iZotope's AI-powered mixing tool Neutron 4 Elements is the best free plugin you'll download this month
This stripped-back version of Neutron 4 is a hugely useful mixing plugin for beginners
iZotope's Neutron 4 is a well-regarded mixing tool and channel strip plugin that utilizes AI-powered technology to assist you with a whole host of applications, including compression, EQ, transient shaping and distortion.
The Elements version of the software offers a stripped-back take on the plugin with reduced functionality for a reduced price, typically around $50. For a limited time, though, you can grab Neutron 4 Elements for free over at Plugin Boutique.
Neutron is an excellent tool for those looking to polish up their mixes with minimal effort. Like its bigger brother, Elements is equipped with iZotope's AI-powered Assistant function, which analyzes incoming audio to figure out what type and amount of processing to apply to the signal. (Once settings are chosen by the Assistant, these can then be tweaked to your preferences.)
Neutron 4 Elements offers many of the capabilities you'll find in the full version, and though it lacks the Masking Meter, dynamic EQ mode, limiter, serial compression and sidechaining functionality, there's still plenty of functionality inside.
You've got Punch, a compressor module, a distortion based from iZotope's popular Trash plugin, and a Width module for widening or narrowing the stereo image. Another useful feature is Tone Match, which matches the EQ curve of its processor to a reference track provided by the user.
Head over to Plugin Boutique to download Neutron 4 Elements for free - it's available until 8 July.
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I'm MusicRadar's Tech Editor, working across everything from product news and gear-focused features to artist interviews and tech tutorials. I love electronic music and I'm perpetually fascinated by the tools we use to make it. When I'm not behind my laptop keyboard, you'll probably find me behind a MIDI keyboard, carefully crafting the beginnings of another project that I'll ultimately abandon to the creative graveyard that is my overstuffed hard drive.
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