The Fairchild 670 Compressor In Action

[@oinkooink]

I picked up 2 of these about 3 years ago. One sits permanently on my shaker/ tambourine channel. The other I use solely to dial in headphone mixes for recording glockenspiels. Really sweet.

[@TransistorLSD]

Idk about that... Kinda too expensive just for the shaker/headphone mixes lol

[@Justnicerobots]

@@TransistorLSD lacking a sense of humor here

[@TransistorLSD]

@@Justnicerobots you never know. Fairchilds actually work well for percussion, so maybe he's just really rich

[@Terry-nx8kg]

​@@TransistorLSDIt's good to be rich. It's the only way to live. Don't be a pauper like me.

[@petelongrs]

With you on the glockenspiels. You might want to see how it handles birdsong.

[@deadrituals]

To my ears it really stands out when tapped lightly, does something nice to the high end. It rounds it but at the same time makes it more sizzling

[@maxreaper25]

It’s amazing how much clarity it adds and distinguishing it adds to vocals

[@Causticghoul]

It has this cloudieness in the mid to high range that's just beautiful.

[@phillytee9106]

The sound of the valves add a lovely warmth to most of the sounds, I like the way the compressor hardly touches the weight of the bass going through it classic stuff. Vocals benefit the most from this beauty, they sound really rounded and smooth.

[@dismalfist]

Gorgeous machine. Happy to see one in action.

[@ontogeny6474]

What's not to love. Takes vocals through a velvet tapestry of sonic light and roses.

[@axelfoley1768]

The most amazing compressor I've ever heard. Similar to the difference between a record & a CD. First time I've ever heard the hardware unit in action😃 It sounded fine to me on the synth too. Sounds awesome over the whole mix also. Instant angel dust to any sound! Awesome on vocals too. I want it...

[@nebstaism]

Man it makes them drums just roll along like ..... gives them life.... so much vibe .... I wish I could own one

[@user-lx8ky9yf3b]

It adds texture to the sound

[@gregtrela]

It transforms that piano part into a record straight away. Sounds great on the both full mixes too.

[@Dudderlyful]

I was gonna say that. It just changed into this dreamy record in an instant

[@nickaleo7]

What a different sound than the more modern version of The Fairchild. This one just opens it up much more naturally compared to the more crushed sound you get from the newer version and waves plugin.

[@ValenteVillanuevaMusic]

What’s the modern version of the fairchild called?

[@beigela]

@@ValenteVillanuevaMusic theres no modern version, just clones. quite a few now actually: there's the unfairchiId by undertone, stamchiId by stam, and herchiId by heritage which does both the 660[mono] and 670[stereo] modeIs. anthony demaria Iabs, esoteric audio research and anamod aII have versions. even drip eIectronics has a diy kit and im sure im missing a handfuI too.

[@Punkdebutique]

This is one of those few videos that I hit Like before even watching it!

[@jsres838]

Me too!! LOL

[@dazdavison1]

Its like having your ears cleaned out , for the first time in ages its so more clearer

[@MrJvandal]

It's adding warmth, distortion and controlling the volume. If anything it's removing clarity. But it does sound good!

[@greganikin7003]

it sounds the best on any type of horns, brass etc

[@numanuma20]

That is exactly how I use the plugin version. I barley have to dial it in to get an amazing sound.

[@userthrusound]

your channel is a holy grail

[@ModularLanding]

Sounds amazing to me. Even the synth sounded slightly fuller. Best on vocals and whole mix from your tracks. I came here because Stam Audio is now making one of these for under $3k... hope it’s good.

[@troycopeland5156]

That Fairchild is worth every penny

[@WassupFred]

Thanks man for this test!!!! This thing really does do magic ...

