iZotope Nectar 4 Advanced

The Vocal Assistant view offers an easy point of entry to Nectar 4’s powerful processing possibilities.

If your vocals require sweetening, a little Nectar might be just the thing…

iZotope are perhaps best known for their powerful Ozone mastering and RX audio restoration suites, but their product catalogue is actually very extensive. One of the other standouts is Nectar. Like Ozone and RX, this comprises a ‘mothership’ that’s populated with a number of powerful processing modules, but in this case everything is targeted specifically at vocal production. And just as they have with Ozone and RX, iZotope have been incrementally adding AI‑based assistance to make all the power within this suite much more accessible to the less experienced (or more time‑pressured) user.

Nectar 4 is the first update since iZotope joined the Native Instruments family, and it’s available either as an individual purchase or within Native Instruments bundles such as their Music Production Suite 6. All the previous core Nectar functionality remains intact, but plenty of features have been improved or reorganised, and there are a number of new options and AI enhancements. I’ll focus here on the newer elements, and on the flagship Nectar 4 Advanced version of the software, but it’s worth noting that there are more affordable cut‑down Elements and Standard editions too. I will try to indicate which features are available in which versions.

Meet My Assistant

For those happy to take a little AI input to get them started, Nectar 4’s Vocal Assistant has had a very useful revamp and is now similar in style to that found in Ozone. As such, Nectar’s main mothership plug‑in window now allows you to tab between Assistant View and Detailed View. When you first initiate Nectar 4 on a track, it requests some audio input so that it can ‘learn’ the sound of your vocal. Then, after a brief pause while it analyses the vocal characteristics, the Vocal Assistant tab, which has a helpfully compact control set, is displayed. In the background, Nectar has actually built a complete signal chain based around its component modules, and you can see all of that if you switch to Detailed View. But this new Vocal Assistant view makes it super easy to make adjustments to the key parameters in that chain.

Detailed View provides a full range of configurable vocal processing modules.

In the centre of the display, the frequency spectrum of your vocal is shown in white, underlain by a target reference envelope in yellow. Some standard vocal references are available but, as described in more detail below, you can also capture a reference from another track if you have a specific tonal target in mind. The Shape control adjusts the extent to which Nectar’s EQ module attempts to match the tone of your vocal with that of the selected target. Intensity, meanwhile, is linked to the threshold in the compressor module. At bottom left, you can apply reverb, delay and ‘dimension’ (modulation‑based effects). The lower right quarter is where you can experiment with various presets for the Voices module, which creates artificial harmonies based upon your vocal and pitch correction, or the Backer module, which generates alternate virtual voices to double your vocal.

I’ll say more about these latter two below but, if you don’t want to delve deeper, or just need to tweak Nectar’s suggestions slightly while you continue developing the overall track, Vocal Assistant provides a very easy and effective point of entry.

Audiolens

All editions of Nectar ship with a separate application called Audiolens. This will audition any audio source and, under the hood, isolate the vocal stem before analysing its tonal properties, creating a Reference file for that vocal and adding it as a Vocal Assistant user preset. Audiolens will happily listen to audio that you’re streaming to your computer (you will be walked through the installation of the necessary drivers for this on first use) so, if you want to create tonal references from a specific track by your favourite artists that’s easily achieved, whatever form of audio you have access to.

In use, the Audiolens/Vocal Assistant combination is interesting and can be educational too. Of course, trying to force a tonal match between (for example) a male baritone and a female soprano might not result in the most natural outcome, but if you’re just trying to nudge your vocals gently towards the tonal character of a specific reference, Nectar 4 can certainly give you a decent starting point — and generate a suitable signal chain — to push against.

On The Level: ALM

When Advanced edition users do switch to Detailed View, they’ll find that the new Auto Level Module (ALM) is now available at the start of the signal chain, and this provides an alternative to compression as a way of ensuring a consistent vocal level. While it’s not used in quite the same way, it seems similar in concept to Waves’ Vocal Rider.

In the Advanced edition, the new Auto‑Level Module provides an alternative to compression to achieve a consistent vocal level through your whole track.

With ALM, the Learn process allows the module to assess the dynamic range of the source signal, and it then automatically configures itself to produce a more even vocal level. You can control the Target level and the Mix, while an extra tab that can be popped open presents further options, including the clever Tame Noise, which ensures non‑sung vocal noises aren’t exaggerated by the auto‑levelling process. You can also set a maximum range of operation for the levelling and the speed with which the levelling is applied.

Finally, if your overall project has fairly wide dynamics, you can use the side‑chain input to feed a guide signal into the ALM (for example, from a global instrumental group bus) and the module will use this to make your vocal level follow the overall dynamics of the project. Oh, and while we’re on the subject of making sure your vocal doesn’t get lost in a mix, Nectar’s existing Vocal Unmask feature, which used to be part of the Vocal Assistant, has now been treated to its own tab, accessed from the topmost control strip.

