iZotope Photon Splits Stems and Cleans Audio Locally

Noise Harmony

55 minutes ago

4 min read

iZotope Photon is a new standalone app and ARA2 plug-in that splits finished audio into stems and cleans difficult recordings with 12 local machine-learning models. It is the first joint research release from iZotope and Boris FX, building on the local-processing software previously called CrumplePop SoundApp. The main additions include finer music separation, five-part drum splitting, separation for up to six speakers and a focused voice-restoration model.

Software screenshot of iZotope Photon's top bar, transport controls and overlaid colored waveforms on a green background

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What can iZotope Photon separate?

Software screenshot from iZotope Photon of four stacked waveforms in blue, orange, purple and green with a playhead line — Four separate waveform lanes in blue, orange, purple and green show audio split into stems, each with its own distinct pattern of peaks. SOURCE: iZotope

Photon ships with six demixing and six cleanup models, each trained for a specific job. Music 4 Stems separates vocals, drums, bass and everything else, while Music 4 Stems Ultra aims for cleaner stems that need to stand alone. Drums 5 Stems pulls out kick, snare, hi-hat, toms and cymbals from a drum bus or complete song. Voice Separator can split as many as six speakers and also separate room tone and background sound. Every model runs locally, so your files are not uploaded and there are no credits or usage caps.

Cinema 4 Stems divides a soundtrack into voice, music, sound effects and other audio. Voice 2 Stems handles quicker voice-versus-music jobs such as instrumental mixes or reducing music beneath speech. The cleanup side includes Voice Restore, Indoor, Indoor Noisy, Outdoor, Outdoor Traffic and Outdoor Wind. Together, these address uneven speech, room echo, equipment noise, traffic and strong gusts, depending on the selected model.

If you only need stem separation inside one DAW, Ableton Live 12.3 adds it as a built-in feature. FL Studio 2026 also includes stem separation, and Logic Pro has its own Stem Splitter. Online services such as Moises and LALAL.AI offer another option, but Photon processes files locally and adds dedicated models for dialogue and location sound.

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How does Photon work in a DAW?

Software graphic from iZotope Photon of a green waveform overlaid on a blue one, on a black background — A green waveform sits over a blue one, with the blue showing mainly in the gaps between the louder green phrases, illustrating noise removal. SOURCE: iZotope

The standalone Photon app follows a simple import, model, preview and export workflow, while ARA2 puts the same engine on a supported DAW timeline. Processing can start at the playhead, letting you judge a short section before running the whole file. Separated stems can be muted, rebalanced or exported, and Model Manager can download updated models without reinstalling the application.

Photon imports WAV, MP3, FLAC, AIFF, AIF, AAC, M4A and common video containers including MP4, MKV, MOV, MXF and MPG. It exports WAV, FLAC and MP3, while video jobs can place the processed soundtrack in a new file and preserve the original video stream, avoiding a separate extract-and-resync step. ProRes is supported.

Photon is an ARA2 plug-in rather than a conventional real-time VST3, AU or AAX effect. Officially named hosts include Pro Tools, REAPER and Cubase, with Samplitude and Sequoia also named on Windows. Photon handles broad work across a recording, while RX 12 remains iZotope’s option for detailed repairs at specific times and frequencies. For the mastering side of the company’s software, our look at what changed in iZotope Ozone 12 covers its newer tools.

Price and Availability

Photon is available now for macOS and Windows. On November 4, iZotope listed the perpetual license at $259, which is $90 below the displayed $349 price. The maker calls this a Cyber deal that ends December 7, 2026. New-subscriber offers are $11.97 for the first month or $89.25 for the first year, while the launch crossgrade offer for eligible iZotope owners ends December 7, 2026.

The unrestricted trial runs for 14 days and installs through Boris FX Hub. Photon needs macOS 14 or later on Apple silicon, or 64-bit Windows 10 or later with a Windows GPU carrying at least 4 GB of VRAM. Plugin Boutique did not list Photon on November 4, so the current price above comes from iZotope rather than our affiliate shop. Full details and the trial are on the official iZotope Photon page.

Check for Photon at Plugin Boutique

Photon was not listed at Plugin Boutique when checked on November 4, 2026. Use this link to see whether the store has added it and compare its current offer before buying.

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