[@jonsubs9998]

Is it worth it? If you have a commercial studio. You tell your recording artists that all mixes are finished through an original Fairchild 670 at 0.5db of GR, just to give their song that "top of the charts" mojo, since it is an established fact that all music production innovation ended in 1931. Artists flock to your studio. Totally worth it. Also be sure to have a strat on the wall, signed by like Ritchie Valens or someone else that went too soon. And a beaten-up foosball or air hockey table in the waiting room. Make sure it was a hand-me-down from like Eric Clapton. You'll be making hit records like wow. Come find me and give me some royalties after you buy your first Italian sports car.

[@rbrianharris]

I'd like to extend your metaphor. Medical technology peaked in 1931. I insist that my dentist and my child's pediatrician conform to 30's technology.

[@cocinandoconfelismina1418]

@@rbrianharris 🤣 please don't Stop

[@saltyapostle44]

@@rbrianharris They've developed plug-in's for CT Scanners that emulate X-ray machines from the 1950's. All the doctors want thier CT scans run through them. Audio is one of the few things that people want to keep going back to the past becasue they feel like things were better with old technology. Most guitar player's wet dreams are guitars made 60 years ago - becasue they THINK that's what they are supposed to want.

[@homecottage875]

LOLOLOLOL No shit.. good point!

[@weneedtermlimits]

Yeah yeah you're hilarious. You don't have one and so you shit on it. I've owned four 670's and a 660 and done many blind shootouts of everything you can think of. The Fairchild wins everything everytime. If you actually used one, you would agree.

[@tedgerard333]

Cool video. You definitely had the sweet spot with the drums.

[@mojito6629]

heaven. If I have these, I would use them on any track possible

[@Nexfero]

This is one of those youtube channels I have to bust out the headphones to really appreciate. Just subbed to your channel, i like how you cover professional audio gear and not just mundane consumer stuff.

[@Bassalicious]

It's a f***ing fairchild! I knew it couldn't have been a mistake liking before even listening to that beauty.

[@oroszpeter]

a real beauty! i don't know what it does, but my ears like that a lot, and it seems to work on everything. like there's some saturation going on, especially in the high mids, but definitely adding clarity, definition and texture at the same time.

[@fabiendebenestcoachetconfe7492]

Sur la voix ça envoie ! En fait, il faut tout faire passer dedans à la prise, et masteriser à la fin. C'est de la bombe !

[@HP_____]

Everything sounds louder when IN and a shimmering gloss to the sound. I guess you call it "glue." It's beautiful!

[@checktheneck]

Everything sounds louder, because there is a bad volume match in the examples, but despite this, it is still clearly audible that the compressor has its own character and it really glues perfectly.

[@inmemoryofin]

The way it affects the kick drums in the examples is great. It was bringing out some weird modulated sounds in the vocal examples. Surprisingly the full mix examples sounded quite a lot like the UAD and Overloud plugin versions. Thanks for the video!

[@GRequinBlanc]

best part was the oooooooo :-) great video - thanks

[@centretorresantvicent6523]

Happy with the plugin :)

[@tedgerard333]

Just leave it in, mesmerizing.

[@ricobonimusic]

Wow!

[@niklassilen4313]

This is an amazing video. Just shows how different some of these old ones can be. This one seems to be really "full" and "cozy" somehow.. very thick. Then I've heard others that seem quicker and are more transparent. Strange indeed. Wonder how pristine shape it was and the age of the tubes in it.

[@AboveEmAllProduction]

It's lat/vert mode is amazing

[@annother3350]

Yes

[@lfomelody756]

Very Transparent! Gentle!

[@m9shamalan]

youd think for that price they would do a better job racking it.

[@greggodonnell6938]

Unless you have a death wish you never put these in a rack. This thing weighs 70 pounds without the rack, and the sides and back can potentially arc. It has 14 transformers, is decades old, and the power supply is over 480 Volts!

[@mattiemclean9882]

Oh man that is beautiful on the drums!!

[@OriginalRaveParty]

It's a smooth saturated sound. It thickens the bass, and doesn't make the mids and highs overpowering.

[@Somchiman]

Awesome demonstration!

[@luckystrke]

To make a fair comparison, you should LUFS match bypass and "in" in every example. Sometimes it's just louder, and of course it sounds better. That said, it sounds amazing on vocals.

