06/06/2026
faSmartAlign 1.0 is out today.
Multi-mic drums have a problem: the bus sounds worse than the solo'd tracks, because the
mics are fighting each other in phase. faSmartAlign works the whole kit as one system
instead of one track at a time.
Load an instance on each mic. It reads the track names, groups the kit across the session,
and solves three things at once:
• Alignment — time offset and polarity, with four modes (Balanced, Transient, Energy, Wide
Stereo)
• Phase EQ — frequency-dependent phase correction on top of the time move, for the part a
single delay can't fix
• Gate — drums-only for now: it sets its open threshold from the bleed it measures, its
release from the hit energy, and flips snare-bottom polarity on its own when the
measurement calls for it
Every instance shares its analysis with the others, so a full kit is solved as one connected
array rather than a stack of independent guesses. ARA on Studio One, Cubase, Nuendo and
Reaper reads your existing regions directly — no capture pass; everything else does one short
capture pass first. None of it runs off presets. Every decision comes from what's on your
tracks.
VST3, VST2, AU and AAX. Mac and Windows. ARA is VST3-only.
$139 intro through July 20, then $179. One-time, no subscription. There's a free demo — full
quality, no time limit — so you can run it on a real session before deciding.
https://www.forward-audio.com/products/plugins/fasmartalign/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=fasmartalign_launch&utm_content=launch_post
