Table of Contents
- 25 things you didn’t know about iZotope
- 1. It all started in 2001, in a dorm room
- 2. Vinyl was our very first product
- 3. Ozone followed shortly after
- 4. Why "Ozone"?
- 5. Hidden mini-games
- 6. Our office room names were a total playlist
- 7. Pioneering visual audio
- 8. RX – the supporting star on blockbuster movies
- 9. It’s a binge-worthy TV staple, too
- 10. RX goes to the moon
- 11. The hardware hero behind live broadcast
- 12. In the hands of legends
- 13. Text adventure in Iris 2
- 14. Vinyl came with a screwdriver
- 15. The hotdog army that wasn't
- 16. The time we almost "fired" Russell
- 17. Two Engineering Emmys
- 18. Academy Award recognition
- 19. Turns out we’re not the only audio geeks
- 20. Big in Japan. And everywhere else
- 21. Life at a music tech company
- 22. Teaching the next generation
- 23. Throwback YouTube origins
- 24. We’ve been telling artist stories for decades
- 25. Joining forces with Boris FX
- Here’s to the last 25 years, the next 25, and every 25 after that!
It all started in a college dorm room with a handful of passionate audio geeks and a lot of late nights. Twenty-five years later, iZotope's award-winning team is trusted by creators worldwide in music production, film scoring, and audio restoration. Still passionate audio geeks, we obsessively chase cleaner mixes, more polished masters, and smarter workflows to help our community tell their stories and make great music.
To celebrate our 25th birthday, we’re sharing 25 fun facts, hidden secrets, and historic moments that have shaped iZotope into who we are today.
25 things you didn’t know about iZotope
1. It all started in 2001, in a dorm room
Co-founder Mark Ethier and a group of fellow students officially founded iZotope in 2001 while seniors at MIT, operating out of their dorm rooms before expanding into a full audio tech company.
iZotope co-founder Mark Ethier2. Vinyl was our very first product
Released in 2001, Vinyl was designed to bring 1960s-style dust, wear, and mechanical noise to digital tracks – and we made it available for free!
3. Ozone followed shortly after
Launching right on the heels of Vinyl, Ozone established iZotope’s presence in digital mastering and quickly became an industry-standard suite.
iZotope Ozone4. Why "Ozone"?
The name was inspired by Earth's atmosphere! Just as the ozone layer is one of the final protective shields around the planet, Ozone was built to be the final polishing layer of music production.
5. Hidden mini-games
We love Easter eggs! For instance, if you know where to click in the Neutron Visual Mixer, you can unlock a playable Pinball game.
Visual Mixer pinball game called “pinball mixer”6. Our office room names were a total playlist
At iZotope HQ, meeting spaces followed a strict musical hierarchy. Phone booths were named after famous singles (like "Changes"), small rooms were named after iconic albums ("Nevermind"), larger conference rooms were named after legendary studios (Park Road, Electric Lady), and big gathering areas took their names from festivals like Coachella.
Former iZotope office in Cambridge, MA7. Pioneering visual audio
Before RX popularized spectral editing, audio restoration required engineers to work blindly with standard waveform views. RX helped pioneer a shift toward visual spectrogram editing, letting creators see sound and paint away unwanted noise.
Spectral Editor in iZotope RX 18. RX – the supporting star on blockbuster movies
iZotope RX has been an indispensable tool for dialogue editors on Oscar-winning and nominated films including Inception (2010), The Hobbit movies (2012-2014), Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), Blade Runner 2049 (2017), Dune: Part One (2021), Barbie (2023), major Marvel Studios features, and many more!
9. It’s a binge-worthy TV staple, too
RX cleans up audio across television's biggest hits, from classic dramas like Lost to hits like The Bear, DTF St. Louis, The Walking Dead, Parks and Recreation, and Game of Thrones.
10. RX goes to the moon
Audio engineers have even used RX to clean up degraded tape recordings and reveal historic lost conversations from NASA's Apollo space missions.
11. The hardware hero behind live broadcast
Before plugins completely took over, iZotope built dedicated hardware like the ANR-B (Adaptive Real-time Noise Reduction unit). It worked silently behind the scenes in real time for major live broadcasts, including Jeopardy!, Wheel of Fortune, the GRAMMYs, the Primetime Emmys, and the Super Bowl.
12. In the hands of legends
Our tools – from Ozone to Trash – have been used by the engineering teams for artists across genres, including Nine Inch Nails, Garbage, The Weeknd, Jay-Z, Skrillex, Adele, Foo Fighters, Coldplay, and Skrillex.
13. Text adventure in Iris 2
The now-discontinued synth Iris 2 carried a secret text-based adventure game tucked away inside its codebase. If you have Iris 2, press Control-Alt-Shift, then double-right-click in the top-left of the modulation area and enter the string "Bees" in the text entry box that appears to access the game.
14. Vinyl came with a screwdriver
In the older version of Vinyl, the screws came off.
15. The hotdog army that wasn't
During development on Neutron 1, the product team built an Easter egg that turned all internal UI soldiers into hotdogs. Sadly, it was scrapped before launch because the code was causing too many unexpected bugs!
16. The time we almost "fired" Russell
When customers complained about "rustle" in their audio recordings, our customer support team had a moment of confusion, thinking people were complaining about an actual team member named Russell – a story we covered in a behind-the-scenes video.
17. Two Engineering Emmys
We’re honored that iZotope RX was awarded Primetime Engineering Emmy Awards in both 2013 and 2019 for its revolutionary impact on television production.
Emmy party at iZotope HQ. Left to right: Mark Ethier, Jamie Martini, Aaron Wishnick, Shawn Bernardo, and Nick LaPenn (flying)18. Academy Award recognition
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized our technology with a prestigious Scientific and Engineering Award for RX’s contributions to film post production.
19. Turns out we’re not the only audio geeks
To date, over 5.5 million creators have downloaded an iZotope product to build, refine, and release their projects. We appreciate you!
20. Big in Japan. And everywhere else
Today, iZotope software is active in more than 250 countries around the world.
21. Life at a music tech company
Curious about what it looks like behind the curtain? We once captured a look into our company culture in our video What It's Like to Work at a Music Company. It’s all true.
22. Teaching the next generation
Education has always been central to our mission. Our flagship YouTube series Are You Listening? has crossed over 3.5 million views across 6 seasons, teaching essential mastering and mixing concepts to engineers everywhere.
23. Throwback YouTube origins
The oldest video on our YouTube channel features drum and bass producer Danny Byrd giving vocal processing tips with Vinyl.
24. We’ve been telling artist stories for decades
One of the earliest interviews published on the iZotope blog was an inside look with producer Skrillex sharing his sound design workflow.
25. Joining forces with Boris FX
In 2026, iZotope embarked on its next chapter by joining Boris FX, bringing award-winning audio and visual technology together, committed to excellence in everything you see and hear.
Here’s to the last 25 years, the next 25, and every 25 after that!
From making Vinyl free on day one to creating accessible learning hubs, our North Star has never changed: building intelligent tech that helps every creator sound their absolute best. To our community, thank you for all your support – we really couldn’t have done it without you. And for anyone new here, why not take a look at the free plugins page? Take it from us, you never know where that first step will lead.