[@Doctormix]

The unit doesn’t hsve makeup gain, so you cant really do a level match test with it. Having said this, the fairchild is not for the novice who maybe cannot tell the difference between level and tone. In real mixing life you just drive the comprssor until it feels right and then you move on ;-)

[@checktheneck]

@@Doctormix obviously, there is no makeup gain on it, but you could easily have done it in post-production.

[@1htimsgiark]

Keep Em Coming!

[@marcosaldinio2835]

You are the BEST

[@craigsanderson4330]

It really is the Rolls Royce of compressors, one can only dream of having one. TONE machine. I like setting 5, trust me setting 5 :)

[@JayTheLane]

Formative Dr Mix.

[@bilahmiat2698]

it's worth every penny. and it'll last 30 years...the Rolls Royce of compressors. great on any analog sound, especially drums and vocals

[@hayel2015]

Fantastic work

[@masterpiece6455]

30 K of magic

[@byfepo]

Hola Querido, hoy... 5 años después de este video, veo "How I Produce Disco Remixes..." ahora tienes uno... me encantó... tiene tubos, me recuerda a mi Padre que arreglaba radios a tubo en los '70. Saludos desde Chile!

[@tutorial4779]

8:30 You can really hear all of the tubes. This is incredible. It s one of the only analog gear that is still outstanding but still very expensive and maybe not worth because of the high price.

[@NYlathecuts]

It makes the vocals come upfront louder and a bit more harsh in the IN position that I heard at 11:48 minutes. It almost sound like it is expanding the audio than compressing it.

[@artoriasentertainment4004]

vocals for sure

[@fattyboombatty7736]

Thanks for the review. Not sure I can hear £30K or even £3K worth of difference - the Pultec EQ you reviewed embellished the sound to a far greater degree. May be a bit of volume compensation when demoing at reduced threshold levels would have brought out the differences for my less educated ears.

[@kalidesu]

Stop making me lust after unobtainium equipment! XD Damn you!

[@coolbro6969]

damn this thing rocks

[@nandoblondemobydick5438]

seems to work best on vocals to me. the drums i don´t know a bit better but i have not a good listening speakers, either on vocals it is a game changer

[@mattiemclean9882]

It is famous for being a vocal compressor....

[@allanlimaverde6201]

It is worth it!

[@sentokistudios4480]

this the best around for drums

[@louderthangod]

Really interested to hear how the StamChild compares when that comes out in a few months.

[@gaborpetroci]

It is Impressive!

[@pepe7drum]

Sounds beautiful, the detail on the release or the tail of the sounds is so rich and it sounds, well... expensive lol that's why this thing is pricey

[@nichttuntun3364]

This is wonderfulls beautiful sounding with it IN. The Overtone DPS plugin, the FC-70 is very close to this, giving the feeling of legit weight and vividness due to the response action. The unlink function is so great to have in HW and SW :)

[@nichttuntun3364]

@@realityonx3063 hey. Thanks, I got this already. Like FC70 far more. The OvertoneDSP Pultec emulation again is from the many I own by far the best sounding one. They have t exactly that feel of weight I expect from an analog emulation. Try it :)

[@gothamkeys4454]

awesome video keep up the great work

[@joost3783]

it really does sound magic, would have been interesting to hear some emulations in comparison

[@kubancossack8496]

The key fact of 670 is it makes sound warmer and textured even when no actual compression happen - all just because of tubes and transformers. And this is what impossible to digitally emulate for now. If talking on compression ballistics, saturation - - there are alot of nice plugin compressors that are as good or even betterm depending on situation.

[@nuurnwui]

I try the plugin version on every mix. It doesn't often fit, but when it does I love it. Check out overdrive DSP fc70.

[@ChrisPhoenixBMR]

OMG... after listening to this... I don't even want to work on my music without one hahahaha. MAN! I will surely be getting the Stam version. His units are amazing (I have SA2A and SA4000+), so I trust this will be either spot on or so close I do not care.

