Freqport are an Australian-Danish company who have announced an intriguing new product which promises the analogue colour of real tubes and the convenience of a plugin and most interestingly they have achieved this over USB. We have the details.
What is Freqtube?
Freqtube contains 4 vacuum tubes and connects to your DAW over USB. Controlled by a plugin this analog hardware controlled by a plugin concept first came to our attention in the form of McDSP’s APB16 hardware which offers 16 independently configurable channels of digitally controlled analogue hardware. In the Freqtube there are 4 channels which can be used either as two stereo pairs or four mono channels. The plugin controls the setup of the hardware but the processing is controllable via 8 assignable encoders on the top panel.
Drive, harmonic shaping and a pair of filters offer tone shaping opportunities and of course being controlled by a plugin all settings are recallable and automatable offering the best of both worlds.
The use of USB is interesting as with the Freqtube Freqport have created a USB device which can be used alongside a USB audio interface.
Features
Connect to host using only a USB-C cable.
High voltage internal tube driver circuits.
High end pro-grade 32bit converters up to 192kHz sample rate.
2 x E83CC/12AX7 high gain top quality tubes
2 x 12AU7 mid gain preamplifier tubes for softer character.
Selectable overdrive with clipping detection.
Assignable knobs for tactile tweaking of analog parameters.
Analog gain, mixing, drive, phase control and harmonics control.
Primary and parallel multi-mode hardware filters.
Multi-Instance (run up to 4 plugin instances at one time anywhere inyour digital workflow).
Seamless bit perfect audio transfers into your digital workflow
Recall of all analog parameters - each time you revisit your mix the settings will be the same!
Solid all metal enclosure.
Software
Multi-Instance (run up to 4 plugin instances at onetime anywhere in your digital workflow).
Seamless bit perfect audio transfers into your digital workflow.
Store and recall of all analog parameters - each time you revisit your mix the settings will be the same!
Availability and Pricing
Freqtube is currently on pre-order at an introductory price of €799.