Pyramix and iZotope RX3

[RickTarrant]

Well I can't say that I've spent a lot of time troubleshooting this but RX does seem to be the common factor when this problem arises.

I first noticed it a few months ago as I was going through some voice tracks, visually grabbing breaths and lowering the gain on them. When I went back to listen I noticed the first part of words being chopped off. I had to go into Fade Editor and adjust the IN point. That's when I realized that what I was seeing on the screen was not what I was hearing. Just a little off can be huge. It's kind of like having one string just a tad out of tune.

Now that I know the work around I'm good.

Regarding closing PMX...I wish I could work in RX3 without closing but I get an error saying the file is in use by another...etc. The redraw might work without closing the program. Haven't tried that.

Thanks again.

[Perfect Record]

Well I can't say that I've spent a lot of time troubleshooting this but RX does seem to be the common factor when this problem arises.

Wonder what's different in your workflow? You aren't by any chance set for pulldown sample rate anywhere?

[Graemme]

Unmount the media in question...delete pk2 files, re-mount media...

It would be nice if there were a "Force Re-draw Waveform Display" command somewhere within Pyramix. That way you wouldn't have to quit and relaunch the program just to delete some .pk2 files.

[DJS]

I have just spent many hours spectral repairing noises, clicks, piano stool squeaks out of a 4 hands piano duet CD, in RX3 Adv. I just worked on the 32 bit stereo master file, mixed down after all edits and all other FX were done. Was quite productive, although if even more changes to mastering or editing were required I am snookered. If this stuff worked "non destructively" as a plugin in the timeline, I would be very happy, but I don't see how, it is a destructive process.

I like Frank's approach of cleaning up the source material, but one might do extra work there, at the start, if those source clips end up not being used. Enormous time saved later on if the artists keep changing their minds!

It's a royal PITA alright. Why can't they make quiet piano stools?

[Graemme]

After one particularly bad recording session...bad because of multiple piano-benches-from-hell, I was daydreaming a memory-foam and carbon-fibre piano bench on the plane ride home.

[charlienyc]

i just received notice iZotope will be releasing RX 4 soon. i'm submitting a support request. if everyone did so now, perhaps there would be a future chance for rendering implementation? https://www.izotope.com/support/contact/index.php

[DJS]

i just received notice iZotope will be releasing RX 4 soon.

Sheesh, these overly frequent update cycles are getting ridiculous, RX3 is less than a year old?

It seems every time these companies do a bugfix build, they increment some version number and extract another few hundred dollars from everyone. Windows 2014 Q1, SP1, then cumulative update 55, then R2, then 2014 Q2, soon they'll be adding months onto the version number.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/824684

We consumers need to stop this nonsense.

Stop the world I wanna get off.

[fl]

I don't like parting with money any more than you do, but to look at it from the other end, just how are these companies supposed to maintain a cash flow? At this point, Izotope - or Merging for that matter - cannot count on an explosive increase in sales for their existing products, at least not without some major marketing cost. In the meantime, they have to honour their support commitments to their existing customers, probably who made their last payment a year or more ago.

At least Merging is up front about it, with their Annual Software Maintenance tax rather than charging us for every update. It's in every Pyramix user's interest that Merging stays in business, and as there are relatively few of us, paying annual support seems to be the only option.

As for Izotope, and RX in particular, the upgrade from 2 to 3 was a noticeable improvement in sound quality and ease of use, and the upgrade cost was justifiable from my standpoint. I'll probably be shelling out for 4, but I certainly intend to take advantage of any introductory price reduction they might offer. I'm quite happy doing what I do in the stand-alone state, but would welcome multi-track support over any effort expended to make it compatible with Merging's Render function - but that's just me...

[klaukholm]

I don't like parting with money any more than you do, but to look at it from the other end, just how are these companies supposed to maintain a cash flow? At this point, Izotope - or Merging for that matter - cannot count on an explosive increase in sales for their existing products, at least not without some major marketing cost. In the meantime, they have to honour their support commitments to their existing customers, probably who made their last payment a year or more ago.

At least Merging is up front about it, with their Annual Software Maintenance tax rather than charging us for every update. It's in every Pyramix user's interest that Merging stays in business, and as there are relatively few of us, paying annual support seems to be the only option.

As for Izotope, and RX in particular, the upgrade from 2 to 3 was a noticeable improvement in sound quality and ease of use, and the upgrade cost was justifiable from my standpoint. I'll probably be shelling out for 4, but I certainly intend to take advantage of any introductory price reduction they might offer. I'm quite happy doing what I do in the stand-alone state, but would welcome multi-track support over any effort expended to make it compatible with Merging's Render function - but that's just me...

Multi track support would be first on my list as well

[DJS]

Hi Frank, I don't mind paying the ASM annual software tax to Merging for the reasons you cite. But if all the companies did this in an appropriately scaled way it would be better than charging excessively for bugfixes and dubious feature creep in the guise of a new version. I also wish old bugs were fixed before new features were added. This seems to be impossible for some software vendors to achieve.

[vinsondier]

Looks like we've been heard (at least with the use of an appropriate macro)...

https://www.izotope.com/support/kb/inde ... ng_Pyramix

I'm not ready to test it yet, but i hope that someone here will do soon!

