The first 10 Fairchild 660 were built by Narma himself. Sherman Fairchild, who was friends with Les Paul, learned of the compressor and licensed Narma's compressor design, hiring Narma to be chief engineer at Fairchild Recording Equipment Corporation. Les Paul asked Narma if he would build a compressor/limiter. The 660 was designed by Rein Narma, who had worked with Les Paul to build a recording mixer to use with Les Paul's Ampex 8-track. They are commonly referred to as the 'holy grail' of outboard gear. The rarity of Fairchild compressors has made them highly desirable and very valuable, with a used 660 now selling for $20,000 or more and a 670 selling for $30-$40,000 or more. The Fairchild 670, introduced shortly after the 660, is a dual-channel version. The 660 was the first intelligent automatic volume control limiter. The Fairchild 660 is a tube-based single-channel audio compressor invented by Rein Narma and manufactured by the Fairchild Recording Equipment Corporation beginning in 1959. And if you've had the privilege of using an original hardware Fairchild, you'll definitely get a familiar feeling from this pair, delivering full, assured and musical tones that can ultimately add up to a great mix.Fairchild Recording Equipment Corporation Those with good ears will appreciate the broader palette of saturation colours. The new models look much more like the original hardware, too, and give more detailed control than the Legacy version. Each has its own vibe and both sound amazing. The 670 is the easier of the two on transients, making it slightly more aggressive, while the 660 has more total gain on the input, allowing lower thresholds to be set for more colourful compression artifacts. You could call it glue, but that doesn't cover it fully either.Įssentially, it imparts more fullness, substance and - dare we say it - 3D space. it's not necessarily 'warmth', although vocals seem fatter.

Where the new ones differ sonically is in their colouration. The Legacy 670 is a favourite with many producers for its smooth and invisible level control, particularly on vocals and basses, and A/B-ing it with the new models reveals that they're all remarkably similar in that capacity.

Both also offer a selection of six preset Attack/Release times, the first four going from fast to slow, and the last two with fixed attack times and automatic release dependent on the envelope of the input signal. Apart from the dedicated stereo ones, the 660 has a very similar control set.

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