Sweet Harmony?

In previous releases, Nectar’s Harmony module allowed you to generate harmony vocal parts from your main lead vocal. That functionality has been enhanced in this release, and it now resides in the new Voices module. Perhaps more interesting is that there’s a new additional module called Backer, which will generate versions of your lead vocal as if it had been sung by different singers. Happily, both of these modules are available in Elements, Standard and Advanced editions, meaning that all Nectar users have access to this feature.

Within the Voices module, Nectar 4’s revamped auto‑harmony features are both flexible and easy to use.

Creating your artificial harmonies using the Voices module provides a microcosm of Nectar’s overall workflow: it offers assistance to those who need it, but it allows detailed manual control for those who wish to configure things more precisely for themselves. For example, for Voices to do its thing, you first need to confirm the key of your track. You can select this manually if it’s known, but the Detect button will let Nectar listen and make a suitable suggestion. With the key locked in, you can then simply move through the harmony presets and adjust whether you want those harmonies above or below your lead voice. These presets provide fixed harmonic intervals (unison, octaves, thirds, and so on) and more dynamic, style‑based presets (moody, uplifting, lush and the like).

It is, frankly, incredibly easy to create harmony parts that, sat at a suitable level in your overall mix, will be genuinely convincing.

The panel on the left provides simple options to customise the tone, pitch correction and pitch/timing variations applied to the harmonies, while the Solo switch at top right lets you hear just the harmony parts as you tweak. It is, frankly, incredibly easy to create harmony parts that, sat at a suitable level in your overall mix, will be genuinely convincing. However, if you want more direct control, the Pencil button lets you customise the number of harmonies and their respective pitches, while the Mixer button (the icon with two semicircles) provides a visual mixer that lets you arrange the stereo positions and levels of the various harmonies. If you prefer to ‘play’ your harmony parts, the MIDI button lets you voice them from your MIDI keyboard too.

Backer’s UI might have a cartoon feel to it but don’t let that fool you — the results can be very convincing indeed.

The new Backer module does something slightly different. It takes an original vocal line and transforms it to sing the same line (in unison, or up/down a whole octave) with a different voice. Out of the box, eight voice ‘persona’ presets are included, providing a mixture of male and female voice characters. You also get options to shift the tone and formant properties and adjust the blend between the real and synthesized voice. When you have recorded a single singer as the source of all your vocal layers and harmonies, Backer therefore allows you to change the character of some or all of the additional vocal parts, creating much more of a ‘vocal group’ effect. It works remarkably well and, interestingly, you can also create your own custom personas by letting the module analyse an audio file containing the target voice. I tried this with a few isolated vocals from commercial tracks and, although you can’t turn your own vocals into a captured version of Adele or Chris Cornell, for example, it definitely lets you apply a different tonal flavour. It will be interesting to see where iZotope take this technology in the future and whether, eventually, it will be possible to get Nectar’s Voice module to use Backer’s personas for its auto‑generated harmonies.

Nectar 4’s new and improved features represent a significant step forward from earlier versions, and there is something useful for both new and experienced users alike.

Ready Mixed

Nectar 4’s new and improved features represent a significant step forward from earlier versions, and there is something useful for both new and experienced users alike. Perhaps unsurprisingly, therefore, the asking price for Nectar 4 Advanced is not insignificant. But that’s not to say you don’t get great bang for that buck — you do. And it’s hard to deny that NI’s Music Production Suite 6, which includes Nectar 4 Advanced, Ozone 11 Advanced, Neutron 4, RX 10 Standard, Guitar Rig Pro 7, Tonal Balance Control 2, Neoverb and VocalSynth 2 amongst others, is even better value.

So who might Nectar 4 appeal to most? Well, the AI assistance and the presence of the Voices and Backer modules in the more accessibly-priced Elements edition should certainly make it attractive to those who are new to Nectar, and perhaps have less audio engineering experience under their belt. The Advanced edition is obviously at the other end of the price range, and if you’re looking at this, you are probably considering Nectar 4 for its serious processing capabilities.

The plug‑in offers a tremendous level of control if you want or need it, allowing you to craft and refine your vocal recordings in both surgical and creative fashions. However, perhaps the most impressive feature of Nectar 4 is how quickly it lets almost anyone go from a raw vocal to a ‘produced’ and mix‑ready voice. Whatever your level of experience, having Nectar’s AI give you a head start with a processing chain is a huge time‑saver. In an AI instant, a dollop of Nectar is an easy, and very effective, means to sweeten your vocals.