Arturia FX Collection 2026.02 — macOS

Tape J-37 is the kind of addition that tells you Arturia is still thinking about the people who actually reach for the deeper tools. It is not just another saturation plugin — it models the three-head J37 deck that Abbey Road used, down to the bias and equalization curves. That is the level of detail you get across the FX Collection now.

Built for parallel processing and the new Mix Drums channel

• Parallel processing workflows — the suite was built with routing in mind, so you can blend dry and wet signals without leaving the plugin window.
• Mix Drums, the new addition in this version, which is a dedicated channel strip for drum bus work. Compression, transient shaping, and EQ in one place.
• Sound design that needs a character compressor or a filter that does not sound sterile. The 34 tools cover compressors, equalizers, reverbs, delays, modulation, distortion, and filters.

Over 1,400 presets organized by type; no AAX on macOS 11

• More than 1,400 presets are included. That is a lot to sort through, but they are organized by instrument and effect type.
• AAX plugins do not work in this version. AU and VST3 are fine.
• macOS 11 or later, Intel or Apple Silicon. English interface only.

Fixed a boxy kick and ringing snare on a drum bus

I pulled up a drum bus I had been mixing on and off for a client. The kick felt boxy, the snare had too much ring, and the overheads were crowding the toms. Instead of opening three or four separate plugins, I dropped Mix Drums on the bus and started with the built-in compressor. I dialed in a 4:1 ratio, moderate attack, let the release follow the tempo. That tightened the low end right away.

From there I switched to the transient shaper section. I nudged the attack up just enough to let the snare crack through, then backed off the sustain knob to clean out the ring. The equalizer section let me cut 300 Hz by about three decibels on the kick, and I added a small shelf boost at 10 kHz on the overheads. That was the whole drum bus handled in one window, no routing, no latency stacking.

On the vocal bus I used the new Tape J-37. I set the speed to 15 IPS, bumped the bias a little, and switched the equalization curve to the IEC 1 setting. The vocal sat better without any further compression. For a quick stereo width trick, I sent the reverb return through the Pitch Shifter-910 with a very short delay and a five-cent detune. That gave the vocal a subtle movement without sounding like a chorus effect.

The whole chain — Mix Drums, Tape J-37, Pitch Shifter-910, and a final limiter — took maybe twelve minutes to set up. That is the point of this collection: you stay in one toolset and keep moving.

Scenario from a sound designer

A sound designer I know works on soundtracks for short films. She needed a metallic, decaying pad for a sci-fi scene. She started with a sustained synth chord and ran it through the REVERB PLATE emulation. Then she inserted the DDL-1 delay after it, set to a dotted-eighth note, with the feedback just below self-oscillation. That gave the pad a rhythmic tail.

She wanted the tail to break up over time, so she put the TAPE-201 on the delay return and cranked the wow and flutter. The result was a pad that started clean, then degraded into something unstable and mechanical. She exported it, dropped it into the timeline, and the director asked for two more variations. She duplicated the chain, changed the delay time, and had them in under ten minutes.

Bump global oversampling to 4x or 8x for final mixes

1. Global oversampling – Most of the emulations in the collection default to a lower oversampling setting to save CPU. If you are bouncing a final mix, turn it up to 4x or 8x. You hear the difference on transients, especially with the compressors and the distortion units.
2. Preset browser view – The default list shows all 1,400 presets flat. Open the filter panel and narrow by instrument type or effect category. It cuts the browsing time in half.
3. Input/output levels – A few of the vintage emulations have a hot output by default. Check the trim on the TAPE J-37 and the PIPE compressor before you start mixing. A quick reduction of two or three decibels keeps your mix bus from climbing too fast.
4. Parallel blend – Each plugin includes a dry/wet mix knob, but the collection also has a dedicated parallel processing mode. Enable it in the plugin header, and you get a separate gain control for the processed signal. That is useful for the distortion and filter units where you want the original signal untouched.

Workflow from start to finish: building a drum bus chain with Mix Drums

1. Insert Mix Drums on your drum bus. The plugin opens with its three sections: compressor, transient shaper, and equalizer. The signal flows through them in that order.
2. Set the compressor first. Start with a ratio around 4:1. Adjust the attack so the kick drum hits through the start of the compression cycle, and the snare rings just past it. Set the release to match your song tempo — a quarter-note release time works for most rock and pop.
3. Move to the transient shaper. Push the attack knob to emphasize the snare hit. Reduce the sustain knob to clamp down on the hi-hat spill. The relationship between these two knobs is where the drum bus gets its punch or its flatness.
4. Use the equalizer for surgical cleanup. Cut the low-mids around 300 Hz on the kick channel. Add a small high shelf to the overheads. The equalizer section is parametric, so you can dial in a narrow cut on a ringing tom frequency if needed.
5. Route the output to a group track if you want parallel compression. Duplicate the Mix Drums instance, set one to a higher ratio and faster attack, then blend the two returns. That gives you the density of parallel compression without leaving the chain.
6. Export the drum bus as a stem. The chain stays saved as a preset inside Mix Drums, so you can recall it for the next session.

• 2026.02 package labeled as FX Collection 6.
• Adds Mix Drums — a drum bus processing channel strip.
• Adds Tape J-37 — a three-head tape machine emulation.
• Announced February 19, 2026.

• macOS 11 or later
• Apple Silicon or Intel processor
• English interface language