Because Neutrino, the new free plugin from iZotope uses a technique called spectral shaping we thought it would be helpful to share some tips and tricks on how to use it.

The key thing to remember with Neutrino is 'less is more'. Its effect is meant to be very subtle and to add just the slightest amount of that special “something” to each of your tracks. Here are some tips and tricks to help get you started working with it.

1. Use It Everywhere. Neutrino is meant to be used on many individual tracks, submixes or stems, not your master track. In Pro Tools you can add a plug-in to all tracks at once by holding down the Option key and inserting Neutrino. iZotope have designed Neutrino to use very little CPU power, so you should be able to use it on all the tracks in your session without any problems.
    

2. Try it as your last plugin on a track. You can instantiate Neutrino anywhere in your signal chain to get the sound you want, but try starting with it as the last plugin on each track.
    

3. Set the mode and starting points for each track. Now go through each instance of Neutrino and choose the respective mode (Voice, Instrument, Bass, Drums). Then set both the amount and detail controls to 25% as a starting point. You can come back and tweak these later, but it’s important to adjust these when listening in the context of the full mix, as opposed to individually with each track soloed.
    

4. Audition them all at once. In Pro Tools, you can bypass all the instances of a plug-in across one lane of insert slots by holding Option+Command on a Mac, or Control+ALT on a PC and clicking on one of the plug-in instances. Then you can listen to how Neutrino subtly influences the mix and adjust accordingly.
    

5. Make adjustments in groups. To make finer adjustments, listen to tracks in groups, like all the drums or guitars together. Make small adjustments across the group. The Detail control adjusts the granularity of processing across the frequency spectrum.
   
   Because Neutrino is constantly listening and adjusting to the incoming signal, changes made on the Detail knob may take a second to adjust, so we suggest that you make a small adjustment, pause, then listen to the effect it’s had on your signal. Fast adjustments, especially to extremes of the control, may not be heard immediately as Neutrino catches up.
   
   The Amount control adjusts how much of Neutrino’s dynamic processing is applied. Sometimes it can be advantageous to bring the Amount knob up to 75-100%, make some slow, small adjustments to the Detail knob so you can distinctly hear their effect, and then bring the Amount knob back down until they become subtle again.

We hope these tips and tricks will help you to get the best out of this new free plugin from iZotope.