Great info Joe, thanks. I will look into these stereoizing plugins as that might be a better way to accomplish what I’m trying to do. And yes, that’s what I’m trying to do – help break up the two stereo signals into opposite frequencies somewhat and I guess adding width would be a bonus I had not considered (I figured I could just adjust the width in visual mixer but hadn’t given it more thought than that) My problem arises in that I want some of the instruments I pan left to be compressed along with some of the instruments I pan right. For example I have a part that is played in one register by a keyboard, and played in a higher register by a synth. - I want the two to be compressed together to give them a little cohesion to separate them from the other two parts playing at the same time in similar enough registers. - I then want them, after sharing compression, to go to either a high pass and low pass filter respectively OR maybe a stereoizing plug in to separate them into opposite frequencies - I can’t see a way to have an output from one buss (the buss that runs the compression on both parts) to split up and be sent separately to two different pass filters or two different stereoizer channels (I’m not sure how these stereoizing plugins work yet) I’m wondering, if I have 2 parts that I want to compress together for cohesion but which I ALSO want to filter or stereoize into opposite frequencies for stereo effect – what would be the best way you can think of to accomplish both of these tasks? One task seems to be summing in a sense and one seems to be separating in a different sense. Any thoughts? I’ve thought of: - Solution 1: sending to a buss with compression and ALSO sending to two opposite pass filters or stereoizer channels in PARALLEL - Solution 2: sending them to opposite pass filters or stereoizer channels first and THEN sending the low passed and high passed signals (or opposite stereoized signals) to one buss with compression Are either of these obviously more problematic than the other? I know we’re deep in “which comes first” territory again, lol. If I should just try both and see what works best I’ll happily do that. If one is obviously better or less problematic than the other please tell me. And if you have a third suggestion please let me know! Thanks so much for your time. I took in your Neutron course last night and it's definitely broadened my horizons and planted some new ideas in my head. Very clear and concise and I didn’t have to take notes because it was pretty intuitive stuff once it’s clearly explained. Good course – thanks!

And I'm seeing the stereoizer plugins are for widening stereo tracks and wouldn't work with my two mono instruments per se. I may still get the waves one to put on the master buss as a final plugin just to widen it, but I guess I will have to rely on my plots and schemes for getting more separation between two separate mono instruments that have been (or will be) compressed together.

I’m trying to puzzle this out while respecting Izotope’s rules for using Visual Mixer. I have, say, 30 vocal tracks in my project I don't want 30 instances of Neutron running (on vocals alone, plus the others running on instruments) as it becomes CPU intensive So I put Neutron on several busses, say 4 instances on 4 busses, and send each track to one of the busses So far so good. Now I want to mix volumes and pans of each track individually so I have to put relay on each individual track I now have Neutron on busses in order to process audio while minimizing the number of instances of Neutron and therefore CPU load. I also have Relay on the individual tracks sent to those busses in order to be able to mix volume/pan on a per track basis in Visual Mixer * I've now broken the rules of Visual Mixer - to have either Relay or Neutron on the individual tracks OR ELSE to have them on the busses, but not on both To remove the conflict I can: 1 - Remove Neutron from the busses and use another channel strip plugin to process my audio on busses 2 - Remove Relay from the tracks and adjust volume/pan with track faders (essentially not using Visual Mixer for the most part) 3 - Not use Visual Mixer at all When I think it out I come to the conclusion that Visual Mixer would then be for people who are either: 1 - Willing to hit their CPU by putting an instance of Neutron on every track instead of using it on any busses 2 - Willing to use other channel strips on their busses instead of Neutron and then use Relay on each track - limiting Neutron’s use to just operating Visual Mixer I can’t puzzle out a way to use Neutron on busses as you would other channel strips at the same time as being able to adjust the volume of each individual track in Visual Mixer with Relay. Am I missing something or is this how it's designed? I can, of course, solve my dilemma by using, say, Schweppes channel strip on my busses and putting Relay on my individual tracks but it seems like I must be missing something since this is the same as saying “If you’re going to use Visual Mixer to mix volumes and pans, you have to use a competitor’s plugins for audio processing on your busses” and I can’t imagine that’s how Izotope intended us to mix. Is there indeed a way to adjust individual track volumes in Visual Mixer and also use Neutron on the busses they are sent to? For example, if I put Neutron on busses and then adjusted all buss volumes to 0 in Visual Mixer, would that allow me to mix the volumes/pans of each track independently in Visual Mixer while also allowing me to use Neutron on my busses? Thanks!

