Do the Izotope RX 3 plugins work in Audacity? (YES!)

Audacity Help Forum Windows
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
Anybody have Izotope RX 3 working as a plug-in with Audacity?
So far I can’t get it to work and I suspect it’s not compatible (but I hope I’m wrong!)

EDIT: TOTALLY WRONG! User error on my part - Details of my error in messages below.

All feedback welcomed.

DETAILS:
I downloaded a demo copy of RX 3 from Izotope. I’ve found conflicting info on their site. In one place it shows it supports “VST” and “VST 3”. In another place is says “VST 2” and “VST 3”.

I’ve asked Audacity to rescan for plugins (multiple times) and the scan tool finds all the RX3 plugin and I’ve tested checking them in various combinations (there are 32 and 64 bit versions, I’ve tried them both) without them ever showing up on the Effects menu. (I’ve successfully installed many others plug-ins, so while I could be doing something wrong, I believe it have the process down correctly, but I hope it’s my ignorance and that you experts will tell me I just don’t know something.)

Here’s the text on their site: (from this page: http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/rx/support.asp)

Plug-in formats:
AAX (Pro Tools 11), RTAS/AudioSuite (Pro Tools 7.4-10), VST and VST 3, Audio Unit (I added the BOLD and color)

Host compatibility:
In addition to being available in RX 3’s standalone mode, RX 3 modules are also compatible* as plug-ins for popular hosts like Pro Tools, Media Composer, Cubase, Nuendo, WaveLab, GarageBand, Logic, Final Cut Pro, Premiere, Audition, SONAR, ACID, Vegas, Sound Forge, Ableton Live, and many more.

I was hoping Audacity fit into the “many more” category. In another place on their site I read it’s VST2 & VST3 format, so I’m confused and so far it’s not working for me. I can/will use the standalone version, but my hope was just running the plugins was the answer and would be much easier for my workflow. (He says selfishly.)


EDIT: I’m messing with the standalone version too (demo copy), and there is so much visual info, I can’t see how it would happen within Audacity. I still hope I’m wrong, but not optimistic.

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I download the RX3 trial.

The only plug-ins Audacity will see are the “VST version 2, 32-bit” set. Please see these two FAQ’s:
http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/faq_installation_and_plug_ins.html#vst_install
http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/faq_installation_and_plug_ins.html#vst_faulty .

Yes, all six effects in the VST 2, 32-bit set are in the Audacity effect menu, underneath the divider. I removed a click with the declicker. Anything in the effects that are real time will not work in Audacity, therefore the “Spectral Repair” will not work as it needs to capture live audio.



Gale

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Wow, so cool. I haven’t figured out what I did wrong yet, but since I know it can be done (THANKS to you!) now it’s off to figure out how to make it happen.

I understand about the real-time processing. I want the declick and decrackle, and maybe the noise reduction, which are amazing tools for my usage.

I love this group!

I’ll report back after I figure out what I did wrong, in case others have the same issues I had. I’m still confused since Audacity “sees them” with the check boxes at start-up, but they don’t show up below the divider for me. I’ll figure it out.

Don

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The files that appear in the “Install VST Effects” dialogue are simply all the DLL files Audacity sees in the folders it searches.

Audacity can’t know whether the plug-ins are supported until it tries to load them when you click OK in the dialogue. We could check against a list of unsupported/inappropriate DLL’s and not show those in the dialogue, but we don’t do that.

The Manual does point this out: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/effect_menu.html#VST_Effects .


Gale

5

Follow up: WORKS for me too. THANKS again for your test. Once I knew it was possible, I did the following and it worked.

Solution for me: ONLY install the “VST version 2, 32-bit” plugins.

I suspect I confused Audacity by installing everything possible from the Izotope installer. Just a guess on my part. I also suspect if I had done it correctly the first time, it would have worked the first time.

My fault, not Audacity.

DETAILS for my fix. (Your milage may vary.)

Uninstalled Izotope RX 3 completely.
Reinstalled with a minor variation and it worked.

The first time I installed, I couldn’t remember if Audacity could handle the 64 bit versions with plug-ins (I’m on Win 8, 64 bit), so I simply installed ALL add-ins assuming Audacity would only see those it could use. A wiser person would have looked up the details in the Audacity manual as it’s well documented. It would have taken far less time than writing my messages here, but I hope it benefits a few others. (RTFM is often the right answer for tech issues.)

In other words, it put all 32 and 64 bit versions, plus both VST 2 and VST 3 into the plugins folder (per my “install all”, lazy approach). Audacity would see the plugins during the scan process (using check box via “Preferences” menu), but they did NOT show up on the Effect menu. (I restarted several times, after setting the check box to rescan plugins each time…)

Second install via the Izotope installer: I only installed the plug-ins for “VST version 2, 32 bit” into the Audacity plugin folder. I did NOT install ANY 64 bit or VST version 3 add-ins.

