Toni Fishman, founder and CEO of microphone designer/manufacturer TELEFUNKEN Elektroakustik, has announced the launch of Fairchild Recording Equipment LLC, a new company offering a recreation of the Fairchild 670 vacuum tube compessor microphone after five years of extensive R&D and precision testing,
Available in very limited numbers, the new 670 utilizes the same tubes, custom-wound transformers and is built to the original specs. The architecture, point-to-point soldering and turret-style construction make it an authentic recreation of the original 670 designed and built by Rein Narma at the request of recording innovator Les Paul in 1959.
Fishman and the Fairchild team recently completed a nationwide tour with initial demonstrations at top Souther California recording studios, including The Village, Steakhouse Studios, After Hours and Music Box. Following demonstrations took place throughout the Midwest and East Coast with an extended presentation at Blackbird Studio and the purchase of the new 670 for the Nashville facility.
Los Angeles-based producer/mixer/engineer Rafa Sardina, an 18-time Grammy and Latin Grammy Award-winner, states, “It is so commendable what Toni Fishman has done – nobody else has had the guts to do it this way. Other attempts that I’ve heard lack that real Fairchild gain structure and tonal balance. Many original vintage 670s don’t sound right because of age and bad servicing. I’ve worked with this new Fairchild 670 in my studio with my own recordings and I really pushed it. I did A-B comparisons and the stereo was perfectly matched left and right, no artifacts at all.”
Used on numerous hit recordings over the years, unique combination of tube driven amplification and gain reduction gives the 670 a wider range of compression effects, from subtle and transparent to heavy and pumping. Fishman’s new Fairchild 670 compressor is recreated to provide modern producers and audio engineers with the classic sound of the first intelligent automatic volume control limiter.
The dual-channel design and unique compression characteristics make the Fairchild 670 capable of adding warmth, depth, and character to virtually any audio signal. The vacuum tube technology used in the 670 adds a natural, organic quality to the compressed signal.
Key features: dual mono operation, six selectable time constants, threshold, compression, makeup gain controls, VU metering, hand-wired point-to-point construction, custom-designed transformers, tube-driven amplification.
Applications: vocals, drums, bass, guitars, strings, piano, brass, orchestral instruments, mix buss/mastering.
Sweetwater Sound, Inc. and Vintage King Audio have been named initial domestic dealers. European dealers include Klemm in Austria, Germany and Switzerland; Funky Junk in France, Italy and Spain; Cyber Farm in Denmark and Sweden; SX Pro in the UK. Asian dealers include MID in Japan; Gearlounge in South Korea, and Budee in China.
