iZotope - Neutrino

Neutrino is a free spectral shaping plug-in that iZotope have created based on the mixing technology that they developed for Neutron. It is designed to be used across every audio track in your mix session, and it therefore places a very light burden on your CPU. The idea is that through subtle spectral shaping on each track, it can increase the clarity and definition of your overall mix.

It is very simple to use, coming with four preset spectral shapers, along with  'amount' and 'detail' controls. The presets are; 'voice' for adding clarity and detail to help vocals sit on top of a mix; 'instrument' for smoothing resonances while retaining character, 'bass' for adding punch and weight, and 'drums' for emphasising transient detail.

Spectral shaping is the application of focused dynamic processing to certain, specific areas within the frequency spectrum. It differs from conventional multi-band compression in that the processing is much more refined – Neutrino divides the frequency spectrum into 32 bands that can all be processed individually. The process is described by iZotope as 'a 32-band dynamic equalizer, with individual band shelf filters for every band, each automatically setting thresholds, time constants, and reduction amounts based on tuned models for each sound source.'

The cumulative effect of adding these plug-ins to your mix is subtle, but it does make a difference – particularly in adding clarity to rhythmic parts. 

Neutrino is available from the iZotope website for Mac and PC for VST 2 (32-bit and 64-bit), VST 3 (32-bit and 64-bit), Audio Unit (32-bit and 64-bit), AAX (64-bit), RTAS (32-bit), Audiosuite DPM and AAX.