A clever new USB‑powered unit aims to make it easier to access hardware in the box.
In the early days of DAWs, software alone couldn’t provide the necessary processing power to handle a busy mix. Even if your computer could take care of tracking and editing, a hardware console and a few racks full of outboard were required to distil the results into something suitable for mass consumption.
Today, few of us could say that we really need hardware outboard equipment. Computers are now so powerful, and plug‑ins so sophisticated, that there are no real limitations on what we can do with them. Yet hybrid setups combining software and hardware are growing in popularity. In particular, we’ve witnessed the rise of what might be called the hybrid desktop studio. Regardless of need, small studio owners are tempted by the idea of having a few choice items that they can integrate into an otherwise software‑based studio environment. And this is a trend that extends beyond recording and mixing. Electronic musicians want hardware synths and samplers to complement their virtual instruments, and guitarists devote scary amounts of time and money to curating the perfect pedalboard.
The pain point in these scenarios concerns exactly how this hardware can be integrated into a software environment, and that’s what Freqport are targeting with their second product. To the outside world, the FreqInOut FO1 is a line‑level USB audio interface; but to your computer, it’s a VST, AU or AAX plug‑in. The goal is to make adding outboard into a DAW session as easy as loading up a software effect.
Computers are now so powerful, and plug‑ins so sophisticated, that there are no real limitations on what we can do with them. Yet hybrid setups combining software and hardware are growing in popularity.
Hub Tropicana
On the digital side, the key to making this work is the Analog Hub software developed for Freqport’s first product, the Freqtube FT1. Reviewed in SOS February 2023, the FT1 is a desktop processor that likewise connects over USB and presents a plug‑in interface, and which offers four mono or two stereo channels of authentically analogue valve warmth to be applied to the DAW signals of your choice. Successfully implementing this involved overcoming one of the main limitations associated with USB audio, especially on Windows, where the ASIO protocol allows only a single device to be addressed. Freqport succeeded, and the Analog Hub software allows the FT1 to run simultaneously with, and independently of, your main audio interface.
Analog Hub is also the tie that binds the new FO1 into your computer system, and it’s not limited to a single device. Two FT1 and two FO1 units can all be connected simultaneously to a single system, with no need for additional clocking connections. This would give you eight mono or four stereo channels of line‑level I/O, and the same number of channels of valve processing: not quite the Power Station in its heyday, but enough to make a big difference!
Analog Hub runs in the background on your computer, and can integrate multiple FO1 and FT1 units.
As a fully self‑contained unit, the Freqtube FT1 supports preset storage and recall, and parameter automation, just like any other plug‑in. Latency is also compensated for in the background, so the only difference compared with digital plug‑ins is that you can’t perform offline bounces. Moreover, the FT1 is also a hardware controller, with eight rotary encoders that can be assigned to parameters within the Freqtube plug‑in. By contrast, the FreqInOut FO1 is inherently open‑ended. It’s designed to work with whatever hardware you care to connect; as long as something can accept and return a line‑level signal, it’ll work with the FO1. The flip side of this is that the FO1 can’t control anything. It’s up to the user to configure and recall settings on connected hardware, although, as we’ll see, the associated plug‑in lends a helping hand where it can.
Joined Up Thinking
The FO1 is a smart but low‑key half‑rack desktop unit (an optional rackmounting kit is available separately). The front panel is largely empty apart from an RGB indicator. Turn it round and you’ll find a power switch, a button labelled ID and a small white LED display, which is used only for identification and diagnostic purposes, plus two banks of four balanced jack sockets, a USB Type‑C port and a socket for an optional DC power supply. The PSU is not included, as the FO1 would normally be bus powered. The FO1 uses 32‑bit ESS converters, and a dynamic range of 120dB (D‑A) and 116dB (A‑D) is claimed: a few dB short of what the very best audio interfaces deliver, but probably a great deal more than is needed to get the best from most outboard.
The FO1 is the first attempt I know of to create something that specifically targets a very different user: the engineer, producer or musician who works mainly in the box, but wants a seamless way to integrate a few pieces of outboard, or get more from their guitar pedals.
