iZotope’s RX Loudness Control is an offline plug-in that, in faster than real-time, analyzes mono, stereo or up to 5.1 surround files and renders a transparent and corrected version to comply with the new broadcast loudness standards. It does this by applying only the compression and/or peak limiting as deemed necessary. Worldwide loudness compliance is a new “fact of life” for broadcasters and online streaming companies such as iTunes® Radio.
I tried RX Loudness Control in Pro Tools 12; it runs as an AudioSuite processor and first analyzes a mix file and then applies any correction to comply with a particular loudness standard included as presets.
I liked RX Loudness Control’s history view that shows graphically the entire length of the audio file with Integrated Loudness, Short-Term Loudness, Momentary Loudness, True Peak and Loudness Range in one screen. For documentation, loudness history can be exported as a CSV spreadsheet that opens in Excel.
As a plug-in, RX Loudness Control is a comprehensive tool with support for surround sound and the EBU R128 s1 standard. It is compatible with Avid Media Composer, Avid Pro Tools 10-12 and Adobe Premiere Pro CC. It’s available for $349.
Barry Rudolph is a recording engineer/mixer who has worked on over 30 gold and platinum records. He has recorded and/or mixed Lynyrd Skynyrd, Hall & Oates, Pat Benatar, Rod Stewart, the Corrs, and more. Barry has his own futuristic music mixing facility and loves teaching audio engineering at Musician’s Institute, Hollywood, CA. He is a lifetime Grammy-voting member of NARAS and a contributing editor for Mix Magazine. barryrudolph.com
