Eric Valentine Breaks Down UnderTone Audio's UNFa-1 Accessory Box

Eric Valentine is a beloved record producer and engineer who's had his hands on countless hit records over the years. Throughout 2020, his YouTube series, Making Records, has been a great source of inspiration for those who have been stuck inside and want to learn new skills for recording and mixing.

Aside from his work in the studio, Eric also heads up UnderTone Audio. The brand has been manufacturing a wide array of analog-based outboard gear for several years, including the UnFairchild 670 MKII. The UnFairchild is a painstaking recreation of the legendary Fairchild compressor, which sounds incredible and weighs in at a fraction of the cost of an original unit.

At The NAMM Show in January, UnderTone Audio introduced a new rackmount unit called the UNFa-1 Accessory Box that expands what the UnFairchild can do. It offers amenities like Wet/Dry Mix, Feedforward/Feedback Mix, HP Filtering for sidechain and output gain control, which enhance the UnFairchild's range, but leave the classic sound of the circuit intact.

While we could wax all day about the UnFairchild and UNFa-1, we thought it best to bring in the big guns to talk about what the accessory box can do for the compressor. Watch below as Eric Valentine does a full breakdown of this new tool and offers up audio samples of the unit in action.