New Audio Stuff: iZotope Ozone 5 and RX2

   I took the plunge a few days ago and decided to actually spend some money on the activity I like to call my profession. Based on a wide selection of reviews and from speaking to fellow "sound guys" I bought iZotopes Ozone 5 mastering suite and RX 2 noise reduction software. I decided that I couldn't afford the Advanced versions but the lower priced standard editions are still incredibly powerful tools.

Go to the iZotope website for more information on them and their advanced bretheren:

Ozone 5
RX2

   My initial impressions are extremely positive. Even though I'm no expert at operating them, the various presets are actually very good and work as excellent starting positions for most work you'd care to do in them.

Audio: More Free VST plugins

The Cockos Reaper forum is a very handy place to go when your looking for free stuff. Most of the people who use the software are using because it is free/cheap, so these guys spend a lot of time looking for good free stuff. The people there have recently pointed out this rather nice collection of free VST plugins from Antress Modern Plugins.

It contains a few of their own Modern effects and tools, which cover a great many of the effects you might need for your day to day mixing. But more interestingly they have also produced a series of plug ins that emulate classic studio gear. The clones include Fairchild, SSL and Universal Audio compressors which is nice if you like the colour of those units.

Also, thanks to my freinds at the Monkey Lord forum I was reminded about FerricTDS (Tape Dynamics Simulator), which is a part of another great set of plug-ins from Variety of Sound

Check them out!