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New Toys: iZotope Neoverb

Neoverb is a new reverb plug-in that uses three reverb synthesizers and artificial intelligence via its Reverb Assistant to assist in programming reverberation according to your specific directives. There is Exponential Audio’s Reflections Engine that creates the discrete and very important early first reflections, and reverbs 2 and 3 that vary in type depending on the preset—or how you program Neoverb. There are rooms, plates, small and large echo chambers, and halls available.

A new idea for a single reverb plug-in because you can mix between the three reverbs by moving a blue orb over an “Ouija Board” planchette called a Blend Pad. Clicking on the Advanced Controls reveals 17 additional parameters available for all three reverb engines. I liked the Input Smoothing feature that compresses transients to reduce spikey attacks in the reverb’s tail ring out. Also good are the two three-band equalizers. Pre-EQ ‘carves’ the incoming signal to reduce certain frequencies from building up in the reverb’s sound and a post-EQ further refines the reverb.

Neoverb comes with 100 presets arranged in eight banks categorized by usage, including one bank to store your own collection. Reverb Assistant opens with four general directives you select for conceptualizing and defining a reverb’s basic sound quality and character. Style cross-fades between Realistic to Dramatic, Size and Tone. Once you determine these desired choices in the Reverb Assistant window, Neoverb will analyze the source audio and a reverb will be setup. I found that this works amazingly well—I tried this process on verse, chorus, bridge, lead vocal sections and saved them all as presets.

Neoverb sells for $199 MSRP and is also a part of newly released Music Production Suite 4, which also includes RX 8 Standard, Ozone 9 Advanced, Neutron 3 Advanced, Nectar 3, Insight 2, NIMBUS by Exponential Audio and Tonal Balance Control 2.

izotope.com/en/products/neoverb.html