The company announced the release of the iZotope Velvet de-esser plug-in on its official website. The plug-in is part of the Catalyst lineup, which offers easy-to-use, narrowly focused tools for quickly solving major mix problems.
The iZotope Catalyst lineup launched at the end of 2024. The creators noted that the series's goal is to release highly specialized tools aimed at solving specific signal problems. Previous releases in the series include the Cascadia Delay, Aurora Reverb, and Plasma Saturator.
Unlike other de-essers, the iZotope Velvet doesn't affect the entire frequency range, so it doesn't alter the sound of the voice. Instead, the plug-in relies on an excellent and neater approach to signal processing built around analyzing the incoming audio.
It splits the audio into two independent channels and focuses on the hissing and whistling sounds. This enables users to eliminate sibilants, clicks, and other undesirable sounds without altering the timbral characteristics of the signal.
Prisms are detected through an automatic algorithm that checks all frequency ranges and identifies problem areas. The plugin interface's visualization highlights detected deficiencies, allowing users to see where hissing and whistling sounds are located and spot-fix them.
According to iZotope, Velvet allows you to switch between two channels to combine de-esser settings and achieve the desired result. This allows the plug-in to independently process separate noise sources. For example, you can set different settings for hissing sounds and clicks in different channels — the settings selected in one channel will not affect processing in the other.
Additionally, the plug-in provides Lift and Tame options to adjust the overall sound of the voice. For instance, you can enhance clarity, warmth, or presence without introducing additional colorization or loss of naturalness.
Users can set target profiles based on which the de-esser will make changes. These profiles define acceptable processing limits, ensuring that the plug-in doesn't do more than necessary and speeding up voice work. According to the developers, these features are useful not only for processing vocals but also for working with podcasts, audiobooks, and other types of voice content.
iZotope Velvet is available in VST3, AU, and AAX formats. It is compatible with Windows 10 and later and macOS 13.7.4 and later (Intel/Apple) operating systems. The regular price of the plugin is $49. Get more details about the de-esser on the official iZotope website.