As each has only a single USB port, multiple FO1s cannot be daisy‑chained. However, unlike many conventional USB interfaces, Freqport units are happy to connect to a powered USB or Thunderbolt hub. I had no problem simultaneously running the FO1 from a built‑in USB port on my Mac, and the FT1 from an attached hub. There is a list of recommended hubs on the Freqport website, and the company plan to make their own available soon. (Using a hub would also have the advantage of allowing you to position the FO1 further away from your computer.)
A single installer installs both the Analog Hub background utility, and the FreqInOut plug‑in. Firmware updates are handled within Analog Hub, and it does have a basic user interface, but under normal circumstances you can pretty much forget about it. The Freqport devices automatically adapt to the sample rate of your chosen DAW project, and Analog Hub runs at its own buffer size, which is set independently of your principal audio interface.
Where The Magic Happens
The first time you open the FreqInOut plug‑in, you’ll be greeted with a Setup Wizard page that introduces you to the basics. This uses minuscule white text which I found hard to read, but nothing it describes falls outside the realms of common sense. The Wizard can be recalled any time you need a refresher course, but before you can use the plug‑in, you’ll need to visit the Global Hardware Configuration page.
The Global Hardware Configuration pane is where trim values are set and slots are named.
Reflecting the FO1’s complement of physical I/O, the FreqInOut plug‑in has four ‘slots’, each corresponding to an output/input pair. In the most basic use case, each of these four slots would be accessed through a different instance of the plug‑in, in effect delivering four mono hardware inserts that can be used on different DAW channels. It’s also possible to link slots 1+2 or 3+4 to accommodate stereo processors, and to add Mid‑Sides matrixing to a linked pair of slots (which gets matrixed back to conventional stereo again on the way in). Slots that are in use by an existing instance of the plug‑in are greyed out when you add another instance.
More sophisticated setups are also possible, courtesy of something Freqport call the Analog Matrix. This permits multiple slots to be chained within the analogue domain, allowing the output of one hardware device to be routed directly into the input of the next without any additional stages of A‑D or D‑A conversion.
The FO1 also has adjustable analogue trim on both inputs and outputs, and the main purpose of the Global Hardware Configuration page is to set this up for each slot. The amount of trim available has increased with firmware updates, and at the time of writing is ±12dB. The maximum signal level that can be delivered at the outputs and accommodated at the inputs is +18dBu, so in effect, the default zero position represents an operating alignment of 0dBFS = +6dBu. The +18dBu ceiling might be a limitation with some rackmounting compressors that expect hotter signals, but the extensive trim options make it easy to accommodate things such as guitar pedals that don’t expect a full line level. You can also add custom names for each slot within Global Hardware Configuration, and write the entire configuration of the FO1 to the unit itself. This isn’t necessary in normal use, as everything is recalled when a preset or DAW project is reloaded, but might be valuable if for example you want to use it with a different computer.
In both Global Hardware Configuration view and the normal view, you’ll see input and output meters at the top and bottom of the screen respectively. These relate to the signal emerging from and returning to the instance of the plug‑in you’re viewing, and both have gain sliders superimposed on them that allow the signal level to be adjusted in the digital domain, over and above any analogue trim settings made in the Configuration page. Unlike the trim controls, these send and return level sliders can be automated.
Picture Palace
The FreqInOut plug‑in can store and display a photo of the piece of equipment inserted in each slot, making it easy to recall settings after the fact.The idea is that you’ll only visit the Global Hardware Configuration page when your hardware setup changes. In normal use, you’ll work in the default view, where settings related to the particular instance and slot(s) in use appear. Initially, you’ll see the central area taken up with a photo of the rear of the FO1. Click on the camera icon above this, press the dustbin icon to ditch this default photo, and a QR code is displayed. By scanning this with your phone, or clicking the adjacent upload icon, you can then replace the default image with a photo of whatever piece of kit is plugged into the selected FO1 slot. Basic cropping and image rotation are available, and there’s also a magnifying glass that allows you to inspect bits of your photo in more detail. This will be particularly useful with complex rackmount gear, as the square‑ish shape of the photo area lends itself better to pedals and desktop units. The idea, of course, is that although the FO1 can’t control or recall settings on connected devices, it can at least store photos of how they are set, allowing the user to quickly and easily return to whatever preset or setting was used on a given project.
