Nectar 2 Production Suite Reviewed by Jeremy Fox

Nectar 2 Production Suite Review

One stop shopping is quickly becoming a way of life. Now I can head to one place and do my grocery shopping, grab a haircut, get the oil changed and make a bank deposit. Wouldn’t that be great in a vocal chain plugin? Well, now you can have it all with the Nectar 2 Production Suite from iZotope.

This one is a workhorse that gives you every tool you will ever need to get a great vocal shines in the mix. Normally when you have plugins that do multiple things it will do one or two great and the rest just average. That is not the case here. You have an eq that will do wide sweeping adjustments or surgical precision slices. Then comes the compressor that has flavors ranging from eras gone by to current top 40. Having trouble with those pesky “sses”, no problem just slap on the D’esser. With just those three things you can get a vocal that competes with any mix on the radio, but it doesn’t stop there. There is also a harmonizer, gate, plate reverb, delay, saturator, pitch correction and breath control (both production suite only).

You can completely customize your favorite chain with what comes in which order. If you are not of an adventurous spirit there are plenty of presets that will give you fantastic starting points. I have used the elements and production versions and both sound great. I have recently been mixing a project that has numerous vocalists going at any one time. I am having no problem getting great vocal sounds and finding spots for them to sit in the overall mix.

Here some key features, directly from developer:

• Explore 11 powerful tools in one plug-in: Harmony, Plate Reverb, FX, Pitch, Delay, De-Esser, Saturation, Compressors, Gate, EQ, and Limiter.
• Get smooth, pitch-perfect takes quickly with dedicated Pitch Editor and Breath Control plug-ins in the Nectar 2 Production Suite.
• Finesse your sound with surgical detail using powerful advanced controls.
• Improve vocal production at all stages, from tracking through mixing.
• Rapidly audition different vocal sounds with 150+ presets, in a variety of genres from classic to modern.

So do I like this plugin?…absolutely! It is one of those “desert island” type plugins. I am one of those people that need to really get the most bang for the buck. I have a very limited budget, so it takes a lot of research, looking and thinking before I drop 3 bills on anything. If you’re like me have no fear. This plugin is worth three times that with all the individual components included. So go for it, you will slap yourself for not doing it sooner.

I bought Nectar 2 Production Suite from BluginBoutique for about €230 and I think that is the best investment I made since I started producing electronic music.

Pros: Versatility, Bang for Buck, Sound Quality

Cons: None

Author: Jeremy Fox – Producer, engineer and musician for 16 years in various forms.

You can read here Mark Simon’s Nectar 2 Production Suite Review