After Audacity restart/rescan they show up and work as expected.

The original install and the second put all the plugins in the same Audacity plugin folder (I had to select it during install, and I verified it put them in the right places both times.)

Now it works, I just ran the Declicker.

Thanks again to Gale for the testing and link to the docs, huge shout-out and THANKS!

Don

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More testing below on Windows 7 64-bit. Also moved this to the Windows board.

This is very complex, because even if you install just the 32-bit VST 2’s, each plug-in has two DLL’s, so for declicker for example:

  • iZRX3Declicker.dll
  • iZotope RX 3 Declicker.dll

Both the iZRX3 and the iZotope RX3 DLL’s for each plug-in are required. If one is missing, loading using “Install VST Effects” will show errors.

The 64-bit VST 2’s have exactly the same names as the 32-bit VST 2’s and are intended to be installed in a different folder. If you do set the same folder in the installer for 32-bit and 64-bit versions, only the 64-bit versions get written to that folder, so Audacity won’t load them and that’s the explanation.

If you install the 32-bit and 64-bit VST2’s to different folders then put them all where Audacity will find them, you’d obviously have to rename either the 32-bit or 64-bit versions since different files cannot be named the same. If I just rename the pair of 64-bit plug-ins, the 64-bit versions do not stop Audacity loading the 32-bit versions.

The VST 3’s are installed in Program FilesCommon Files so I doubt you looked there. The file names for each plug-in are (for example) iZotope RX 3 Declicker.vst3 and iZRX3Declicker.dll, so only one of the files has a VST3 extension. If I dump those VST3’s in the same folder that has the 32-bit VST 2’s (renaming the DLL), the VST 3’s don’t stop the 32-bit VST’s loading.

So after all that, I don’t see any bad Audacity behaviour in any of this. Obviously I don’t know exactly what you did.


Gale

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Note also that there is no buffer delay compensation in Audacity, but these plug-ins employ buffering in order to provide “look ahead” for real-time processing.

So all these plug-ins will add silence to the start of the processed selection and remove the same amount of audio from the end of the selection. To use these plug-ins properly in Audacity you will need to add silence to the end of the selection before running the effect, then remove silence from the start of the selection after running the effect.

In order to make this less painful, you could use Robert J.H’s GSnap Tools from https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/using-gsnap-to-correct-the-pitch/32383/10 . In the last line of both plug-ins, you would have to change the “0.01” value to whatever the actual added silence is (in seconds) for the effect you are using.


Gale

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Don, just a quick word of advice. I have tried all the outlandishly expensive options like Izotope RX, Sonnox Oxford, Sony Soundforge but in the end wish I would have taken the advice on offer on this board much earlier to try the simply outstanding ClickRepair software:
http://www.clickrepair.net/

This is in my view easily the best solution out there, for really very, very little money indeed.

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Click Repair does have a steep learning curve (IMO) if you want to get the absolute best out of it, even though it gives good results without too much effort. I thought it looked intimidating when I first opened it up. Also it requires installing Java, which is unfortunate (possible security risk).


Gale

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I must say I found ClickRepair fairly easy to get used to. However, I am certain that some experience in manual waveform repair is useful; I use the semi-automatic mode (@ a setting of 60) and the ability to discern when a longer proposed repair isn’t right is very handy, whereafter a quick redraw of the samples used for smoothing invariably finds the sort of waveform trajectory I have in mind almost instantly. It is simply brilliant in my view.

Conversely I have found that Izotope RX not only significantly dulls brightness but also tends to leave big artefacts and ~45 degree odd ‘V’ shaped chunks taken out of waveforms. However, contrary to my expectations I am actually inclined to believe the MBIT dither is very good, but there are cheaper ways of obtaining that!

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As a user of both Audacity and ClickRepair I’d have the temerity to say that Audacity has the steeper learning curve of the two … :sunglasses:

@Shaky, I prefer softer settings for ClickRepair - I mostly use De-click set at 30 (rather than Brian’s default 50 which I find removes to much “music”) - and I always use the “Reverse” setting on to avoid false positives - I also usually have "Pitch Protection set to “on”.

WC

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Yup, I use an informal sliding scale around those levels, going to about 45 for material with really heavy static. Works a treat, although I must admit I have bought the lite version of Wavelab, which comes with a cut down version of the Sonnox Oxford Restore plugins, and I then invariably run the the declicker in my first VST slot at very low settings just to be on the safe side.

BTW, thanks for the original ClickRepair tip – am delighted with my overall process now!

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Thanks really go to Koz for it was he who pointed me in the direction of Click Repair in the first place IIRC. :slight_smile:

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It probably depends on the individual’s motivation to learn. I already have Goldwave which is far better than current Audacity at Click Removal (and better at Noise Removal to a lesser extent), so I really don’t need to wrack my brain with ClickRepair. I should add that a “for life” Goldwave licence is now much more expensive than ClickRepair.

