To be strictly accurate this should be my rediscovered find of the week. Somehow iZotope's RX Final Mix had dropped out of my workflow until last weekend when I was sent an audio clip that had seen better days, shall we say, and in considering how to restore it I remembered RX Final Mix and very quickly was able to improve the clip significantly using RX Final Mix.

We wrote about iZotope RX Final Mix when it was first released and Alan Sallabank did an excellent review of it also addressing some of the issues and concerns that had been voiced about what RX Final Mix was designed to do. Then I produced a show and tell video when iZotope released the RX Final Mix v1.01 update adding a number of features largely as a result of the feedback from the Pro Tools Expert community.

What Is iZotope RX Final Mix?

RX Final Mix from iZotope an EQ and Limiter plug-in optimised for audio post production workflows is made up of sections, an 8 band eq module and a true peak limiter module.

The EQ module can have a combination of up to 8 static and dynamic EQ bands. The dynamic bands can function as compressors or expanders and there is a neat icon which displays what mode each section is working in. In the image above, you can see that there is a high pass filter that is in dynamic mode as a compressor because the icon is a downward facing arrow. Band 1 is a conventional static EQ as it has a circle with the figure 1 in it. The other active bands, 3, 4 & 6 are all dynamic eq bands again functioning in as compression because the downward arrows are displaying the direction of travel of the signal, ie when you compress you are reducing the signal level.

The Limiter module is a True Peak Limiter which is essential for post workflows especially in broadcast workflows as the BS1770 based delivery standards allows us to go within 1dB of digital headroom. But because we are working so close to digital headroom we have to know exactly what is going on between the samples as it is possible that the levels could go beyond digital headroom between two samples, so true peak meters interpolate what  could have happened between the samples and display the 'true peaks', which can be anything up to 6dB higher. The limiter point is clearly shown as the blue line across the meters with true peak meters that will show you exactly where things are.

Why Was It My Find Of The Week?

I made it my find of the week because of the ease and controllability of the EQ section in being able to adjust a range of different EQ shapes using a very intuitive graphical user interface to quickly and effectively improve this dodgy clip.

Want To Learn More About RX Final Mix?

I have produced a 6 part video tutorial series for Groove3 iZotope RX Final Mix Explained which at the time of writing is available for $25 at Groove3.

I begin with an introduction about what RX Final Mix is, and how it fits into a typical post-production workflow, which leads right into a in-depth overview of the user interface.

I then devote a video to each of the Main Modules, the Dynamic EQ and Limiter Modules, and then wrap up the series with two videos of tips & tricks that will hopefully help you with good practice using the RX Final Mix plug-in. 

You can also read Alan's excellent review with real world audio examples.