Velvet: iZotope’s new Plugin with Intelligent De-Essing and Professional Tone Control
More Than Just a De-Esser
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Velvet: iZotope's new Plugin with Intelligent De-Essing and Professional Tone Control · Source: iZotope
Velvet is the latest addition to iZotope’s Catalyst series of plug-ins, and it picks up where many classic de-essers leave off. Instead of suppressing entire frequency ranges, which can audibly change the character of a voice, Velvet takes a differentiated and intelligently structured approach. And now you can use it in your studio.
iZotope Velvet: The De-Esser that doesn’t Color Voices
The new Velvet software de-esser from iZotope is designed to make your vocal recordings easier by automatically removing unwanted sibilants and pops. The plugin splits incoming audio into two separate channels that focus specifically on hiss and pop. This allows you to remove annoying sibilants, pops and clicks with much greater precision, while preserving or even enhancing the musical content of the voice. Very cool!
Especially noteworthy is the automatic detection of these “disturbing sounds” and their frequency ranges, which Velvet analyzes in the background and then intelligently marks in the EQ. This step not only saves you a lot of manual work, but also allows you to hear the results immediately, without excessive fine-tuning. The ability to switch between the two signal paths using separate solo functions makes it easy to edit individual noise sources. This targeted intervention not only benefits the mix, but also makes Velvet a useful tool for post-processing voice recordings, podcasts, and vocal productions of all kinds.
Velvet Analyzes the Voice and Offers Real-Time Adaptive Sound Shaping
Velvet does more than just suppress problem frequencies. The additional sound shaping options – implemented internally via “Lift” and “Tame” – allow you to make sonically meaningful adjustments to preset profiles that not only sound subtle, but also integrate sonically homogeneously into modern pop or speech productions. The overall character of a voice can be easily and intuitively adjusted towards clarity, warmth or presence without the typical side effects such as coloration or loss of naturalness. Very nice! Of particular interest is the ability to adaptively adjust all settings based on target profiles, which saves a lot of time, especially in dynamic projects.
Despite this architecture, Velvet remains deliberately simple to use and thus fits seamlessly into the philosophy of the Catalyst series. This philosophy aims to provide focused solutions to individual production challenges without reproducing the complexity of large channel strips. This makes Velvet suitable for experienced engineers as well as for producers who want to achieve musical results quickly. A truly great and welcome addition to the new series.
Pricing and Specifications
iZotope Velvet is available now here at Thomann* for €49.00. A special crossgrade pricing is available from the manufacturer.
The plugin runs on macOS 13.7.4 or higher (including Apple Silicon support) and Windows 10 or higher as AAX, VST3 and AU in 64-bit. Several presets are included.
Learn More About iZotope Velvet
- Product Page at iZotope
- Learn More from iZotope
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