Best Fairchild 670 alternative?

[niterateaudio]

https://www.waves.com/plugins/puigchild-compressor

I use this. It is worth reading on what it is though. My understanding is Waves emulated the one Jack Puig had which is unique. They have a free pdf manual you can check the specs.

https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/fairchild-660-670

[astralprojection]

https://www.waves.com/plugins/puigchild-compressor

I use this. It is worth reading on what it is though. My understanding is Waves emulated the one Jack Puig had which is unique. They have a free pdf manual you can check the specs.

https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/fairchild-660-670

but this one has a noticable hp filter built in as i mentionied in the OP, and it audibly cut out bass... other than that, i also really like the waves version

[bmanic]

Personally I think the Overloud 670 is the best emulation made so far. Never actually had a chance to test a REAL Fairchild but I've got some experience with various clones like the Fairman TMC and ADL (also super expensive!).

The "tone" of all the 3 models in the Overloud plugin are interesting but unfortunately a bit on the extreme side, meaning a lot of changes in frequency response. None of the expensive hardware clones had such drastic tonal changes so I suspect Overloud got hold of some vintage units that weren't perhaps in the best condition.. but still, the compression action itself (which also varies a lot per model!) is good on all 3 options in the plugin.

If you just want the mojo, or the tone, you could get Tim Cupwise's program for Nebula. The compression action on that one is a bit weird though but the tone/preamp programs are excellent.

[astralprojection]

Personally I think the Overloud 670 is the best emulation made so far. Never actually had a chance to test a REAL Fairchild but I've got some experience with various clones like the Fairman TMC and ADL (also super expensive!).

The "tone" of all the 3 models in the Overloud plugin are interesting but unfortunately a bit on the extreme side, meaning a lot of changes in frequency response. None of the expensive hardware clones had such drastic tonal changes so I suspect Overloud got hold of some vintage units that weren't perhaps in the best condition.. but still, the compression action itself (which also varies a lot per model!) is good on all 3 options in the plugin.

If you just want the mojo, or the tone, you could get Tim Cupwise's program for Nebula. The compression action on that one is a bit weird though but the tone/preamp programs are excellent.

noice, thats a plugin ive never even seen or heard of at all. Wonderful. Hope it has a demo. thank you good sir.
About "mojo" well, I think its not really possible to get much mojo from a single plugin when its all digital, unfortunately no digital emulation could ever reach the same mojo as a real unit, but at least the SW "attempts" to do it, and the main function of the 670 (mid/side tube compression) is rare enough.
The mojo is probably only possible with the real $50k unit.

Or a very creative insert chain. Compressor->EQ->Saturation->Compressor->Saturation->Filters->Saturaion->Eq> . .... .. .
that could possibly create some mojo.

Btw, the best "mojo" plugin ive ever heard has to go to Kazrog True Iron. But sometimes I swear it disables itself without telling you
I mean even blind testing A/B and you cant barely tell. Ive done just this and have been wrong before, on which one I thought had the True Iron or not

But, on some material it just adds that special something.
For a simpler way to get some mojo, I recommend Saturn 2 with its Transformer or Subtle Tube setting.

Never heard of Nebula either. Man youre a gold mine. What else havent I heard of

[MJACau]

I don't know about the best, Tone Empire's Firechild has gluey gooiness that I like, sidechain and oversampling.
Very good on taming vocals, cymbals in the high end, and let the kick and bass to glue together in the low end.
It's not for everything.
From my understanding that is what the hardware FL 670 did well, only without the rare tube replacement costs.

[TBlake]

Personally I think the Overloud 670 is the best emulation made so far. Never actually had a chance to test a REAL Fairchild but I've got some experience with various clones like the Fairman TMC and ADL (also super expensive!).

