiser, Spectral Repair and Declick. Many of these additional features included with the Advanced version have proven to be indispensible in my work; they are well worth the extra cost.
Mazda Rx 4
If you work in post-production sound, restoration or audio forensics and don’t already own RX3 Advanced, buying RX 4 Advanced is an absolute must—if only for its incredible legacy plug-ins. If you can tolerate the RX application’s intermittent routing and monitoring problems, the Leveler and Loudness modules make an upgrade from RX3 Advanced worthwhile.
Izotope Rx Free Trial
Mix contributing editor Michael Cooper is a recording, mix, mastering and post-production engineer.
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DP can send only one region at a time to an external editor such as RX 4 Advanced. If you want to send an entire track containing non-contiguous soundbites, first make a time-range selection in DP for the entire track and select Merge Soundbites (option-shift-M).