Sound Devices MixPre-6 II (second generation)

The URL for the video above was given out by a senior member of the RX Facebook Group.

This link to the RX8 page on iZotope's site was also given out: https://www.izotope.com/en/products/rx. ... _new_video

It looks to me like iZotope RX8 targets musicians/engineers and that there isn't a lot in it for film and video sound editors.

iZotope's RX 8 page is now live. Here's the pricing:

Screenshot 2020-09-01 at 19.58.06.jpg (137.44 KiB) Viewed 851 times

There's some interesting stuff going on with upgrade prices. My upgrade price from RX 6 Advanced to RX 8 Advanced, until October 14, is US$300. That's actually attractive. It would give me both multichannel and 32-bit processing, plus the the module improvements, although they're mostly incremental, in RX7 and RX8.

Multichannel and 32-bit are recent needs that I've been handling outside RX. Staying within RX would save time.

I'll be downloading the 10 day trial and paying attention to the RX8 videos that iZotope releases over the next few days

Americans and Canadians who are figuring on an RX8 upgrade price of US$299 plus tax should check out this JRR Shop thread on VI-Control: https://vi-control.net/community/thread ... st-4632832 *

I just upgraded via JRR (RX6 Advanced to RX8 Advanced). This is legit and the saving is real. I saved about US$75 over purchasing directly from iZotope. The transaction went fine, and authorisation through iZotope's Product Portal was immediate.

I went to JRR via the links in the first post. This may have been important. In the cart, the purchase is described as a "group buy". I saw the actual price after I put the upgrade in the cart. There was no sales tax.

There should be meaningful savings on all RX8 variations.

* VI-Control is the main Internet forum on virtual instruments, which are important in scoring for films and games.

RX8 seems to be a lot zippier than RX6.

The first screen capture is of a Sound Devices MixPre v.2 32-bit "clipped" file that with RX6 I had to deal with in another app. See earlier posts on working with this file in Reaper.

The second screen capture is a stereo file with two mikes spaced AB and a third mike in the centre. RX6 will only handle two channels.

I think that RX7 Advanced owners have a difficult decision about whether to upgrade. For RX6 Advanced owners, the decision is easier. Note: as far as I know, the features in the screen shots are not available in RX7 Standard. On a quick look, they may also be unavailable in RX8 Standard.

Screenshot 2020-09-02 at 20.23.31.jpg (379.65 KiB) Viewed 733 times

Screenshot 2020-09-02 at 20.37.18.jpg (365.92 KiB) Viewed 769 times

Mike Thornton knows RX cold. Unfortunately, he hasn't done a tutorial series since RX5, but this overview of RX8 is a good introduction to the new features:

Thornton's review on Production Expert covers what RX8 does, and doesn't, do for film/video sound editors: https://www.pro-tools-expert.com/produc ... and-review


Weslake Pro has posted a good video on using RX8 to address problems in recordings of the human voice. The video deals with run of the mill issues, nothing complicated, and I like the stress on using good judgment. It sounds like Westlake will be doing more of these.

Americans and Canadians who are figuring on an RX8 upgrade price of US$299 plus tax should check out this JRR Shop thread on VI-Control: https://vi-control.net/community/thread ... st-4632832 *

Thanks for sharing!!

I think that RX7 Advanced owners have a difficult decision about whether to upgrade.

Hmmm... I don't know, I think it's fairly straight forward actually. I went from v4 to v6 to v7 because they all had specific tools included that I wanted, and then to Post Production Suite 4 because of the reverbs.

The way it looks to me now for post is that it's really only a couple of things that seem pretty usable. One would Spectral Recover to recover lost high frequency content, and the other the loudness tool. But honestly I think that for a fair amount of users most of the new stuff seems more geared toward either music or enhancing the standard version. I see myself using the Recover tool probably, but the only question is how frequently and if it's worth the money. It's not like RX isn't a great tool, but paying $250 for that function might be more than necessary.

Personally I'll look into whether or not there are any alternatives that are either better (Zynaptic may very well be, demos sound good at least) or cheaper...

I am a bit torn if I should update my RX7 advanced to 8 now. I had expected that they would improve Voice Isolate a lot, but it seems that didn't happen. And they stopped supporting Win 7 officially. I am not gonna update my productive systems any time soon risking Win 10's update worries. And I still do have a lot of expensive hardware raid controller cards (including spare cards) which did not get any Win 10 driver love.

I think that iZotope has hit a technological brick wall on RX development. RX7 was released on September 13, 2018. They've had two years to work on RX8. When it comes to substance, there isn't a lot to show for it. In the absence of significant new features, or big improvements, it looks to me like their strategy is to try to broaden the market (musicians, podcasters, etc.).

It made sense for me to go from RX6 Advanced to RX8 Advanced, but that's because of a development in recording hardware and a change in how many tracks I'm using, not because of new features in RX8. I could just as easily use RX7. So far, I'm not seeing a compelling case for sound editors to go from RX7 to RX8 unless one has one or two quite niche needs.

The way it looks to me now for post is that it's really only a couple of things that seem pretty usable. One would Spectral Recover to recover lost high frequency content...

I just watched a video in which Spectral Recovery was applied to a recording of a smartphone call. As you know, Spectral Recovery doesn't actually recover anything. It extrapolates from, for example, the frequency range of a phone discussion. In the example I watched, the phone voice was capped at about 8,000Hz and Spectral Recovery extrapolated to add frequencies above 8,000Hz.

I preferred the original recording to the one that was "fixed" I don't know why phone calls have to be fixed in the first place. It's not like they're ever going to sound like they were recorded on a sound stage.

Maybe it makes sense for some Zoom calls.

Westlake Pro is currently streaming a session with Milly Latrou (La La Land) about sound editing and RX 8. It should also be available after the stream. She uses Pro Tools and sometimes Final Cut Pro X:

Walkthrough (Curtis Judd) of Tentacle Sync’s Track E recorder. Substance starts at 03:40. The Track E is discussed until 25:38.

The patent issue that prevents monitoring the sound in the U.S. version of the recorder is important enough that I would not purchase the U.S. version. I would only buy this recorder elsewhere, e.g. Canada or Europe.

When Judd does his review, I hope he tries a mike in addition to the one that comes with the recorder. For some, this would require a patch cable to the TRS input. To me, the sound, at least with the included mike, is OK but not great. It is not equal to the sound from a Lectrosonics PDR, a pocket recorder that he mentions a couple of times and that I have. Judd says that he thinks that the sound is better than what a RØDE Wireless Go delivers.

B&H currently has the Track E available for preorder, US$350, but it is no doubt selling the U.S. version: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/ ... audio.html