Outstanding Audio Software From AES 2016

As I said in my post yesterday, there were fewer audio software companies at AES than one might have expected. The reason is that many software companies are boutique operations with only a few employees, so taking time away from development and spending a lot of money on a show is a critical decision. When it comes down to it, it’s either exhibit at NAMM or AES, and since NAMM reaches more people, that’s the show that usually wins. That said, I did see a couple of plugins at AES that might change the way you mix.

Izotope Neutron

Izotope has always been a company on the cutting edge of audio software development, and it’s constantly coming up with new and useful plugs. The latest is Neutron, which may change the way you mix forever. Neutron does a couple of things – first, it analyzes a track and finds the EQ problems and automatically fixes them for you. Then, it will analyze multiple tracks and find where one track may be masking the other frequency-wise, and sets the EQ and compression. The company is quick to point out that the plug’s suggestions are only starting points, but that certainly performs much of the heavy lifting that sometimes takes years of experience for a mixer to achieve. Check out the video below.

The price for Neutron Standard is just $249 with a $199 introductory price.

I should also point out that I was approached by another company at the show that was in beta test for a plug that did much the same thing but with a different approach. More on that when it’s released.

Eiosis E2 De-esser

De-essers are a necessary evil in audio. We generally don’t like to use them, and when we have to, they’re sometimes finicky in setup. The Eiosis E2 de-esser takes de-essing to the next level, making it a dead-easy setup yet with plenty of flexibility to be able to tackle just about any problem area that you might have. What’s even better is that it has a dynamic EQ built in, which again makes tweaking easy, especially on a vocal. Works great on instruments as well, which isn’t the case with all de-essers. All in all, the results are some of the smoothest you’ll find from a de-esser anywhere. The Eiosis E2 is a bargain at its current sales price of $99. Check out the video below for more details.

There were certainly other fine plugin releases at AES, but these two are the ones that caught my eye.