Some moments deserve a pause.
Being recognised by Sound On Sound — a publication that has set the benchmark for professional audio journalism since 1985 — is one of them. We’re incredibly proud to share that Freqport FreqInOut FO1 has been selected as a Sound On Sound Gear of the Year 2025.
This award isn’t about hype. It’s about real-world usefulness, innovation, and tools that genuinely improve the way music is made. As a result, this recognition carries particular weight for us.
What Gear of the Year Really Means?
Each year, the Sound On Sound editorial team evaluates hundreds of products tested throughout the year. Only a small number are selected for Gear of the Year, devices that stand out not just for specs, but for how fundamentally useful and forward-thinking they are.
FO1 was recognised for rethinking a long‑standing studio problem:
How do you use analog outboard gear with the speed, recall, and flexibility of plugins?
Put simply, FO1 answers that question by turning hardware into something that behaves like software — without compromising sound, workflow, or creative freedom.
What Sound On Sound Says About FreqInOut FO1
“Several tools for seamlessly integrating analogue processing into a DAW environment have appeared in recent years, and Freqport’s FreqInOut FO1 is one of the neatest I’ve come across.”
“To your computer, it’s a USB interface with line‑level I/O that can be used to loop in outboard. But to the user, it’s a real‑time plug‑in that can be stored and recalled with DAW sessions.”
— Sam Inglis, Sound On Sound
Taken together, Sam’s word capture exactly what we set out to build: a solution that feels obvious once it exists, but didn’t before.
Not Our First Time in Sound On Sound
This isn’t our first appearance in Sound On Sound. In fact, it isn’t even our first Gear of The Year nomination.
Over the years, SOS has taken a deep dive into several Freqport products and concepts:
FreqInOut FO1 – Hardware Review – Sound on Sound, April 2025 Issue
A detailed look at how FO1 integrates analog hardware into modern DAW workflows, covering real-world use cases, routing, latency, recall, and creative flexibility.
Read online: sosm.ag/FO1
FreqTube FT1 – Hardware Review – Sound on Sound Magazine, February 2023 issue
Before FO1, there was FreqTube FT1 — our modular, recallable tube processing system that laid the foundation for the Freqport ecosystem.
Buy the PDF version on SOUND ON SOUND MAGAZINE
Read online SOUND ON SOUND FT1 or in Freqport News
Together, these pieces tell the bigger Freqport story: building bridges between analog sound and modern production workflows.
