I don't know why extremely dark GUIs are currently in vogue but I'm not altogether in favour I'm all for style but not if it gets in the way of functionality!Īpart from having the spectrum analyser/EQ screen at the top rather than the bottom, Nectar 2 actually works in pretty much the same way as before. However, iZotope have succumbed to the temptation to make just a couple of things in the meter section black on a dark grey background, rendering them almost invisible under anything other than ideal viewing conditions. Though it looks quite different from the previous version, being darker and considerably less orange, Nectar 2 remains, in the main, easy to navigate, as most of the text is white on a very dark grey background. Other than Breath and the offline pitch editing, Nectar still opens as a single plug-in window, this time with a slightly larger, redesigned graphic interface that bears an obvious family resemblance to iZotope's Ozone 5 and Alloy 2 all-in-one processing plug-ins. Nectar 2 is a cross-platform plug-in that works in RTAS, AudioSuite, VST2, VST3, Audio Unit and AAX formats, including the 64-bit AAX protocol used by Pro Tools 11, and is authorised online or to an iLok key. while the second new plug-in caters for offline pitch editing and correction.

One of these is based on the section of the original plug-in that dealt with controlling the level of breaths, In Overview mode, you see simplified versions of all 11 processing modules with just a handful of controls. The update also sees these functions joined by two separate plug-ins as part of a more upmarket Production Suite version. Like the original, the new version 2 of the Nectar plug-in contains 11 separate processing sections, but the palette has been changed slightly, and now comprises Harmony, Plate Reverb, FX, Pitch, Delay, De-Esser, Saturation, Compressors, Gate, EQ and Limiter.

Nectar, reviewed in SOS March 2011 ( /sos/mar11/articles/nectar.htm) was originally developed by iZotope as a comprehensive toolkit of vocal production elements wrapped into a single plug-in environment.

With up to 13 different processing tools available, if Nectar 2 can't make your vocal track sound good, nothing can!

Izotope nectar presets