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.
