iZotop has announced Nectar (http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/nectar), a new plug–in that includes a complete vocal processing toolkit and is compatible with Mac OS X 10.5 and higher. It offers dozens of professionally designed vocal production styles powered by 11 processing modules.

Users will select an included style and then customize it with faders tailored to that style. For further customization of their vocal sound, users can switch to the Advanced View and access all of the controls of the underlying modules that power the plug-in, says Hart Shafer, Vice President of Product Management for iZotope.

Nectar includes Pitch Correction, Breath Control, Compressors, DeEsser, Doubler, Saturation, EQ, Gate, Limiter, Delay, and Reverb modules. Breath Control offers users a target mode, which allows them specify the desired level of breaths detected in the track. Pitch Correction includes both auto and graphical pitch editing controls.

iZotope Nectar is designed for audio engineers, voice over artists, singer/songwriters, recording enthusiasts, podcasters, and anyone else who records sung or spoken vocals. Its dozens of styles cover genres including: Alternative & Indie, Blues/R&B, Classical, Country, Dance & Electronica, Hip Hop & Rap, Jazz, Pop, Rock, and Spoken Word.

Nectar is normally priced at US$299. However, an introductory price of $199 will be offered for the first 30 days after release, currently scheduled for mid-November.