iZotope launches Photon, a local stem separation tool

Photon, a new stem separation tool from iZotope, is on sale now for macOS and Windows. It runs 12 machine learning models on the user's own GPU instead of a cloud service.

Price and crossgrades

The list price is $349, discounted to $259 until Dec. 7. A subscription is also offered, at $19 a month or $119 a year. Owners of RX Elements, RX Standard and RX Advanced can buy at crossgrade pricing.

Where it sits in iZotope's lineup

Stem separation is not new to iZotope. The RX 12 restoration software and the Ozone 12 mastering suite both include it. Photon is a separate product with its own set of models for separation and repair.

Using it in a DAW

Photon runs standalone and as an ARA plugin in compatible DAWs. ARA lets it separate stems offline on the DAW's timeline. Stems export as WAV, FLAC or MP3.

The interface draws one layered waveform, with each stem in its own colour. Before export, each stem can be auditioned, turned up or down, soloed or muted. New and updated models download through a Model Manager window, so no reinstall is needed.

What the 12 models do

For music, one model splits a mix into Voice, Bass, Drums and Other. A drum model breaks a mixed drum recording into Kick, Snare, Hi-hat, Toms and Cymbals. A voice model returns Voice and Music stems, which gives a fast acapella for sampling or remixing.

Post-production work gets its own models. Voice Restore is built to lift speech quality and strip background noise out of voice recordings. Several more models cut specific environmental noise, indoors and outdoors. The Cinema model takes audio or video files and returns dialogue, music and sound effects. iZotope's press release sums up the pitch: "Choose your model, let the magic happen, export, and you're done."

Boris FX and the ownership chain

Photon is the first software release from iZotope since Boris FX acquired it in July. That sale followed the sale of iZotope's former parent company, Native Instruments, to InMusic. The models behind Photon were reportedly developed with the Boris FX team after the acquisition.

Our view

Local processing matters to anyone handling unreleased music or interview recordings, since the audio does not have to leave the machine. The open question is how Photon's separation quality compares with the tools already inside RX 12 and Ozone 12. Side-by-side tests on the same files would answer it.

Source: MusicRadar