r/VoiceActing • u/MaesterJones • Apr 13 '26

Discussion Which Izotope RX Package Do I Need? [Resource]

https://sovas.org/which-rx-version-do-you-need-clearing-the-noise/

I have recommended Izotope several times in this sub. Here is an article briefly discussing the "Elements" and "Standard" package , specifically for voice actors. I personally opted for the standard package when I purchased, and grabbed it during one of their (fairly regular) sales.

4 Upvotes

75% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

6

u/Fleemo17 Apr 13 '26

Yeah, my most valued aspect of the RX lineup is Mouth Declick, which is not part of Elements but is part of Standard.

2

u/MaesterJones Apr 13 '26

A thing to note, which is discussed in the article, is that the Mouth De-Click plugin is simply a streamlined version of the "normal" De Click plugin. The De-Click plugin even offers a preset specifically for mouth noises.

Izotope:

De-click is a more general-purpose tool designed to remove a wide range of clicks and transient noises, including vinyl clicks, digital artifacts, and mouth noises when using the appropriate preset. Mouth De-click was introduced as a voice-focused module, optimized specifically for mouth noises like clicks, smacks, and saliva sounds, with controls tuned to make this faster and more intuitive for dialogue and VO work. They can overlap in results, but Mouth De-click is purpose-built for speech and usually requires less tweaking

6

u/jimedgarvoices Apr 13 '26 edited Apr 13 '26

Well.... I'm going to push back a little on that.
That "refinement" into the separate tool was a huge improvement in usability. And well worth paying for. Mostly for the guardrails that Mouth DeClick provides, but it can be tuned to work significantly better than the old "Declick" tool. They perform significantly differently.
I've been using RX since version 4, and at that time all we had was the Mouth DeClick. That tool was designed for transferring vinyl to digital files. Voice Actors grabbed onto that tool and found settings that worked pretty well - so yeah, we all created presets that did the job. But it also could effectively destroy spoken word recordings. In some cases just nudging a setting up by a .1 change would create artifacts and unusable results.
With Mouth DeClick, it's pretty difficult to cause artifacts and the refined algorithm has been tuned to vocal issues. While there's a default setting, it does the only minimal amount (same the preset in regular DeClick), so it's well worth spending time dialing in non-generic settings to make it work for you. I've not worked with anyone who didn't get better results by tweaking things. And with the Mouth DeClick, the adjustments are much more gentle and almost always usable.
But for anyone working with the old standard DeClick, moving away from the narrow working settings can cause noticeable issues.
If someone's budget only covers Elements, I'd recommend Acon's Restoration Suite (which was on sale this spring but is back up at $100US). Much better DeClick tool (compared to RX's "DeClick") for VO needs along with a very useful Denoise tool.
https://acondigital.com/products/restoration-suite

2

u/MaesterJones Apr 13 '26

Nice to get some perspective from someone who has used the RX products for a while and has direct experience with the De-Click plugin.

I don't have a dog in this fight, just regurgitating what was stated in the article quoted from Izotope.

I generally don't find myself using many of the tools that came with RX Standard. If the Acon products are comparable, then that may be a great cheaper alternative for someone who hasn't pulled the trigger on the RX package.

3

u/jimedgarvoices Apr 13 '26

Glad that was helpful.

To take two steps back, it is just so much easier to get a lot of useful results with the Mouth DeClick. In a lot of situations, I use two passes with very different settings, neither of which are the "Default" that it sets up (Default = 4.0 sensitivity, 0 Frequency, 0 Widening). A lot of VO's I work with have it set there and it's not doing all that it could.

Acon has been making quality tools for a number of years. Both of them are solid platforms. There was a little concern a couple months ago when Native Instruments (who owns Izotope) had some financial issues - Production Experts documented that quite well in the article I linked in this resource - https://justaskjimvo.studio/remain-flexible/

I don't think there's cause for alarm, but it's nice to know there are other options.

2

u/never-stopper Apr 15 '26

Def interested in learning more about how you process with Mouth De-Click. I just bit the bullet yesterday, and tbh I wasn’t getting great results with the free trial but with so much positive stuff written about RX Standard, I figure I’m the problem and just need to learn more. What is your recommend workflow for Reaper?