Thanks Joe. I think I saw this "busses or tracks but not both" rule on a lot of videos, but I'm not sure they were necessarily the ones made by Izotope so good to know this isn't a hard rule. That clears up my whole problem. The only reason I'm trying to do an all Neutron track is this is my first production and Neutron is a very visual channel strip and I'm a visual guy and I think this is the best way for me to learn while messing up my track the least. So I am going to take some time and play around with each control and see, while I hear, how that affects the sound that the presets give me. I do want to use my Schweppes channel mixer as well as other plugins on my next production. I have an EQ online course, and Compression online course lined up so I'll feel more confident on my other plugins soon. I want to use Neutron's assistant or presets (tweaked) on this first project while I take those courses in time for my next project. I hear you on it being version 1.0, and that makes sense. Again, being a visual guy, I think I can learn a lot about panning and volume adjustment best by seeing a general image of the playing field. And also, tbh, just the ability to adjust pan and volume at the same time easily on each track within the same window would be reason enough for me to use VM. Thanks for all the help again. I'm sure there are many things with time and all I'm doing here is trying to cut some of the time factor off of the learning pace. And I appreciate the help.

I know I sound like a broken record but thanks again. I am going to simplify my approach and do as you suggest - using it inline. Appreciated.

Hi Joe, I've watched a bunch of videos on it but must have missed the one(s) that would explain why my melodyne behaves this way and I'm hoping it's a setting and not a glitch: If I shift a note, either in pitch or in timing, it immediately gets super smoothed out and honky in sound (like a horn honking). If I pitch shift up to maybe 20 cents I'm fine. If I try to change anything more it starts to develop artifacts quickly. By 40 cents it's useless, and if I try to move it to a whole other note (move up a minor third, for example) it sounds like a synth at that point - nothing like a human voice. With timing shifts it seems not to matter how far I shift it - if I move it in time at all it gets honky and synthy immediately. A clue seems to be the fact that when I move it in time, it seems to be only moving SOME frequencies, as there is still a "ghost" or "phantom" of the original note in it's original place, still sounding. It sounds like it might be the frequencies that are missing from the honky version in the new location. So I'm thinking Melodyne is splitting the note into two groups of frequencies and only moving one group while leaving the other group where it was. I don't know enough to know what formants really are or transients yet, so I don't know if it's something like that or just a glitch. I'm hoping this is a setting that I can control. Melodyne is fantastic for pitch correction for me. Luckily I'm never more than 15 cents off a note at my worst so it works very well for that basic purpose. But anything more (moving a note in a backing vocal to another note) and it falls apart for me. Any clues what I should start looking at or checking? I'm assuming this can't be as intended I hope? Thanks!

Thanks Joe, I'll check for the wrench. This is my recorded vocal audio - all me, same mic, same settings so nothing complicated or overlapping there. And I'm not talking about the sound it sometimes makes while dragging no. I am talking about the finished edits yes. When I move notes a full note (semitone) they sound pretty much like they do while I'm dragging them - super honky. Like I said, the biggest clue for me is that there is still "ghost" audio from the moved note still remaining at the location I moved it from and it sounds like it might be what's missing from the finished edit. It sounds like it's all the harsher parts of that spectrum so that what gets moved is only the soft, round, honky, synthy part of the frequency spectrum. I'm assuming that the intention cannot be to move a note and still have a "ghost" portion of it remain where you moved it from. So this has got to be some kind of glitch or bad setting somehow..... I'll look for the wrench to start. If that doesn't solve it I'll reach out to their support. I am definitely NOT able to move a note three semitones or do any time shifting at all - that is for absolute sure. I see ppl on videos do it all the time and I wonder "why won't that work for me?" and it kind of sucks because I bought the studio version to get all the bells and whistles to be able to do what I need to. As it turns out I got a horn. Strange.