Last but not least, there’s a wet/dry mix control for each slot. Like the Analog Matrix routing, wet/dry balancing takes place in hardware, ensuring that there shouldn’t be any phase issues when the wet and dry paths are combined, at least as long as the gear you’re connecting is analogue and doesn’t delay the wet signal. A firmware update (which may be available by the time you read this) will add a configurable delay to the dry path so that digital devices can also be accommodated, plus switchable polarity reversal. Finally, the plug‑in also has an internal bypass buttton, which is important, because the usual bypass mechanism within the DAW mixer and plug‑in header is not supported.
The Ins & Outs
In practice, all of this takes longer to describe than it does to learn and use. Once you have the I/O configuration and gain set up appropriately for your outboard, there’s really very little that needs to happen in software beyond opening up the plug‑in, choosing which slot or slots you want to use, and uploading photos. After a while, in fact, I started to wonder whether there was any need for the Global Hardware Configuration settings to be on a separate page. I don’t really see why its functionality couldn’t be integrated with the Analog Matrix in the lower half of the default view, which would simplify operation even further.
At the very least, it would be good if there was an easier way to access it than by clicking on a tiny cogwheel icon and choosing Global Hardware Configuration from a drop‑down menu. (While I’m at it, the dustbin icon in the preset view also presents an unnecessary step, as the only reason to click on the camera icon is when you want to want to replace the image.)
Conclusion
Beyond that, there’s little to say about the FO1 other than it just works. I didn’t experience any audio glitches or refusal to cooperate with my main audio interface, the FO1 and FT1 coexisted seamlessly, and before long I was loading and saving DAW projects without even thinking about whether they employed external outboard.
Despite having hundreds of plug‑ins installed, I’m as vulnerable as the next SOS reader to a tasty piece of analogue outboard gear. And, like many of us, I’ve found that mucking about with hardware inserts in DAWs quickly puts me off. The outboard that I do use nearly always gets printed, just because using it any other way is a pain. If I had racks full of the stuff and relied on it for everything, I’m sure I’d learn to manage the inconvenience, but because I mainly mix 'in the box', the benefit of including just a couple of hardware processors or effects units never quite seems to outweigh the awkwardness. And when it does, I live in the constant fear that I’ll return to a mix two years hence to be greeted by a session that contains no record of what hardware device was used in a given insert, or what settings were employed.
FO1 features such as the Analog Matrix, wet/dry mixing and Mid/Sides matrixing would be difficult or impossible to reproduce using conventional hardware inserts.
The other great benefit of the FO1 is that it doesn’t take up any of your main audio interface’s I/O. Most project and home studios nowadays are based around USB interfaces, and there’s almost always a hard limit as to how far these can be expanded. If your ADAT sockets are needed for drum mics or synths, you’d need to engage in a complicated dance involving patchbay wiring to use the same I/O to integrate hardware at mixdown. And even if you have a spare optical port handy, the FO1 is a neater solution than adding a line‑level ADAT expander, and likely no more costly. It also retains its full I/O count at all sample rates. Moreover, FO1 features such as the Analog Matrix, wet/dry mixing and Mid‑Sides matrixing would be difficult or impossible to reproduce using conventional hardware inserts.
Studios that operate large‑format consoles with racks and racks full of outboard have always had interfacing options available to them, albeit at a price. The FO1 is the first attempt I know of to create something that specifically targets a very different user: the engineer, producer or musician who works mainly in the box, but wants a seamless way to integrate a few pieces of outboard, or get more from their guitar pedals. Indeed, thanks to its form factor and relatively conservative operating levels, it’s arguably even better suited to working with desktop gear and pedals than traditional studio outboard, though it does the latter perfectly well too. The FreqInOut FO1 does exactly what it sets out to do, rebalancing the gain‑versus‑pain equation and turning what was, for many of us, a theoretical possibility into a practical reality.
Pros
- Greatly simplifies the process of integrating outboard equipment into a DAW mix.
- Plug‑in can store photos of your hardware settings for recall.
- Analog Matrix allows multiple hardware processors to be chained without multiple conversion stages.
- Built‑in wet/dry balancing, Mid‑Sides matrixing and wide‑ranging level trim.
- Up to two FO1 and two FT1 units can be used together, and USB hubs are supported.
Cons
- Plug‑in interface could be more streamlined.
Summary
An innovative, easy‑to‑use and highly effective 'one‑stop shop' for integrating hardware into a small software‑based mixing or production setup.
Information
£599 including VAT.
The Groovebox +44 (0)203 004 4716.
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