Neutron Elements Help Documentation

Neutron Elements is a powerful mixing plug-in which combines the latest innovations in analysis and metering with award-winning audio processing. With powerful new features like Track Assistant and a phenomenal EQ and Compressor (the two most essential tools after Gain / Pan), Neutron Elements helps you quickly reach an optimal starting point, and fully wield

Table of Contents

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Overview

Neutron Elements is a powerful mixing plug-in which combines the latest innovations in analysis and metering with award-winning audio processing.

With powerful new features like Track Assistant and a phenomenal EQ and Compressor (the two most essential tools after Gain / Pan), Neutron Elements helps you quickly reach an optimal starting point, and fully wield creative control over all of your mix decisions.

  • There are four flavors of Neutron:
    • Neutrino, a free spectral shaping subset of the greater Neutron Elements feature set.
    • Neutron Elements, an essential channel-strip that features four modules and Track Assistant
    • Neutron, a powerful channel-strip featuring five modules, seven processors, Track Assistant, and the revolutionary (it’s not hyperbole, we promise!!!) Masking Meter.
    • Neutron Advanced, which includes Neutron Elements as well as four additional dedicated component plug-ins (EQ, Compressor, Exciter, and Transient Shaper), as well as support for surround sound.

If you enjoy your experience with Neutron Elements and are curious about the additional power and sonic possibility of the other versions, we encourage you to download and check out the trials!

Design philosophy

iZotopians are a dedicated, passionate crew of musicians, producers, and performers. Neutron Elements’ driving force was our passion for one of recorded audio’s most underappreciated, yet arguably most important art form…the art of the mix.

Many of us spend countless hours, day and night, in our project studios, or the listening rooms at iZotope HQ mixing all manner of audio…a diverse array of music and post productions, from mono right up to immersive surround sound. Since we don’t possess any godlike super-audio-mixing-powers (spoiler alert: no one does, it’s just practice, practice, practice * ), we too enjoy the pursuit of a refined, well-balanced mix.

Though it contains a wealth of analog/vintage and digital processing, Neutron Elements is not intended to simply be a nostalgic restatement of legacy mix tools…it pays homage to that, but with thought to the rest of the art of mixing. Neutron Elements is designed to address those issues of refinement, subtlety, and balance that are so crucial to achieving a good mix.

Neutron Elements offers tools that hopefully increase both the enjoyment and practicality factors of your mix process. There are some ones you may not even have thought about, worth highlighting:

  • The EQ’s Learn feature, which analyzes a signal and places nodes on areas of interest (such as fundamentals, resonances, sibilances, frequency build-ups, and more), is incredibly useful as a subtractive EQ tool, to quickly locate problem areas in a signal.
  • The Neutrino spectral shaping algorithm, which seeks to smooth out resonances and harshness in a track, and the subtle benefits of which are heard more extensively the more it’s enabled across a mix.
  • The Dry/Wet Mix parameters in the signal flow transform each module into a parallel processing powerhouse, so that even when processing more heavily, you can blend in the perfect amount of Dry, uneffected signal. This is particularly neat on the EQ and the Transient Shaper, where parallel processing is less used than it may be in a Compressor.

We certainly hope you enjoy using Neutron Elements in your quest for a better sounding mix* ! ( * and more practice.)

Signal flow

Neutron Elements signal chain

It has three main areas:

  • The menu bar, in which Track Assistant, Preset Browser, and other functions are found.
  • The I/O panel, in which some useful global functionality such as Zero Latency and Bypass is found.
  • The module specific view, to the left of the I/O panel, and below the menu bar, in which all parameters associated with that module are available for use.

The Neutron Elements channel-strip’s signal flow is as follows. With the exception of Input and Output Gain, all other processing can be bypassed if unwanted to save both CPU and latency (when in True Bypass mode, an option in the Options menu/General).

  • Input Gain
  • Module 1
  • Module 2
  • Module 3
  • Module 4
  • Neutrino spectral shaping
  • Output Gain

You may click to drag and reorder any one of the four modules in the signal flow. Though EQ is often first or early in the chain, there’s no one-size-fits-all signal flow. If you’re using Track Assistant for instance, you’ll notice it engages some different default signal flows depending on the audio it identifies. Neutron Elements also contains hundreds of presets, each of which may have a unique signal flow.

Above all, check your signal flow before you wreck your signal flow—if it sounds good, it most likely is good.

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