Izotope: Iris 2 Review

iZotope Iris 2

There are a ton of synths on the market to choose from and the numbers increase nearly daily.  Many of them are simply reproductions of what has already been done but, every once in a while, something truly unique comes along that you immediately add to your “must have” list.  For me, iZotope’s Iris 2 is one of them.

More than reasonably priced at $149.00, where many other synths in this high powered category are releasing at up to $399.00, there is a lot of value to be had here.  I have always experienced top notch quality from iZotope (See my review on Ozone 6 Advanced) but the quality of the sounds and functionality blew me out of the water.  Even more importantly, at least for me, was how warm many of the sounds are.  Working in relaxation music, as I do, I find a lot of sounds I would love to use but have to do a lot to get the digital coldness out of them.  With Iris 2, I find I have far less work to do, which gets me up and running much more quickly.

While you can pick sounds and start playing right away, iZotope’s typically advanced and detailed features provide the real magic and ability to take sounds and make them your own.  There is always a learning curve with the products this company comes out with but it is always for a good reason.  In this case, a great deal of flexibility.

To be fair and set the proper perspective, I did not work with the original Iris.  My introduction came with this updated version.  Most of the complaints I have found seem to echo the same tone in that they were expecting more from the version upgrade and not what this can do as a standalone product.  Interestingly, there seems to be a general consensus that the sound library is fantastic and that issues from the previous version were properly addressed, which is common for iZotope to listen to their users.

General Overview:

With an 11GB sound library and a slew of effects, oscillators, envelopes, MIDI controls and more, you get a powerful tool right out of the gate.  The drawback being that it is somewhat memory intensive.  A CPU Optimization guide is provided (one suggestion is to hide the interface) to help but, even with that, it does drain my 6 core 3.30Ghz system with 16GB of RAM slightly.  When I want to work on just modifying or creating sounds, I run in Stand Alone mode since there is not always a reason to have my DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) running for this part of the process.  Then, when I need to blend sounds together, I load Iris 2 into my DAW and do the fine tuning.
That being said, I think it is worth the extra effort.  The quality and beauty of the sounds alone would make me want to go the extra mile on my system.  The workflow is intelligently designed and the layout makes a great deal of sense

Interface:

Nicely laid out to show all the controls very clearly on one screen.  I like having everything within immediate reach.  There is a lot to know if you want to get into the more advanced functions but that is becoming the trend more and more these days.  You have controls for each individual sample, master controls, an editing section with the ability to zoom in and out, and modulation/keyboard (including the LFO, Envelope, Controller and Macro areas.  Want to see things differently?  You can control the layout to some degree by showing/hiding some of the sections and there is a pop out mixer.

One of the items that is helpful but perhaps also part of the memory drain is the visualization that shows the direction and flow of each sound you have selected.  While this may be helpful in setup, it may not be as useful once you have it dialed in.  The sample menu tells you the direction and flow of the sound but you only see the current sound you are working with or last sound selected unless you use the pop out mixer.

In the general controls, there is a setting to show/hide the help resources menu which, I found extremely useful until I got to know the program well enough.  Those are the text blocks that pop up when you run your mouse over the controllers.  This was initially turned off when I first installed the program.

As I have come to expect from iZotope, everything is color coordinated to allow a quick visual scan of the interface and see how assignments were made.  Each type of controller has a corresponding color that will be used to identify the use anywhere in the program.

Sounds:

The array of sounds is what you have come to expect from similar products.  The categories are Bass, Keys, Leads, Pads and Rhythmic.  In this interface, though, being able to load up to four of them at any given time, allows for a much larger flexibility without having to take up multiple MIDI channels or load more instances of the interface.  It also allows you to blend the sounds together and save them as a new sound that can be recalled without having to find that blend and mix again.  The individual samples come in a wider variety of categories.  You get Abstract, Environments, Instruments, Objects, Synths, Toys and Voice.  Mix and match any of these to create the blends for your compositions. 

Have no idea where you want to start?  No problem!  There is even a random feature that you can use to create a new sound to work with and manipulate to your liking.

One of my favorite features is being able to load my own sounds into Iris 2 and manipulate them with all of the tools provided within the interface.

Effects:

While there is a minimal number of effects on board, I found them to be warm and clean.  You have Chorus, Delay, Distortion and Reverb.  You also have the ability to run the sample 4 different ways: Forwards, Forwards/Backwards, Backwards and Backwards/Forwards.  Each sample can be controlled individually with tuning, pan and gain dials.  There are also master effects as well as per sound effects.

Tools:

You may notice greyed out buttons next to the various dials.  There is an easy to use drag and drop system to assign and control the parameters of the LFOs, Envelopes, Controllers and Macros.  Once assigned, you can adjust by moving the mouse up and down and that will change the positioning on the dial as well.  This makes for quick setups and adjustments.  When you have a tune in your head or want to hurry before you lose the feeling you want to record, being able to navigate quickly and effortlessly can go a long way.  This is the key element into just how much ability is given to the user.  While there are only 3 visible buttons, you can actually assign 4 controllers and view them on the rings surrounding the dials.

Final Observations:

The good:

Very easy to use, a great deal of flexibility over the shape of your sounds to create something unique to you or unique for each project.

Large library with the ability to load your own sounds in.

Nice, clean interface to work with that stays all in one screen but isn’t crowded.  The rings around the dials give you a quick visual reference to what and how you made your assignments.

The bad:

The program itself is a bit memory intensive on the system (at least, as of this writing).  Hiding some of the metering features may help depending on your system.  Perhaps having the ability to turn on/off the visualizations would help but, as it stands, the guide suggests hiding the interface which may be cumbersome for some users.

You cannot hide the Iris2 interface and keep the pop out mixer on the screen, which may be helpful if the interface does drain the system but you still need functionality.

I do wish the visual keyboard was a full 88 keys as there is room for it and it allows the view of the full range of instruments used in the song.  For composers like me who use that method fairly regularly, that would be nice to have, especially since there is room at the bottom of the interface for it.

I wouldn’t mind a flange in the effects portion and a tempo sync ping-pong option on the delay.

In Closing:

As intricate as you can make it, this is still a pretty straight forward synth.  It doesn’t take much to make a sound unique or even just playable right out of the box.  You can go as in-depth as you like but you don’t have to get so technical or feel like you have to be a programmer to make something that you can call your own.  Just remember to save your new sounds!

This program has now become another staple in my studio.  I work with it on a nearly daily bases when in composing sessions.  The warm tonality is a huge draw for me but, of course, that is subject to personal taste.  Depending on the kind of music you are creating, this may be the very program you have been waiting for.

Honestly, at $149, just for the stock sounds alone, it would be money well spent.

As with any iZotope product, there is so much more to go into and if you are considering a purchase, I would highly suggest downloading the test drive from the website and giving it a spin.  (https://www.izotope.com/en/products/effects-instruments/iris/).