Review: AIR Music Creative FX Collection 2

AIR Music Tech’s Creative FX Collection 2 combines old classics with new favourites in a slick, modern-feeling plugin suite that covers just about everything you could ask for to finish a mix – as well as a few things you definitely wouldn’t ask for but might just have fun using anyway. 

Creative FX Collection 2

You might remember this German-based company from such hits as producing a bunch of the virtual instrument and effect plugins which have been bundled free with Pro Tools since the Digidesign days. They were actually acquired by the American company in 2005, remaining with Avid until 2016 when AIR Music Tech joined the likes of Akai, Alesis and M-Audio under the InMusic umbrella.

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Around this time, AIR plugins began appearing outside of the Avid ecosystem – the Creative FX Collection Plus was released in 2016 in AU and VST formats, adding eight new modules to the original set of 20. Later, they began making virtual instruments and insert effects for Akai’s MPC units. 

The Creative FX Collection 2 repackages offerings from all of these eras in an attractive new UI, introducing a handful of brand-new effects to boot.

A much-needed modernisation

Most users would first have been introduced to AIR’s effects as “stock plugins” in Pro Tools, and this, perhaps unjustly, has diminished their reputation in the eyes of some users. While they’ve always sounded great, there’s always the unconscious bias against plugins which come free with your DAW. The old AIR Music user interface did them no favours – somehow seeming both utilitarian and cluttered, the “90s video game”-esque black and green livery made them feel outdated and cheap, and has rightfully been consigned to the graveyard of outdated product design. 

The first thing you notice when you load one of these new plugins is how great they look. Toolbars and backgrounds are dark grey, with pastel accents of different colours helping to differentiate between sections. Each plugin has cool unique artwork, which if nothing else helps you tell at a glance which AIR plugin you’ve opened – it’s a small thing, but anyone who’s spent much time using the old-school versions will tell you that this wasn’t always the easiest thing to do. On top of this, the UI is scaleable, which is great if you’re using big external displays or trying to multitask on a little laptop screen.

OG Pro Tools effects

The original set of 20 effects has largely been carried through to the new bundle, with the exception of Dynamic Delay, which appears to have been superseded by AIR Music Delay Pro, a feature-packed dual-engine delay plugin with analogue modelling that was released in 2023. 

There’s your usual raft of time-based effects – Chorus, Delay, Reverb, Flanger, etc. – plus some sound manglers and colourers – Distortion, Vintage Filter, Enhancer – and some genuinely unique modules like the Talk Box, Fuzz-Wah, and Frequency Shifter. The Spring Reverb sounds fantastic and has been my go-to for dropping onto dry guitar tracks when I need a darker-sounding spring, and Stereo Width is a versatile and intuitive way to control the overall width of your stereo image in three different bands. 

Creative FX Collection Plus (2016)

The next subcategory is the eight plugins that were introduced for the 2016 release of the Creative FX Collection Plus, which might be less familiar to those who have experience with the Pro Tools bundle.

Compressor, Para EQ, and Maximizer are all basic, no-frills workhorse plugins. The EQ has four bands and no spectrum analyzer, which might be a turn-off for some, but will probably be embraced by the “mix with your ears, not your eyes” gang.

Filter seems to be the new moniker of the old Saturation Filter module, which in itself bears a passing resemblance to the Vintage Filter from the original bundle. They share a number of controls, but are slightly different: where Vintage Filter functions like the filter section of a modular synthesiser, with envelope and LFO controls, Saturation Filter does away with the modulation controls and instead provides optionality for different saturation modes, including overdrive, hard clipping, and bit crushing. It’s useful for adding a bit of colour to a sterile recording, as is the Tube Drive module. 

Pumper is a handy, plug-n-play method of achieving the classic EDM effect of a compressor on the mixbus sidechained to the kick, without all the complex routing and attack/release timing – instead, you’re given control over the speed, depth and envelope of the effect. Diff Delay is a simple delay with a Diffusion control, which softens the repeats in a similar way to sending your delay return to a reverb, for when you need a subtler-sounding echo. Spectral is an interesting effect which makes things sound like a really crappy Mp3 – if you’re into glitchy stuff, this might be up your street. 

Found in Akai MPC

A few of these effects might ring a bell for any Akai users in the room – they were originally developed for use as inserts on MPC units. Amp Sim is just as at home on a DI’d guitar as it is mangling drum loops, and despite lacking any licensed emulations, has a versatile selection of recognisable amp and cab options. Half Speed, Stutter and Diode Clip are great for adding colour and movement to samples, capable of subtlety as well as wild glitchiness. 

Another highlight is Flavor, a simplified version of Flavor Pro – it’s a super-cool, intuitive lo-fi effect, which emulates a variety of speaker sources (presets include Gramophone 1, Phone Handset, Radio Transistor 2, Studio Old…) and pairs them with a flutter control and vinyl distortion and noise. The presets are great to flick through to find inspiration when you’re met with something uninspiring. 

All new effects

On top of all of these are a handful of completely new plugins. The Channel Strip combines a 3-band version of the Para EQ with the compressor and a simple gate, for those looking to save on plugin slots or simplify their workflow. Delay is essentially a stripped-back version of Delay Pro, bringing the count up to a possibly superfluous four delay plugins in the suite. Pitch Shifter is a simple but effective module capable of transposing your input signal two octaves up and down, with different algorithms to suit different source materials. 

Expander and Noise Gate round out the gamut of dynamics processors, along with Transient, which as the name suggests is a transient shaper. The former pair could be accused of stepping on one another’s toes regarding functionality, with almost identical parameters. Noise Gate is perhaps easier to approach for the layman, with a Depth knob controlling the maximum amount of reduction in dB replacing Expander’s controls for Ratio and Range. It also has a “Denoise Filter” which targets high-frequency noise, perfect for cleaning up noisy guitar tracks. 

It’s amazing what a glow-up can do to a plug-in bundle. No longer a mercurial, arcane collection of effects that, while undoubtedly capable of some great sounds, might have been overlooked by your average Pro Tools user in favour of something newer and flashier, AIR’s Creative FX 2 is a fresh, exciting collection in its own right. These plugins are quick and straightforward to dial in, with controls that balance simplicity with tweakability, and a user interface that’s both accessible and easy on the eye.

You’re never going to please everyone – some may turn their nose up at the lack of a spectrum analyser, while others will bemoan the lack of vintage-inspired hardware emulations. Perhaps the biggest winners are beatmakers and EDM producers, with several plugins like Pumper, Half Speed and Stutter tailored to their specific needs; this makes sense given their partnership with Akai. But if you’re looking to start expanding your plugin library and need some quality basics, or your current selection isn’t sparking joy, look no further than AIR Music Creative FX Collection 2. 

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