I think your description below that non-default settings may be optimal, and your description of “Reverse” and “Pitch Protection” prove my point. ClickRepair is not a novice’s tool. We shouldn’t recommend only Click Repair. We shouldn’t recommend a single solution to anything.

Gale

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Thanks for the follow-up! I never thought it was Audacity’s issue, just assumed it was how the Izotope installer handled it - OR - my ignorance. Either way I appreciate you taking the time to figure all this out. I love understanding “WHY” something works or doesn’t.

Thanks again, you’re amazing!

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Shaky,

Thanks I appreciate the pointer.

I actually did purchase a license to ClickRepair, and worked with it for at least six weeks before exploring RX3. After working with the Izotope for a week, I respectfully disagree. I’m processing audiobooks, and with no music in the background, everything is exposed if someone has the ears to hear it.

Frankly they are in a different league for doing voice processing. Maybe if I was transferring vinyl to digital format, then ClickRepair would be enough.

If I could have gotten away with ClickRepair, I would stay there because it’s far less expensive (and I already licensed it.) I really wanted to make CR work, since I didn’t want to invest the money for RX3.

I think CR is a great program, but iZotope is far more flexible and if someone is doing professional level work, the best choice for my money. Even though it’s $40 for CR and $300 for RX3, RX3 is a great value. (But I didn’t see that until AFTER I had purchased CR, and worked with it a while.)

Having explored some of the abilities to repair dropouts, clicks, crackles, and background noises, I’m blown away by what I can handle with RX3. If I could do it again, I’d have gone directly to RX3 and saved the $40. Live and learn.

I’m also impressed with the Izotope visualization tools. They give me additional insights into what I’m hearing, but that’s another side issue. It’s the quality of the audio repairs, AND the items it can fix that I wasn’t able to deal with via CR that impress me the most.

The ability to touch up something while in Audacity is a huge win via the plugins, I don’t have to leave Audacity unless I want to batch process some things (which I do…)

Your milage may vary, depends on what you are processing, your workflow and the ears someone has to hear the differences.

One size rarely fits all.

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Indeed so!

I wasn’t aware you were working on cleaning up audio books, and can see that my firm experience that Izotope leaves significant audio artefacts wouldn’t be as much of an issue as with music in that the baseline is in effect silence.

However, with vinyl transfers I stand by my opinion 100% - backed up by extensive A/B testing - that ClickRepair is vastly superior to any other commercial restoration software regardless of price. I merely wanted to convey my experience that price wasn’t necessarily correlated with performance in that department.

Good luck!

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Don’t you find the loss of the audio at the end of the selection a nuisance?

What batch processing do you want to do? Audacity has Chains , and in fact if you ran RX in a Chain it would be more convenient because you could run the pre-effect and post-effect offset correction for RX as part of the Chain.


Gale

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On the other hand, ClickRepair and DeNoise have separate licenses for at total of $70. So if you want denoise ability, Goldwave at $59 which has declick and noise reduction ability is still cheaper.


Gale

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Yes, I find the end loss a nuisance, but since I use the Chris compressor as part of my workflow, I’m always cutting off the beginnings/ends anyway and replacing both ends with roomtone (silence) that I’ve saved in the past. (For audiobooks, each file has a specific silence pad requirement… so I have those saved and use them for each chapter of the books.)

I also process with another plug-in for EQ (I like the KarmaFX 31 band EQ from this plug-in pack: http://karmafx.net/?id=1) and sometimes a light De-Esser too (depends on my narrator) If I want the de-Esser, I use the LISP version (http://sleepytimedsp.com/software/lisp/).

Those don’t work for me via Chains, and I haven’t even figured out how to do Noise Reduction via chains, unless I already have the noise profile set (I can’t figure out how to have it take my current selection to get an updated noise profile, then select the whole file to apply the noise reduction.) I do use lots of custom keyboard shortcuts, to pop up my most used tools.

The 64 bit RX3 version is over 3 times faster than the plug-in versions, and it’s easy to select all the files I want to process as a batch. I don’t know if it’s a memory thing (I have 16 GB on this box) but the stand alone version uses more of the cores I have on my machine. (The plugin drives them to around 45%, the stand alone drives them closer to 95%, not sure why, but it’s much faster.)

All and all, I find the RX3 a great toolbox, but your mileage may vary. I’d rather stay in Audacity if it made sense, but I find it overall much faster to bounce back and forth.

PS: I respectfully disagree with the other user about artifacts and sound quality. I’m really using RX3 because I find it far superior in terms of the results.

I love automating anything possible, but so far Chains haven’t been very helpful for me because they don’t see my plugins AND so far they also don’t allow me to change the selection from what I can tell. I’ve done lots of programming in the past, but the Chains simply are too simple for the few cases I’ve tried to automate.

All input welcomed, if I’m missing something please let me know. I’m always learning, and I’m blown away at how good Audacity is, even if I have minor details I’d like to see enhanced.
Don