The "tone" of all the 3 models in the Overloud plugin are interesting but unfortunately a bit on the extreme side, meaning a lot of changes in frequency response. None of the expensive hardware clones had such drastic tonal changes so I suspect Overloud got hold of some vintage units that weren't perhaps in the best condition.. but still, the compression action itself (which also varies a lot per model!) is good on all 3 options in the plugin.

If you just want the mojo, or the tone, you could get Tim Cupwise's program for Nebula. The compression action on that one is a bit weird though but the tone/preamp programs are excellent.

noice, thats a plugin ive never even seen or heard of at all. Wonderful. Hope it has a demo. thank you good sir.
About "mojo" well, I think its not really possible to get much mojo from a single plugin when its all digital, unfortunately no digital emulation could ever reach the same mojo as a real unit, but at least the SW "attempts" to do it, and the main function of the 670 (mid/side tube compression) is rare enough.
The mojo is probably only possible with the real $50k unit.

Or a very creative insert chain. Compressor->EQ->Saturation->Compressor->Saturation->Filters->Saturaion->Eq> . .... .. .
that could possibly create some mojo.

Btw, the best "mojo" plugin ive ever heard has to go to Kazrog True Iron. But sometimes I swear it disables itself without telling you
I mean even blind testing A/B and you cant barely tell. Ive done just this and have been wrong before, on which one I thought had the True Iron or not

But, on some material it just adds that special something.
For a simpler way to get some mojo, I recommend Saturn 2 with its Transformer or Subtle Tube setting.

Never heard of Nebula either. Man youre a gold mine. What else havent I heard of

Well apparently you haven't heard that bmanic programmed many of the presets in Saturn 2

[astralprojection]

Lol nope I didn't know that either

[bmanic]

Usually my presets have a "bM" tag after the preset name but for the past few FabFilter releases I've been tasked to do the factory presets, so any preset that does NOT have any kind of tag, are mine. This is true for FabFilter Timeless 3 and Volcano 3.

For Saturn 2 you find my presets with the "bM" tag.

I also released a couple of additional presets on Gearspace for Saturn 2 that you can download here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WQRcoD ... sp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cW98fZ ... sp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1H0Le9w ... sp=sharing

[dionenoid]

If you just want the mojo, or the tone, you could get Tim Cupwise's program for Nebula. The compression action on that one is a bit weird though but the tone/preamp programs are excellent.

Are you referring to the 660 ? Or the Tone 1 pack with the included 660 preamps ?

[bmanic]

If you just want the mojo, or the tone, you could get Tim Cupwise's program for Nebula. The compression action on that one is a bit weird though but the tone/preamp programs are excellent.

Are you referring to the 660 ? Or the Tone 1 pack with the included 660 preamps ?

Both! I suspect the Tone 1 pack includes all the same preamp programs as the singular 660 program, thus the Tone 1 pack is probably better value.. unless you really want the compression too.

[Ichad.c]

... its not really usable for final mixing or mastering.
...

It was designed for mastering in the vinyl age when too much bass energy would cause the stylus to do the high jump.
IK do one. Since I use channel strips these days I need a cleaner mastering compressor, so I use SPL Iron.

so the original also has an internal HP filter? it makes sense from what you are saying, but also it doesnt make sense, why would the compressor be responsible for the hp filter?
but yes there were much less sub bass back then .

For vinyl, the bass cut is in the side-channel and is part of the vinyl cutting lathe, not the compressor. The "HP filter" you see is probably the transformers, the 670 has a lot of them, so basically you are looking for a plugin that doen't model the transformers(they distort too, btw). The HP effect is actually a good thing in analog land, i.e. DC blocking(which can harm components in the long run), even a typical bass guitar amplifier has a couple of them.

Luckily most "analog modelled" compressors don't model the transformers(modelling the distortion is CPU intensive), so there are probably other options. That being said, if you need to pass sub-audio(less than 20Hz), I'd just use a digital style compressor, there are a lot of good ones.

