- What’s up, Guys! I’m in the studio with Rafinha. We are going to review a hardware that just arrived to make some tests, the Freqport (Freqtube FT1). It’s an analog valve saturator, right Rafinha?

- Yes, it’s kind of digital because you can connect it directly to your computer, via USB, and it converts digital to analog and analog to digital. In this way, there is no need to use any input or output channel from your sound-card while this signal is completely analog, going through 4 different valves.

We ran a few tests here, and we really liked it! It adds lots of harmonics, it creates different characteristics from the plugins. I think we have never listened to the valve before. It has been something new for us and it’s pretty cool.

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- Exactly, it’s a new thing for us!

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- I really liked the results! It creates lots of harmonics, we tried it on the kick-bass and the result was pretty nice.

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- What is really interesting is that you can even use it in two channels at the same time because of the four valves, two for each channel. You can use it in two different synths simultaneously, via two different channels. This is really important because it helps with the workflow. And now we are going to show you the results that we got on our new track, we are making new music! Here we go!

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- Here is our Project! Firstly we used on the kick-bass the valve 12AT7:

The right side valve drive on 3 and minus 15 on harmonics, resulting in significant changes on the harmonics’ value. Next we added a bit more on the second harmonic, creating then a harmonics ladder, and the results were super nice!

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- We are going to show the bypass and the before and after. We already felt that it emphasized the harmonics, especially the mid ones. It cut the kick-bass out and it softened the high notes without fading the kick-bass. 

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All of this being the same comparison on the same RMS, the same sub volume. It became more tight, more aggressive, more evident but without being too forced, so it feels natural. It grew a lot, the high notes are softened and yet more evident.

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- On another track element we used the left side valves, the valve E83CC:

We used it on an Arp from our track and we felt that it softened nicely on the high notes, the high notes were super crashy and it has softened it nicer, better to listen to, making also the synth more evident and the mids more balanced; the Arp’s frequencies in general became more balanced and evident.

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- So, for our final considerations, it is a really good analog! It’s super practical, it’s connection is practical, it’s super powerful! The effect on our track was huge.

On the synths we used we only tried a few things which we liked a lot. 

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- I really liked it. I had never listened to valve before, I found it pretty nice. It brings lots of harmonics, lot of weight on the medium low notes. It helped a lot in these two cases where we used it, they were good and got way better with it. That’s a sign that it is really efficient! I think there are many ways to use it. 

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It’s super interesting! It has the filter, so you can saturate only the high notes; there is the mix, then you can use only a bit of the saturation, or saturate only the bass notes and use only a little bit of it, or even only on the mid notes, there is a lot of ways to use it.

We will definitely keep exploring it, it’s super nice to use it and it will add a lot to our productions, lot of quality and density to the sound.

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- Another interesting thing is that it has 8 knobs, as the filter is very good it allows us to be mapping any synth parameter and automatize it by opening and closing. This is very interesting!  To make a filter with a valve analog, along with saturation already makes the sound heavier. This is really important to stand out, it came to revolutionize the analog market.

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- I agree! When Thiago told me about it I didn’t know anything like that, that it makes this loop back, without any analog cable. You only connect the USB, install a very simple software, open with a plugin and it does all this service. Super nice! We will definitely see more, the future is shaping like this, it’s super clear.

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