Fiver Friday #557: Photon, Josh Brown, Wu Tang & Tim…
Happy Weekend!
1. Plugin
iZotope just launched Photon, and it’s a big one for anyone who cleans up audio. It splits a mix into four stems, breaks drums into kick, snare, hats, toms and cymbals, and pulls up to six speakers out of one file. There is also a Voice Restore model that fixes noise, levels, mic tone and reverb in a bad read. It runs on your own GPU, so nothing gets uploaded. Heads up for Pro Tools users: it comes as a standalone app and an ARA plugin, not AAX. For imaging that still works fine as a rescue tool for a rough VO or a stem you need to rebalance. $349 list, $259 through December 7.
https://sonicstate.com/news/2026/11/03/-izotope-releases-photon-/
2. Inspiration
Josh Brown wrote a good one in Radio Ink on Thursday called “Radio’s Three Big Opportunities of 2027.” His point: the world is tired of AI everything, and being human is becoming fashionable again.
https://radioink.com/2026/11/05/josh-brown-radios-three-big-opportunities-of-2027/
3. Music
Mathematics and the Wu Tang Clan dropped “Black Samson: The Saga Continues” tonight. WU TANG Baby!
4. Web/Social/Whatever
Tim Ferriss and Kevin Rose got together in L.A. for The Random Show and spent a good chunk on AI. Super assistants that run your life over text message. Agentic shopping, where the AI buys the stuff for you. Worth your time if you wonder what AI means for how we work and live. Must Watch!
5. Imaging
James killed it.
Have a great weekend! – Andy
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