[Calagan]

Someone mentionned Molot as being similar to a 670.
I don't remember TDR speaking about Fairchild stuff as an inspiration for Molot. Did I mis something ?
It's a great compressor, but it's a very peculiar one and I don't find it very similar to a Vari-Mu one (at least, the ones I use : Mu, Mjuc, SPL Iron)...

[astralprojection]

... its not really usable for final mixing or mastering.
...

It was designed for mastering in the vinyl age when too much bass energy would cause the stylus to do the high jump.
IK do one. Since I use channel strips these days I need a cleaner mastering compressor, so I use SPL Iron.

so the original also has an internal HP filter? it makes sense from what you are saying, but also it doesnt make sense, why would the compressor be responsible for the hp filter?
but yes there were much less sub bass back then .

For vinyl, the bass cut is in the side-channel and is part of the vinyl cutting lathe, not the compressor. The "HP filter" you see is probably the transformers, the 670 has a lot of them, so basically you are looking for a plugin that doen't model the transformers(they distort too, btw). The HP effect is actually a good thing in analog land, i.e. DC blocking(which can harm components in the long run), even a typical bass guitar amplifier has a couple of them.

Luckily most "analog modelled" compressors don't model the transformers(modelling the distortion is CPU intensive), so there are probably other options. That being said, if you need to pass sub-audio(less than 20Hz), I'd just use a digital style compressor, there are a lot of good ones.

okay, all of that is fair enough, but why is the HP filter in the waves 670 compressor hidden ? we arent dealing with cutting lathes here - its a digital compressor and so far only present in the Waves one (that i have tested) .
Again, I completely am for highpassing the track before cutting, but in a digital domain i think at least there should be an option to disable it. since well, we are "cutting" to digital.
I do my highpassing with EQ, not a compressor.

[Ichad.c]

... its not really usable for final mixing or mastering.
...

It was designed for mastering in the vinyl age when too much bass energy would cause the stylus to do the high jump.
IK do one. Since I use channel strips these days I need a cleaner mastering compressor, so I use SPL Iron.

so the original also has an internal HP filter? it makes sense from what you are saying, but also it doesnt make sense, why would the compressor be responsible for the hp filter?
but yes there were much less sub bass back then .

For vinyl, the bass cut is in the side-channel and is part of the vinyl cutting lathe, not the compressor. The "HP filter" you see is probably the transformers, the 670 has a lot of them, so basically you are looking for a plugin that doen't model the transformers(they distort too, btw). The HP effect is actually a good thing in analog land, i.e. DC blocking(which can harm components in the long run), even a typical bass guitar amplifier has a couple of them.

Luckily most "analog modelled" compressors don't model the transformers(modelling the distortion is CPU intensive), so there are probably other options. That being said, if you need to pass sub-audio(less than 20Hz), I'd just use a digital style compressor, there are a lot of good ones.

okay, all of that is fair enough, but why is the HP filter in the waves 670 compressor hidden ? we arent dealing with cutting lathes here - its a digital compressor and so far only present in the Waves one (that i have tested) .
Again, I completely am for highpassing the track before cutting, but in a digital domain i think at least there should be an option to disable it. since well, we are "cutting" to digital.
I do my highpassing with EQ, not a compressor.

The HP filter isn't "hidden" because it isn't a highpass filter, transformers do that and it's a good thing in most cases, transformers also add subtle distortion to the low end. All real 670's, 1176's, LA2A's etc etc, they cut out sub-sonics via transformers or with intentional or extra DC blocking, it's completely and utterly normal. If you can't see HP-like effect on a digital "analog modelled" compressor - take the "analog modelling" with a real big pinch of salt. I do agree that a disable button would be a nice touch.

[astralprojection]

So we are in agreement, it's silly to model in (what is basically and technically a hp filter) in a plugin that does not A let this be known and B without being able to tweak it or turn it off.

I realise that perhaps the original unit would also high-pass alot, but we are in fact in a digital domain and perhaps such things could be made alternative or selectable.