REVIEW: iZotope Nectar

While one of my favorite free plugins happens to be iZotope Vinyl, I haven’t used much of the company’s other offers until recently. The last few months I’ve been evaluating Nectar, Alloy and Ozone 5. In this review we’ll look at why I just can’t get myself to toss Nectar to the unused plugins folder.

I demand a lot from a channelstrip. Not only does it need to sound good, it also needs to be ergonomically awesome. If it fails on either account I might as well use separate plugins. Nectar from iZotope is an interesting take on the channelstrip concept because a) it’s not just another emulation and b) it’s specifically targeted for vocals.

A quick overview

I’m going to give you a quick overview but as usual I find details way too boring so if you’re really interested you can dig into them at the iZotope website.

• The first thing you’re faced with is a list of styles. Pick your musical style and the type of preset you want and Nectar will load it for you.
• You’re then faced with what could be called the front page. Here you’ll see a bunch of macro controls for tweaking the EQ, dynamics, de-esser, space and so on.
• If you want to dig deeper you can go into advanced view and tweak the separate modules. These are: Pitch Correction, Breath Control, Gate, Compressors, Saturation, EQ, De-Esser, Doubler, Limiter, Reverb, Delay.

I’m doing my normal kind of highly subjective and biased kind of review here. The EQ is nothing special, a “standard” digital EQ that gets the job done but with an added analyzer. The saturation can be quite nice. I like the De-esser most of the time. The Doubler is one of the main reasons why I reach for Nectar (see below). Don’t even ask me about Pitch Correction, I simply don’t care for such things and wouldn’t have anything to compare it too. It looks like a serious tool though, if you’re into that kind of thing. I’m very picky with reverbs and often find myself using Softube TSAR-1 instead, but it depends, sometimes I’ll go for the one in Nectar.

Before I continue to talk about application I want to say something about the preset-nature of Nectar. I think some people freak out about a little, as if their existence as engineers were threatened. I don’t see it that way at all. Nectar is not a “pick a preset and you’re done”-kind of plugin. Tweak those bastards! That’s why the macro controls on the front page are so useful. You pick a preset that’s in the ballpark of what you want and can then access the basic functionality very quickly.

Application

Naturally I tried Nectar on lead vocals first. It does a nice job, even though most of the presets are a little too processed for much of my stuff. Again, it’s not a matter of picking a preset and be done with it. I always tweak the EQ and change something here and there. The presets are starting points. Sometimes I’ve ended up using Nectar on lead vocals but most of the time I prefer to create my own chains with other plugins.

Now backing vocals, that’s another story. In my opinion, this is where Nectar really shines. The Doubler, one of my favorite modules in Nectar, can make a small group sound a lot bigger. Some nice compression/limiting, saturation and space added to that and the backings can really start to shine.

There are some very vocal-specific features in Nectar, such as breath control. These are handy to have and I guess I should reach for them more than I do. If you wonder if Nectar has presets for your style, the answer is probably yes. It goes from vintage to modern.

Conclusion

So if I were to answer the question “why don’t I toss Nectar to the unused plugins folder?” I would sum it up like this: sometimes it’s very handy for lead vocals but by far my favorite application is for backing vocals. While I don’t find the separate modules to be earth shaking innovations that makes my other plugins redundant, Nectar does offer a lot of good sounds. I think the main question people should ask themselves is: is the workflow for me?

The good:

+ Very well-stocked channelstrip capable of achieving a myriad of sounds.
+ The macro controls and advanced window are great ideas.

The bad:

- The workflow is certainly not for everyone.

The ugly:

* Nothing really. Nectar has a nice GUI.