[fl]

I'm not ready to test it yet, but i hope that someone here will do soon!

It works quite nicely. Of course, you have to remember that RX (still) is only capable of dealing with one or two track files. This process does not run as a plug-in, but rather is a conduit of communication between Pyramix and the stand-alone version of RX4.

The description of the process on the Izotope website leaves out a few Pyramix specific particulars, so here's my revised list of instructions:

To edit audio from Merging Pyramix in RX4:

1. Select a clip in the Pyramix timeline. Remember that RX can only handle one or two tracks at a time.

2. Open the Project menu and select Render.

3. In the Render dialog, give the selection a file name, specify a destination folder to save your work, and select WAVE for the format. Then select Effects Rack and press OK.

4. Wait for the FxRack window to open, then select "Load FX" in an open slot, and load the "iZotope RX 4 Connect" plug-in. If the RX4 Connect window doesn't open, click on "Show" by the instance in the Effects Rack.

5. In the RX Connect window, select whether you're sending the clip for Reference or Repair.

6. Press "Process", at the bottom of the main FxRack window to send the clip to the RX4 application. The RX Connect and the FxRack windows will close and RX4 should launch - if it's already running, you'll have to switch from Pyramix to RX manually.

7. Your Repair clip will appear in RX in a blue tab. Make the changes you need in RX and then click 'Send Back' in the blue tab, or press Ctrl-Enter to send your repairs back to RX Connect. A window will appear telling you that it is waiting for RX Connect, and that you should reopen RX Connect in your host.

8. Manually switch back to Pyramix, and open the Render operation and call the Effects Rack just as if you are starting a new process. The RX Connect Plug-in should still be in the Effects Rack. Click on "Show" by that instance to open the Connect window.

9. When the Connect plug-in UI shows a blue waveform and is ready to commit changes, proceed by clicking on "Process" in the main FxRack window to incorporate your changes into the Pyramix Timeline at your selected spot. If you've changed your mind, you can trash the contents by clicking on the trashcan icon.

10. If you like, you can go back to RX4 to save your work in its own .rxdoc or audio file, or just close the Blue tab to clear it out of RX's cache.

[fl]

Now that I've had a chance to work with it a bit more, I have some additional comments to make about using the RX4 Connect Plug-in with Pyramix's Render and Effects Rack:

The main slow-down to this method is that you have to select your region or clip, then Render with the Effects Rack option, and then (if it's not there already) install the RX4 Connect plug-in, and then click on "Show". Once the Connect window is shown, you have the option to select either "Reference" or "Repair". "Reference" is supposed to export your material to RX4, but not require it to be returned, presumably so that you can "Train" those modules such as Spectral De-noising or Ambiance Matching which require it. In my experience, choosing a "Reference" export does nothing - no launch of RX, no export of material.

This isn't a huge deal, in that you may as well export using the "Repair" option which invokes the full stand-alone version of RX, where you have the option to highlight specific sections of your imported material, for either Reference or Repair purposes. If you do need a reference from some other file, it's no problem to open it directly in RX. Processes are applied only to the areas you select, so it's possible to transfer a long section from Pyramix, only to process smaller sub-sections within RX. It's also helpful that modules like the Spectral De-noiser retain their "learned" frequency profile, even if the program is quit and restarted.

In order to effect the transfer to RX from Pyramix you have to click on the "Process" link in the Effects Rack, which also closes it. This means that when it's time to "Send Back" the material to Pyramix, you have to manually switch back to Pyramix, start the Render with Effects Rack all over again, then choose to "Show" the RX Connect Window, where you're offered the choice to either proceed with replacing the highlighted clip with the Rendered material, or declining and Trashing it.

On my admittedly older and slower machine, calling the Effects Rack from the Render window takes several seconds each time. Also, with both Pyramix and RX open at the same time, available memory gets used up pretty quickly, and then you're into Virtual memory territory, where reads and writes to the hard disk slow down everything. This is one situation where having a lot of RAM will be a good thing.

Auditioning the unprocessed or processed material from the Effects Rack is something that also needs RAM, and I find that the brief playbacks, punctuated by long silences, makes this feature all but useless for me.

The good news is that as long as RX is the active program, Pyramix does not interrupt its ability to access the audio interface (at least, that is the case on my Native system with my RME Fireface 800). When you're in RX, you can hear RX; when in Pyramix, you hear Pyramix.

[RickTarrant]

Frank,

I'm having a glitch with RXConnect.

The first time I used it - all went as it should. Rendered the clip - sent it to RX - sent it back to PMX - render the changes - done.

Now when I try to render a clip to SEND to RX - the plug in thinks its on the RETURN side of the process and turns my clip into something unrelated.

I wonder if this is another AVAST deal. Now that I've removed that antiV - I may uninstall and reinstall RX and see if the glitch goes away.

rt

[fl]

Try this:

Call the Render/Effects Rack thing, and then Show the Connect window. If there's a waveform(-like) display in there, click on the little trash can in the lower left corner to clear out the contents. Then try another process, and when done, go back to the Effects Rack and make sure that the contents of the Connect window have indeed cleared out.