The Plugin Boutique button on this page opens Nectar 4 Advanced.
iZotope Nectar 4 is an all-in-one vocal processing suite. Rather than making you assemble a chain from separate EQ, compressor, de-esser, and reverb plugins, it packs the entire vocal signal path into one window and uses AI analysis to configure it for you. Load a vocal, run the Vocal Assistant, and it listens to the source before proposing a full chain, tone shaping, dynamics, de-essing, pitch correction, and a matching space. For anyone who dreads the blank-slate stage of vocal mixing, that head start is the whole point. For a chain tuned by one artist instead of an assistant, see MixWave's Spiritbox vocal plugin.
Nectar 4 genuinely excels at speed. The Assistant lands you at a usable, radio-ready vocal in seconds, and the newer harmony and "unmask" features are legitimately clever, the latter carving pockets in the instrumental so the lead sits forward without brute-force volume. The suite also bundles Melodyne 5 essential, so serious pitch and timing edits happen inside the same ecosystem. On the Advanced edition, the thirteen component plugins can be pulled out individually, which turns a one-window helper into a modular toolkit for engineers who want manual control. The current first look is blepfx Spectra.
The trade-off is character. Lean on the presets and Nectar can sound processed, dense, and unmistakably "iZotope," a hyped, slightly synthetic polish that suits pop and hip-hop far better than an intimate acoustic vocal. It is also CPU-hungry; several instances add up quickly across a busy session. And the honest catch is pricing: the $55 Elements tier is thin, so the real product is Standard or Advanced, which cost considerably more. If live tuning and harmonies are the main draw, the Voicemax harmony plugin does both in one window. Nectar 4 Advanced also comes in Music Production Suite 9, alongside Ozone, Neutron and RX.
Against its stablemates, the comparison is really about scope. RX 11 is a repair and restoration specialist, Pro-MB is a surgical multiband compressor, and Pro-DS is a focused de-esser; Nectar is the generalist that folds all of those jobs into one guided workflow. Choose it if you want mix-ready vocals fast and value convenience over surgical transparency. Purists chasing the cleanest possible sound will still prefer dedicated tools. For spoken word rather than singing, the 23audio V-23 voice processor is the narrower, cheaper chain.