Recording - January 2016 - 59

As mentioned above, each Panel has
an arrow icon to collapse it out of sight,
and many sections have undock buttons
to open them in separate windows.
Let's get spectral
The center of Iris 2, the Spectrogram
Area, is where the real fun happens in
Iris 2. Each sample can be displayed as
a waveform or as a spectrogram (time
from left to right, frequency from bottom
to top). Even better, the relative transparency of the two views can be adjusted
with a slider, so you can see and work
with both at once. This is a massive help
when you're learning your way around
and trying to see what the controls do.
Aside from the conventional tools like
setting handles for loop regions and
crossfades, there are a bunch of tools
that let you work directly on the spectrogram, selecting harmonics and transients
and processing them in various ways.
This sort of graphical editing in the time
and frequency domain is reminiscent of
using selection and paint tools in a
photo manipulation program, and it's
becoming more common nowadays in
audio editor programs... but Iris was the
first virtual instrument to offer it as a way
to create complex and interesting sounds
for a synthesizer, and some of the things
you can do are pretty trippy!
For example, have a look at the second
screenshot. There's a selection across the
bottom of the picture that includes the fundamental and second harmonic throughout the
entire sample, but I've also used the brush
tool to select a sequence of circles that gradually get higher, smaller, and farther apart.
The audible effect of this is a series of
"bursts" of higher harmonics that get higher,
softer, and more spaced out in time, a sort
of harmonic echo. And that's just one of the
many cool things you can do... there's a
magic wand tool for selecting relevant harmonic structure, eraser tools for removing
harmonics, a lasso tool that turns freehand
drawings into harmonic selections, inversion
tools that select unselected harmonics and
vice versa, and more.
Modulate this!
It's great when a synthesizer, virtual or
otherwise, capitalizes on a great central
sound-making engine by providing the
user with lots of ways to manipulate the

sound after the fact. Iris 2 doesn't have the
most comprehensive modulation matrix of
any virtual instrument, but I think it may
have the clearest and easiest to use.
Here's how it works. Any parameter
that can be modulated will have its control knob surrounded by three rings and
have three buttons next to it. Anything
that can be used to modulate something
else will have an icon of arrows pointing
up/down/left/right. To set a modulation,
just click on the arrows icon and drag it
to one of the buttons. Your cursor
becomes a circle with an abbreviation of
the modulation source, and once you've
set it on a button, you can click and drag
to adjust how much it modulates the knob
and in which direction, positive or negative. The rings around the control knob
show ranges and colors for each modulation so you can tell at a glance how
they're set, and when they're active, the
knob turns to show current values.
The Modulation Panel contains five
LFOs (which have 26 different waveforms, including audible-frequency ones
for ring modulation and the like), the five
ADSR Envelopes, four common
Controllers-Key Tracking, Velocity,
Aftertouch, and Mod Wheel-and eight
Macros, which are simple knobs that can
be given unique names and controlled
via MIDI. Any of these can be used to
control other parameters... including parts
of the LFOs and Envelopes themselves,
which can get pretty crazy in a hurry!
Conclusions
Iris 2 has more tricks up its sleeve,
everything from user sample import and
handy default assignments for common
modulations to multiple modeled distortion types and modulatable effects, but I
think you've got the idea by now. Iris 2
is a delightful combination of "as complex as you want to get" and "so easy
you won't be afraid to play with it."
One last note for those of you who
will be getting this issue of Recording
before the beginning of January: until
December 31, Iris 2 is on sale for only
$99. But even at its full price, it's an
incredible bargain considering what
you're getting for your money. Iris is an
absolute blast to work with and a delight
to listen to, and it's now on my short list
of go-to virtual instruments.

Delivery: Web download
Format: standalone and VST/VST3/AAX/RTAS for Mac OS X 10.7+ and
Windows 7+ (also AU for Mac).
Copy Protection: challenge/response or iLok hardware key
License: Up to three computers may be authorized at one time, all belonging
to same user
Documentation: PDF Reference Manual, downloadable or launched from
within Iris 2
Price: $149 ($99 until December 31, 2015)
More from: iZotope, www.izotope.com
RECORDING January 2016

http://www.izotope.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - January 2016