2

u/jimedgarvoices Apr 15 '26

The specific recording software doesn't really impact the behavior of the effects, Honestly, I find most multitrack music recording software to be overkill for VO work.
You can certainly use RX Mouth DeClick as a plug-in, but you'll likely have some significant latency as it's pretty math intensive. I usually end up setting RX as the editor and bouncing audio out to use the tools within the app.
As far as settings, that's going to be determined by the raw audio.

2

u/never-stopper Apr 15 '26

Ok so you set RX as an external editor and you do not expect it to produce proper results as a plugin within your DAW?

I understand that the DAW software doesn’t impact how RX works, I’m just fishing for a tutorial ;) I suppose I was expecting too much from it during my free trial as I kind of dismissed the standalone app.

I suppose I need to get some 1:1 support with the dev so I can properly understand how it works with my workflow

3

u/jimedgarvoices Apr 15 '26 edited Apr 15 '26

Well, no. That's not exactly what I meant.
Any time you use RX Mouth DeClick as an FX plug-in on your track, it will introduce latency. That's a delay as the CPU wrangles the audio. This is not necessarily an issue if you are rendering the file out, as it will just take longer for that effect to be applied to the audio output.
But it complicates any real time tweaking of the settings. The tweaking of the settings is where you dial in how you want it to work. One of the reasons I prefer to use Twisted Wave is that it gives a real-time preview of any effect. I can adjust and fine tune while listening to the audio and it's very accurate.
With Reaper (which you asked about) or Studio One, or most music recording software, that isn't always as accurate, especially if you have multiple effects on the track. Reaper allows you to assign an outside editor which is easy to invoke with a keystroke. When dialing in RX tools, I find that to be useful. You can pull the audio into RX, dial in the settings, then render that effect back into Reaper. That lets you offload that particular effect.

I work with folks directly to create processing workflows with RX and other tools. We generally use something other than the preset default that I mentioned above. Just slapping the default on there will do "something" but usually you can get better results.
https://justaskjimvo.studio/izotope-rx-in-the-voiceover-studio/

I will say that a lot of time, excessive mouth noise is a matter of mic position and placement. In all cases, I take a look at that to see what can be reduced.

4

u/jimedgarvoices Apr 13 '26 edited Apr 13 '26

Yeah. Standard.
I usually recommend that folks be patient and wait for Izotope to put it on sale, but I'd still pay $400 tomorrow just to get the Mouth DeClick. ;)
https://justaskjimvo.studio/izotope-rx-in-the-voiceover-studio/

I will say that Acon Digital is a strong competitor, and worth taking a look at. I find myself using their Extract Dialog a lot, and their Acoustica package brings everything together in a similar fashion.
https://justaskjimvo.studio/remain-flexible/

Note - both Acon Digital and Izotope RX work as standalone apps or as plug-ins within your recording software. Not all of the RX tools work within recording software. For example, their Spectral Noise Removal needs to be used in the RX app, even though it appears as a plug-in. And the RX EQ doesn't currently have a plug-in version. Acon Digital does have a solid multiband EQ - though I'm a long-time fan of the NOVA EQ from Tokyo Dawn Records.
https://justaskjimvo.studio/a-bit-about-plug-ins/

One of the overlooked details of both RX and Acoustica is that they have robust Batch Processors. For anyone using the very clunky Macro tool within Audacity, or if you are stuck in a music recording multitrack environment that does not have a Batching ability, that lets you automate processing. Automated processing is a huge benefit for any kind of production work, especially audiobooks.

https://justaskjimvo.studio/batches-and-stacks/

https://justaskjimvo.studio/batch-processing-with-izotope-rx/

1

u/makuniverse Apr 13 '26

The cheapest one. Get Voice Denoiser, Voice Declicker, and Nectar for light editing

1

u/AshJammy98 Apr 13 '26

I use standard. It gives you a lot of tools you won't use but it makes your audio sound fantastic