- Processing is an essential task on any vocal track. Most producers use a range of plug-ins to carry this out, with a dedicated EQ, compressor, reverb and, if necessary, tuning plug-in acting as the bare essentials. Izotope's Nectar is different in that it offers all of these modules and more within a single plug-in host. It allows you to tailor exactly the vocal treatment you need via a one-stop solution, which is divided into 11 separate modules to cover Breath Control, Pitch Correction, Compression, DeEssing, Saturation, Doubling, EQ, Gating, Limiting, Delay and Reverb.
Nectar offers its assorted wares via modules within a single GUI, with orange LEDs indicating which sections are active and which are dormant. Across the top of the main view, from left to right, you'll find the De-esser module, Breath Control, Gate and Pitch Correction, to allow you to carry out more administrative tasks. The second row provides level adjustment, Space and then a final panel which changes depending on which vocal style you're targeting. The bottom panel provides EQ, with a number of user-adjustable bands.
On the right hand side are long Input and Output level meters. Above this is a toggle button to allow you to work in either Mixing or Tracking modes, the latter of which provides limited, low-latency functionality so that Nectar can process vocals in real time at the recording stage (albeit at the cost of some quality). Much of the plug-in's functionality can be edited graphically directly from this main pane, though more in-depth controls can be accessed by switching Nectar into Advanced View mode by pressing the appropriate button above the level indicators. As we'll see, this shifts the power of Nectar up through the gears.
The easiest way to begin is to load a preset, with a large panel at the top allowing you to choose a musical genre and then pick a preset whose name suggests it might be in the ballpark of the sound you're after. The modules active within any preset give you the power to configure the sound as you'd like, though you can, of course, enable other modules if you need to extend a preset's capability. Each module provides its most important parameters in the main view. You can configure a good deal here, such as tuning scales and root note in the Pitch Correction panel, as well as correction speed, with fast times producing nicely transparent results and slower ones allowing you access to more Pop-style treatments. The EQ panel at the bottom works effectively too, constantly monitoring the incoming audio and providing a real-time analysis graph which lets you identify and rectify problem frequencies very quickly.
However, the real power of Nectar lies within the Advanced view, where many more parameters per module can be adjusted and a truly staggering array of options lie in wait. The Advanced view provides all modules down the left-hand side, each with a power button to indicate its operation status. Clicking on any of these names dedicates the entire GUI to that specific module, so within the Pitch section for instance, you can configure the specific notes you want to include/exclude from tuning, as well as include parameters such as formant shifting to change a vocal's character more dramatically.
The Breath Control module also features a real-time read out of the incoming audio stream and allows you to monitor only the breaths within your signal to help you pin them down and hear exactly how they're being reduced in volume. The EQ pane closely models that of the display window within the main pane but provides a more detailed read-out too, as you're able to see your EQ graph at 1x, 2x, 3x and 6x the normal view size to allow for more microscopic editing of tone changes. The Compressor pane dramatically enhances the level reduction options with yet another display window showing real-time gain reduction and sliders for Threshold, Ratio, Attack and Release times and even four compression approaches—Vintage, Digital, Optical and Solid State. These all add their own flavour and increase the flexibility of Nectar considerably.
Not content with addressing only these processing requirements, Nectar also tackles space issues with dedicated Reverb and Delay units. The former provides seven effect types—three brands of plate, three halls and a cathedral, while seven sliders beneath let you configure one of these algorithms to taste, with Predelay, Damping, Colour, Low Cutoff, High Cutoff, Decay Time and Wet/Dry balance providing the weapons. The Delay module also features different modes, with Digital, Tape and Analog delay algorithms and its own set of sliders to control Mix, Trash, Tempo-syncable delay rate, Feedback and further tone sliders in the form of Low and High Cutoff. The Modulation section at the bottom can be toggled on and off and allows you to create pitch-warped delays, such as those common to tape delays.
Nectar does exactly what it sets out to do by providing comprehensive control over every imaginable facet of vocal processing at the mix and recording stages. I'm usually wary of plug-ins which aim to achieve so much in one environment but I'm hugely impressed by this plug-in as it allows both a convenient and friendly start point for exploration but staggering amounts of detail if you want to go further, via its Main and Advanced views respectively. The presets don't always showcase the plug-in's capabilities in their best light and it's certainly true that you'll need to enter Advanced Mode to extract the best results. If you're interested in a vocal processing solution and would rather not invest in several separate plug-ins to get the job done, Nectar is as sweet as you could wish it to be.
Ratings /
Cost: 4/5
Versatility: 5/5
Sound: 4.5/5
Ease of use: 4/5