[@D.Uwins-music]

I would definitely need a pair of output/makeup amps installed.

[@bijouxbijouxbijoux]

It is worth 30k because it is a piece of history. And because if you decided to build one for yourself, then the hours of labor, parts, design and everything else would bring you in the ballpark of 30k, if not more. You don't need a Ferrari to go fast nowadays, but it's a Ferrari ;)

[@rickenbacker40011]

Holy shit, it's no wonder that is the best compressor in the world Or one that's as highly revered

[@Racingheartrecords]

It's great to hear the real thing! It seems to exaggerate the transients as major part of the sound. I wonder how difficult it would be to simulate this with just a regular ol' compressor plugin and a transient designer. I will have to test this. I also plan to check the IK Multimedia emulation that I have to see if it does what I'm hearing here.

[@AlekVila]

@Ricky Anthony In my latest production (coming out very soon), I'm using Waves TransX to bring up transients on the drums bus, inspired by this video. I'm also using IK Multimedia's VC-670 in the mastering channel since I'm mastering it myself. It doesn't sound exactly like the real thing, but the mix is better with than without. I'm using it lightly like Doctor Mix does at 5:33. :)

[@LaTigerGenesis]

It seems like you're paying for nuance and subtlety. Maybe not super noticable in a mix but surely missed when bypassed. Pretty cool!

[@johnvender]

No wonder 660 and 670 are legendary. Please do the same for Bill Putnam's 175 and 176 :)

[@johnnyapostal]

Absolutely loved it on drums & even more so on the whole mix! Really brings it to life & Sounds so musical! How can a plugin match that..... but hey i dont think anyone in their right mind would pay £30K for it...

[@braincoral9866]

^^ what Johnny said. 30k, no way..Listen to the A-Designs Nail. Tube compression to die for, and only £2500! I have mine on the stereo bus and it really does bring stuff to life in the same way as the Fairchild.

[@Doctormix]

Johnny Apostal maybe dogital will catch up with that one day. But I just don’t see that happen anytime soon. In the meantime most hits that came out of Abbey Road went through one of those units. FACT.

[@johnnyapostal]

Doctor Mix fingers crossed for that day...But that's why I cant understand engineers who mix completely ITB say that they can very much achieve the same result of high end equipment like this... Absolutely no chance they can achieve that sound ITB... Otherwise this unit wouldnt be worth £30K... I totally believe u when say Abbey ran every hit record through it coz it sounds bloody Amazing! I totally would too if I had one next to me!

[@jameslong289]

@johnny, You have to factor in that most top mix engineers are using source material that's been already recorded on consoles. So even if they do "mix" with plugins, you most likely won't get the same results sonically as the Pros unless your source material has also been summoned on analog gear. Not to mention the final product that you'll end up hearing (Album, radio, youtube, etc...) will be that of the mastering engineer who will most likely end up using a few analog pieces even if the person who mixed it didn't.

[@smokemapleinc2412]

It really opens up the sound guys no doubt but is it worth the money?

[@Paolocampitelli]

my god.. wow........

[@jimcatmandude9316]

It's like dumping everything into a funnel so that it comes out evenly at the bottom or the output as it were...

[@blahblahblah1787]

This thing does a good job at smoothing down the spikes without killing the life of the input but if you turn it up to 11 it will punish you and do just that; this was very evident in the drums and vocal sections. Is it worth the price? Probably not for most people but I can definitely see a lot of mastering engineers that sit in the studio for 12+ hours a day seeing the value in it. Just a few knobs seem to be able to do a lot of the heavy lifting and get you to a decent starting point, which is a lot more attractive than tinkering with 20 different menu options from the get-go.

[@gleventhal]

Wouldn't you hear it more if you had the time constant at a higher number, doesn't that cause a longer release and attack (which I believe would make it more noticeable)?

[@futuristiccavemanofficial]

"I wouldn't use this on a synth... kinda like killing a fly with a canon". Ha that shyt sounded MASSIVE on that synth. I use UAD Fairchild on my synths all the time.

