Simone Corelli: X-Raying Sound with iZotope RX (book)

In this large format, 90-page full-color book, Simone Corelli takes on a tutorial ride through iZotope’s RX audio restoration app and plug-in suite, and is updated for the current RX 11 [see review this issue]. With Avid recently offering up the simplified iZotope RX Spectral Editor with all Pro Tools subscriptions and active Upgrade Plans, I’m getting the feeling we’ll be seeing many more users diving into RX use, so this second edition of X-Raying Sound… might be a welcome read to many of these new users. Simone is a film and television mixer in Rome (plus a teacher at CESMA in Switzerland). Though his book was initially written in Italian, the English translation is a clear and easy read. The three levels of RX (Elements, Standard, and Advanced) are covered chapter by chapter.

Though iZotope hosts a lot of very thorough information on using RX on their website, Simone's book is a perfect streamlined guide that should help many sort out how to use this software – and it's written by someone who uses it all the time. Even with my ten-plus years of using RX, I learned a few tricks and commands that have already solved some issues I had before, which has saved me time. X-Raying Sound… also doesn't shy away from suggesting improvements to the software or noting modules that are less than effective. Though the book is excellent for explaining how all the parts of RX work, and I know that many users will develop their own bag-of-tricks, I do wish there were more sections explaining typical workflow for various audio issues – show us more reasons for using RX and how to go about it. Then again, this would entail a much longer book and would possibly scare readers off!

There is far more in RX (especially in RX 11 Advanced) than I’ve delved into, so reading a well-organized book about RX really helped me gain more insight. I think all audio engineers of the future will be using software like RX daily, so a book like X-Raying Sound… is a great help in getting users in the door and understanding the wide capability of iZotope RX.