Fairchild 660/670 – The Holy Grail Of Outboard Devices

I asked Wayne Vaughn from Earth, Wind and Fire, on the day he came to speak at the Los Angeles Recording School, if he knew the Fairchild device. He replied: “The compressor? - Yes, I do.” I asked him if he owned one and again he said: “Yes, I do.” Stunned, I queried what he could tell me about it, and he answered: “All I can tell you is that it makes my shit sound good!”

LARS Sound Foundation instructor Reverent Doctor John Bartlein could only agree with him. John set down with me for a few minutes and told me his view on the Fairchild compressor: “It’s brilliant!” he said. “The various tubes color the sound beautifully, and the many parameters stretch the power of control, erasing problems in the dynamic of the wave. Running a signal through it creates a lucent and present sound.”

Graphically, the curve of where the compression starts, finds itself in the beginning of the signal, instead of being somewhere in the middle like other compressors. One does not hear the compression at all.

In Doctor Bartlein’s judgment the best plug-in out there, that emulates the sound of the Fairchild limiter aka compressor was created by Universal Audio, which is owned by Jim Putnam and Bill Putnam, Jr., sons of Bill Putnam, "the father of modern recording".

“The UA Fairchild 670 Compressor Plug-In was done just right,” John explains. One day when he was mixing a Jazz album with a really great sounding sampled piano at his client’s studio, he gave a few tries with EQ’s and other compressors, but just could not get it right. John found the UA Plug-In version of the Fairchild in the client’s computer, and realized that he just had to open it; as soon as the Plug-In was in the signal flow the piano said, I quote: “Here I am” – “It gives a special magic,” John explained, “It sounds fantastic”.

Most probably the fact that Rein Narma, the creator of the Fairchild 660/670, as well as Sherman Fairchild and Universal Recording Electronic Industries (UREI) founder Bill Putnam, were the partners and friends of the great Les Paul have a lot to do with the close connection between analog and Plug-In Fairchild 660/670. Lester William Polsfuss known as Les Paul was an American Jazz and Country guitarist, songwriter and inventor, who has appeared plenty of times in our studies at the Los Angeles Recording School. He was introduced to us for his multi-track recording invention, which revolutionized the recording industry, besides of course the guitar.

Estonian-born Rein Narma was a refugee from Soviet Russia, who worked for the U.S. Army as a broadcast / recording technician during the Nurenberg trials. After moving to New York and working for Gotham Recording, he founded with several partners Gotham Audio Developments to build recording gear. And guess who hired him to modify his first 8-track and build a limiter? – Yes, the notorious Les Paul! In a podcast interview I found on Mixonline.com, Les Paul expresses how impressive Rein Narma was. “He had the smart” says Paul. Narma built the “first” Fairchild Limiter on Les Paul’s kitchen table without even putting it properly together. He simply left the pieces there, left the limiter unfinished, as well as the console he was supposed to build, because Sherman Fairchild asked him to do the same and then hired him.

Sherman Fairchild was one of Les Paul’s prodigious friends, who introduced him to Rein Narma. After Narma started the project with Mr. Paul, Fairchild hired him as his company’s chief engineer and licensed the design of his Limiter; which is the reason why the work at Les’ remained unfinished. Les Paul claims on the podcast that he still had all the pieces the way they were left behind and never owned a finished Fairchild limiter.

Narma also built consoles for Rudy Van Gelder and Olmsted Recording. After leaving the Fairchild company, Rein Narma moved to Northern California and became the vice-president at Ampex.

The Fairchild limiter is available in two versions: the monophonic single channel unit, the Model 660, and the unique stereo version, the Model 670. The basic design applies to both.

It is often referred to as the “holy grail” of outboard devices for its rarity. The current value on the used market is around $ 30’000. Luckily the Universal Audio PlugIn is available for just $149, so the little people can try it too.

Complete absence of audible thumps normally associated with other limiter designs and a complete lack of distortion or noise normally associated with conventional limiters are only a few extraordinary attributes of the Fairchild Limiter, that works just as remarkably as a straight through amplifier. The basic design uses a single push-pull stage of amplification with an extremely high control voltage. The unit has extremely low distortion and noise.

The extremely fast attack time, allows the Fairchild 660 or 670 to produce full limiting in the first 5.000th of a second, catching short transients that in other limiters may negate the limiting effect. The release time of .3 to 25 seconds provides real flexibility. It has six available positions that make the release time exceptionally programmable.

The variable release time is as sensational allowing a variable from .3 of a second to 25 seconds. Again we have a six-position switch in the front of the panel.

Depending on the personal preference the Fairchild 660/670 can be used as a limiter, as well as a compressor. The ratio ranges between 2 to 1 with a threshold 5dB below average level, and 30 to 1 with a threshold 10dB above normal program level sounding extraordinary in any way the unit is used, either as compressor or as a limiter.

Rein Narma manufactured the first unit for the military radio broadcasting. The device was built to be reliable and stable, which is an additional out of the norm attribute and the reason why the times one could find the Fairchild 660 or 670 for under $100 are over. All components operate well below their maximums, insuring trouble-free performance. The 660 stands for the monophonic version, and 670 for the versatile two-channel stereo Model, which is designed purposely for stereo level control problems. Two independent limiters will act on left and right channels or on the lateral and vertical components of the stereo channels.

The Fairchild 660/670 is one of the most wanted and used devices of the recording industry including major labels, as well as quality conscious radio stations around the world, because of it’s transparent sound free of noise, free of clipping and other problems compressors usually create in the signal. It offers high-level recordings with long playing times. The Limit-Matrix system of the 670 finds the same importance in the new art of stereo broadcasting.

In my research, I found another Plug-In that emulates the sound of the Fairchild compressor successfully, supposing the Audio Engineering Society reports are accurate: The RTAs Fairchild 670 Plug-In. But since I cannot find Les Paul in the history of the company, I will assume that the Reverent Doctor John Barlein’s opinion is totally on the money.

Personally, I am eager to put my hands on an analog Fairchild 660 or 670 device. I would love to play around, twist and turn knobs, and hope I will some day be able to do so. Luckily we live in a time, where the digital world can offer practically the same performance as the analog, but nothing is better than the original creation. There is something fascinating about a man made “box” created to alter and change sound waves.

- VKS

Ref:
http://mixonline.com/ai/podcast/les_paul_compressor/
http://www.uaudio.com/store/compressors-limiters/fairchild-670.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Audio_%28company%29 http://www.bavodekker.com/670.html http://www.gearslutz.com/board/high-end/42736-fairchild-670-a.html http://mixonline.com/TECnology-Hall-of-Fame/1959-fairchild-compressor/ http://mixonline.com/online_extras/fairchild-datasheet.pdf