RX4 Advanced
Publisher: IzotopeWebsite: Izotope.com
Platform: PC/Mac
X32/x64: Both
Description: Audio repair/noise removal
Purchase/Rent: Purchase
Download demo: Click Here
Discount: N/A
Expected Release: Available Now
Review Issue: #104 (11/14)
Reviewed by: Paul Schmutzler
Final Score: 9.5 (out of 10)
This fall, Izotope released version four of its RX audio repair software. Within the new version, Izotope has included several key features that are entirely new and exclusive to the Advanced version.
Loudness, leveler, ambience match and de-reverb are a few of the incredibly useful tools now available to editors and audio engineers using RX4 Advanced. 
While some of these tools sound identical to tools found in other audio suites, you’ll find that having a dedicated, specialized piece of software can provide greater capabilities when troublesome audio rears its ugly head in the edit bay.
Ease of Use
Describing the ease with which an editor can start using RX is a dichotomy. On the one hand, the UI is well-designed, simple and intuitively laid out. While there is an enormous amount of capability to the software, the interface is designed to accommodate, not intimidate. Uncomplicated icons and buttons make navigation easy, while the mostly two-tone color scheme makes it easy for unfamiliar eyes to find what they need.
The RX4 interface.
On the flip side, the user is presented with an incredibly powerful piece of software capable of tweaking and refining audio to death. Without clear guidance, tutorials and some audio processing skill, a user is likely to make bad audio worse.
Fortunately, Izotope has included all of these helps with its RX software. The user guide is available offline. It’s clearly written with step-by-step guides for using different modules. Links are included to take the user online for video tutorials and more in-depth help as needed.
Depth of Options
Since RX is clearly labeled as audio repair software, the question arises, “How versatile is it?”
While one may think of noise removal and normalizing as the full extent of audio repair, there is much more that can be done in RX than is possible in other audio software. For example, Ambience Match (new and exclusive to RX4 Advanced) enables a user to take location audio, match it to ADR, or any audio recorded under different circumstances and synthesize more of the ambience for continuity.
The RX4 Dialogue Denoiser.
Denoising can be done in different ways for different types of sound. There’s a manual mode where the user can “teach” the algorithm using the traditional selection of a “noise print.” But there’s also an adaptive mode where the software will attempt to figure out the noise on its own. Additionally there is a dialogue noise remover that is specially designed for use in spoken word. Other modules in RX have similarly extensive controls.
Performance
Being a single-use type of software, RX carries with it several unique benefits. Of paramount importance is the speed and efficiency that comes along with a dedicated app. The application itself is 64 bit, and many of the modules included use 64-bit processing. This makes for a lean, responsive user experience. Audio is opened, analyzed and processed very quickly. While other software spends great amounts of resources and time analyzing and creating a waveform, RX has the waveform already processed by the time it opens the file.
Evaluating the performance of individual modules can be dangerously subjective based on the user’s knowledge and experience working in audio repair. As mentioned before, it’s easy to go from bad to worse with audio if effects are applied unskillfully. That being said, the provided presets and intelligent algorithms included in RX4 are very capable tools. Even with basic knowledge, a user should be able to use the repair modules without much difficulty. The modules and effects included are powerful and accurate.
RX4 is streamlined to process effects very quickly.
Value
The question of how valuable RX4 Advanced is to a user must be answered after considering several criteria. The $1,200 price tag is a hefty sum for a piece of software that has a relatively narrow use. It’s not primarily intended to be a piece of recording software. Neither is it capable of any multi-track editing. It’s designed to work more like a plugin. It supports and expands on capabilities already found in existing audio software like Adobe Audition or Digidesign’s ProTools.
Depending on the types of productions one is working on, the features that come along with RX4 may be worth much more than the MSRP. Documentary, news gathering, sports and live events can all be unforgiving and unpredictable to sound and camera. Even scripted productions with the luxury of multiple takes and a dedicated audio engineer on set can fall victim to ruined audio. Sometimes the problems aren’t found until the footage reaches the edit bay. Having the ability to restore what may have been unusable audio is, in most cases, well worth the price of admission.
Final Thoughts
Izotope, the small audio company from Massachusetts, has made a name for itself in the multimedia production world with their flagship product RX. With version 4, they have continued to push the envelope and further expand it to help post-production become easier and more efficient. While productions can sometimes have multiple camera angles to choose from if one shot is no good, the audio is usually limited to a single track. With RX, an editor can have greater confidence that even the worst audio can be redeemed.
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Breakdown
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Ease of Use
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10.0 |
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Depth of Options
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9.0 |
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Performance
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10.0 |
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Value vs. Cost
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9.0 |
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Overall Score |
9.5 |
Paul Schmutzler
Paul Schmutzler has been involved in various aspects of photography, film and video production, post-production and motion graphics for over ten years. He reviews tools of the trade as a freelance tech journalist.