[@bubz75]

Holy Moly, you guys own that?

[@Doctormix]

We don't own it, but have it available for special projects ;-)

[@drampadreg1386]

That was $11009 dollars Canadian, but in my defense I only forgot a zero, that's nothing sort of. Still a hell of a lot cheaper, better dynamic range and still an amazing compressor, still a Fairchild. I want one.

[@anatha2012]

Очень мягкая компрессия. Крутой аппарат!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Поставил бы себе!

[@oinkbastudios3150]

Awesome! How much was it again?

[@lushkordz6643]

this shit is so DopE bRo ...i could listen forever to this sound... i have a really inexpensive little brother of this Boutique Komp which do this very subtle analogic compression in a very nice manner 4 under 500$= the ART Pro VLA II

[@millenniummastering]

Sounds really really similar to my Fairman TMC. Slightly more mid-forward but other than that very close.

[@smokemapleinc2412]

Guys just a question. Cant you get the same effect with ajusting eq and slight reverb?

[@Hogboy345]

Sounds like standard compression to me, what am I missing?

[@onethousandtwonortheast8848]

This is rarified air. What it does to everything is make everything easier to listen to. The piano example sounded straight out of a Burt Bacharach song from the late 1960s/early 1970s. It does not sound cloudy to me at all.

[@HP_____]

No cloudiness to my ears! This is the first vari-mu compressor I heard that's truly transparent. The RCA BA6A is tonally in the same league. But the Fairchild's single gain stage design with super short signal path pays dividend in clarity and transparency.... and with a pristine texture to boot!

[@leifd381]

I never got why all the people are freaking out about this one and I still don't. I really tried with the UAD Version ( which I think sounds really similar like this video) and It kills every kick drum and adds frequencys to pianos that I don't want. Its doesn't work as good as a Manley or SSL on the MixBus for me. On the vocals in the Video its absolutely amazing though, but I would never use for pop vocals. All that for 30K Bucks?! haha that was my 2 negative cents. cool that we all have different tastes! :)

[@paulmolive1821]

It makes the kicks sound splatty, if that makes any sense. I wonder how the Unfairchild holds up with modern program material?

[@DemisDjPit]

Siempre genial todos los videos!!! Que cancion dice Rumba? Thanks!

[@MudderFukker-m6g]

Weren't these for final mix? They make recordings both fat and brilliant.

[@frankjamesbonarrigo7162]

I have a feeling a couple pultecs could do the same and even more.

[@FancyTailAquatics]

I am hearing this on Bose Speakers, not monitors. I have played and recorded for over 25 years. In my ears, there is not a huge difference that you cannot get in a basic Daw. I will be the first to admit, my hearing has diminished over the years. I am also using Audio Wizard as an EQ. After listening more, depending on Bass settings/S/M/L speaker settings, there does seem to be a difference. I fear now and days, the kid on his iPhone will never hear anything!

[@EpicWinz]

Rare, vintage, expensive. Sounds like my ex-girlfriend 😂

[@amanray]

The sound is just louder, you should test a Chandler Zener, many more changes

[@christiaanbezuidenhout6984]

And the little girl who was listening to the song on her earphones could Definitely hear the difference...

[@_-_Michael_-_]

Sounds oukey, I heard Beatles used it, I would take one. *checks price* Well, I can afford one in 120 years. Cool!

[@terrydoylemusic]

Thanks for putting this together. It's probably as close as I will get to a real one. I have decided NOT to buy vintage gear/microphones because I live in Ireland and it's just too difficult to get tech support and you can't have vintage gear without proper tech support. Or you can have an ulcer :-)

[@douggie4665]

It's really hard for me to hear the difference, can somebody explain what I should be looking for?

[@cocinandoconfelismina1418]

Nothing, just see the rack and enjoy his $30.000🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@fullalbums5675]

no make up gain, no sidechain filters, time constants are just presets, worth the price as an investment, not as a tool