Channel Operations

Sep 13, 2018 Isolating a vocal has never been easier than with Music Rebalance in RX 7.Music Rebalance is a revolutionary source separation tool that allows you to shift and isolate mix elements like vocals, bass and percussion—all from a single mono or stereo file.

Channel Operations contains tools for quickly adjusting the amplitude, time, and phase qualities of any channel in a file.

Many restoration tasks require a simple rebalancing of levels. Channel Operations corrects a number of issues with the stereo relationship of two channels, including variable level problems, phase imbalance, timing, and stereo noise in an otherwise mono signal.

Mixing

Provides specific control over both left and right signal and balance levels. This simple operation can be used to downmix stereo material into mono, invert waveforms, transcode left/right stereo into mid/side, subtract a center channel, and much more.

Left Output Mix (%)

Allows you to define how much of the current selection’s left and right channel signal will be present in the new target left channel.

Right Output Mix (%)

Allows you to define how much of the current selection’s left and right signal will be present in the new target right channel.

Phase

Balances asymmetric waveforms by rotating signal phase. Rotating the phase of a signal changes its peak values but doesn’t change its loudness, and otherwise has no audible effect on the signal.

Asymmetric waveforms can occasionally occur in audio such as dialogue, voice, and brass instruments. Making the waveform more symmetrical gives the signal more headroom.

By rotating the phase of a waveform, you change its amplitude characteristics. Phase rotation does not result in a time shift.

Because the range of rotation is from −180 to +180 degrees, the Phase tool can be used for simpler purposes, such as inverting signal polarity.

The waveform on top is a trumpet signal with higher peak values on one side of its waveform.

The lower waveform has been rotated in phase by −72 degrees to distribute its peak samples more evenly.

Adaptive Phase Rotation

Continuously analyzes the audio selection and applies the time-variable phase rotation to both left and right channels, resulting in a symmetrical waveform with minimal signal peak levels.

Adaptive phase rotation is best used on vocal material, as it can occasionally yield pitch artifacts on musical material.

Rotation (deg)

Rotates the channel’s phase by the specified degree.

When a waveform’s phase is rotated, every frequency is rotated equally. Rotating phase by 180 degrees inverts the waveform.

Suggest

Analyzes the selection for the ideal channel-linked fixed phase for reducing overall peak levels of the signal.

Izotope Rx 7 From Mono To Stereo Player

Azimuth

Provides control over left and right channel gain and delay.

Azimuth adjustment can help repair stereo imbalances and phase issues that can occur with improper tape head alignment or other speed related issues.

Level (dB)

Adjusts the gain of the left and right audio channels

Adaptive Matching

Enables automatic time-variable adjustment of the right channel gain in order to match the level of the left channel.

Delay (samples/ms)

Allows for manual adjustment over the delay in samples or milliseconds of the left and right audio channels.

For very accurate azimuth correction, RX uses oversampling to achieve sub-sample delays.

Adaptive Azimuth Alignment

Enables automatic time-variable adjustment of the right channel's sample delay in order to align the waveform with the left channel.

Suggest

Analyzes the selection and determines the appropriate amounts of fixed gain and delay to apply in order to align the two channels.

Extract Center

Preserves or removes the center of a stereo file.

Extracting the center will retain the center of a stereo field and attenuate everything on the sides, such as signals panned to the left or right.

Center channel extraction will preserve a stereo image if the side channels are retained. This can make it more desirable in some cases than Mid-Side encoding (which would sum left and right hard pans into one channel).

It is often a good idea to make sure stereo channels are balanced by running Azimuth correction before using Extract Center.

Keep Center

When the signal you want to preserve is even in both channels and noise is uneven between channels, extracting the center can remove a lot of noise.

For example, a mono record transferred to a stereo tape would have side channel noise that would be suppressed by extracting the center channel.

Keep Sides

If you want to preserve the wide stereo information and remove the center information, you can keep the sides of the signal instead. This is useful for karaoke-style removal of vocals from a song, especially because the process results in a coherent stereo image.

Two different algorithms can be selected:

• True phase — cancels the center with phase information and retains the original panning of the sides.
• Pseudo pan — extracts the side information and artificially stereoizes it into two channels.

Izotope Rx7 Stereo To Mono

Reduction Strength

Controls the level of the preserved signal. Smaller amounts will keep more information, larger amounts will discard more information.

RX is world-renowned for its audio clean-up capabilities, but today we’ll talk about its use and value as a storytelling tool.

Recently, I had the pleasure of joining my friend, sound designer and re-recording mixer Peter Albrechtsen, on the mix of Robert Machoian's The Killing of Two Lovers, which premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. I was brought on to mix the dialogue and Foley, while Peter handled the ambiences, sound effects, and sound design. This was a very collaborative and creative mix—any idea that would help enhance the story was welcome and encouraged.

Izotope Rx 7 From Mono To Stereo Cable

I was really taken by the direction and editing of the film, as there were many long, single shots where the actors would use the entire screen as a stage—this made for some wonderful interactions and drama. We were on the clock with the Sundance delivery being just days away. This is where RX 7 Advanced emerged as an essential storytelling tool.

Izotope Rx 7 From Mono To Stereo Problems

Check out the two-part video below as we explore RX’s creative contributions to the compelling indie film, The Killing of Two Lovers.