Best Fairchild 670 alternative?

[sguyader]

Hard to find a Fairchild-type compressor with M/S.

Not a fairchild emulation, but a Vari-mu type tube compressor emulation is the Pulsar Mu, which can be run in M/S mode.

Othe options but without M/S:
- Tone Empire Firechild wich is on sale right now for 29$.
- Neold v76u73, an emulation of the Telefunken preamp/comp/limiter whose nickname was the "German Fairchild".
- Analog Obsession VariMoon which is a "Fairchild 660 style vari-mu limiting amplifier", and is free (but you can donate if you like it).

[Andreya_Autumn]

The TDR one has native M/S (though they refer to it as sum/diff). With separately adjustable threshold and make-up gain, while all other params are shared.

crud, i just realised you said that you cant change attack and release seperately for the mid/side,

Correct. Do you do that a lot though? Curious about that use case since I very rarely do.

In my experience the benefits ("glue", "character", call it what you like) of distorting compressors quickly disintegrate if the processing differs too much between mid and side channels. Of course, getting somewhat unified processing between mid and side absolutely requires separate thresholds/make-up, since the side channel isn't ever nearly as loud as the mid. But after that I tend to prefer the same settings on either one. That's why I like the approach TDR took with Molot, but of course YMMV.

I do occassionally compress mid and side with fully independant controls, but I tend to prefer a clean compressor for those few times.

[astralprojection]

No I dont do that often, but Id like to. I sometimes use the waves version, but very rarely. I like to compress mid and side differently for material that are very wide already, so a full drumset, maybe hihats and overheads, or whatever. its really nice to have a m/s compressor when you do want it, which admittedly is perhaps not very often. (these days?) Sometimes this approach makes much more sense to me than using a Stereo widener plugin for example. But many things can be accomplished using many methods.

[Andreya_Autumn]

Ah, that all makes sense to me. I'd still give Molot GE a go, there's plenty stereo goodness in there even with most settings identical between channels.

[SoundPorn]

My go to is the IK media 670 it has that sound.

https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/trvintubcomplim/

[ramseysounds]

Hard to find a Fairchild-type compressor with M/S.

Did you try the Waves one I linked?

[sguyader]

Hard to find a Fairchild-type compressor with M/S.

Did you try the Waves one I linked?

No. I don't need it personally. But since you already mentioned it, I tried to find alternatives and there are not many.

[jamcat]

Hard to find a Fairchild-type compressor with M/S.

Not really. The T-RackS Vintage Compressor Model 670 does M/S.

Now if you had said “Hard to find a Fairchild-type compressor with M/S for native Apple Silicon” you would have a point, since T-RackS is still not M1 native.

[martinjuenke]

I still judge the Waves one as the best.
Sorry ladies.

[astralprojection]

noone mentioned SPL iron yet, just checked it out and tried for the first time. Seems like an upgraded 670 and sounds awesome

[Googly Smythe]

noone mentioned SPL iron yet, just checked it out and tried for the first time. Seems like an upgraded 670 and sounds awesome

I mentioned that I use Iron in the third or fourth post. I'm broken hearted that you didn't see it and I am going to sit in the corner and sulk.
So there.

[astralprojection]

noone mentioned SPL iron yet, just checked it out and tried for the first time. Seems like an upgraded 670 and sounds awesome

I mentioned that I use Iron in the third or fourth post. I'm broken hearted that you didn't see it and I am going to sit in the corner and sulk.
So there.

You know, I really did think I'd seen someone mention it in the thread, but when I re read it I didn't see it, so I assumed I'd remembered incorrectly. My apologies dear sir.

[imrae]

Let's talk about IRON some more anyway. The emphasis and rectifier options are pretty cool. But the gain staging is really awkward: you have to drive it quite hard to use the full compression range, and the gain controls are in 2dB increments so it's difficult to set up fair A/B tests.

Also there was a massive Gearspace thread where people found that it truncates the input to 24-bit, which is really fine for a track compressor but seems odd for a mastering tool. Also aliasing, but there seems to be little agreement on whether it reaches a problematic level. It's just, again, a bit unexpected for something that presents itself as a hi-fi mastering compressor.

I like IRON in the bouncing/kissing regime but don't entirely trust it in deeper grungier dense-ifying territory.

[astralprojection]

Wow okay thats great info.. I've yet to try it on a full mix but aliasing and truncating seems slightly worrying. I will do more tests with it.

[Googly Smythe]

Let's talk about IRON some more anyway. The emphasis and rectifier options are pretty cool. But the gain staging is really awkward: you have to drive it quite hard to use the full compression range, and the gain controls are in 2dB increments so it's difficult to set up fair A/B tests.

Also there was a massive Gearspace thread where people found that it truncates the input to 24-bit, which is really fine for a track compressor but seems odd for a mastering tool. Also aliasing, but there seems to be little agreement on whether it reaches a problematic level. It's just, again, a bit unexpected for something that presents itself as a hi-fi mastering compressor.
...

I heard about the aliasing, but apparently it can only be measured, not actually heard, as in, you can see it on a graph, at very high frequencies, but you can't hear it. As you say, the jury's out. As for driving it to get more compression, there is the Headroom control, which really increases the compression amount. The 2dB increments - yeah, weird. I suppose that's why they gave us faders!