iZotope Iris

Has anyone tried this yet? Apart from the drawing in of filters, I'm trying to figure out if it offers anything that Kontakt, Reaktor or Alchemy don't in terms of sample manipulation possibilities. Looks pretty easy to use, which would be a plus in and of itself.

I have. Iris is no competion for Alchemy or IL's Harmor, and I don't think it is meant to be one. Yet it is far from a toy. I won't describe what Izotope writes or repeat what the YT tutorials and examples show but I can tell you the following: 1/ It's the easiest vst I ever learned to work with. Yet it has many options that are half-hidden. 2/ It gives a visual image of a sample - horizontal time, vertical pich and lighter hue means more present in the sample - and it offers easy to use Photoshop-like selection tools to visually select what you want. There's a brush, which invites for "play" . A magic wand allows to select specific frequencies like harmonics. Within the sample's spectrum of, say, a flute, selection and as such limiting the frequencies to certain values can create a fully different sound. What's more: selections can be moved so it's easy to go from odd to even harmonics for example. Selections can be made over time, pitch, and pitch and time. This can create drones but also (time based) staccato/percussion. 3/ Apart from that it's got full ynth capabilities with filters etc. 4/ The up-to-3 samples and the sub can be mixedbut can also be placed on a time-lag so that you first hear one and a second one sets in with a delay. The downside is that it's addictive and can easily cause sleepless nights. Two limitations: it's for the moment not possible to enter images created in Photoshop, and the sample length is limited in time so it cannot be used as superb filter for entire wav files. It can be used for soundscapes but also as a keyboard instrument. Can it replace Alchemy? I just downloaded Alchemy so I cant speak from experience but I can already say: no. But what it does, it does well and there's no several weeks study necessary to work with it. One, two days are enough. If you're well-trained and an accomplished synth user, I'd say one afternoon. If you have more specific questions, just ask. If I know the answer, I'll post it.

Thanks for your feedback! I tried the demo, but ultimately ended up buying Harmor, which I think is more powerful (albeit far from intuitive or easy to use).

Image Line give good support. You undoubtably already found these tutorials:

Yes - thank you!