UnderTone Audio UnFairchild 670M II

The UnderTone Audio UnFairchild - Recreating A Beloved Compressor

Under the banner of UnderTone Audio, famed producer and engineer Eric Valentine (Smash Mouth, Good Charlotte, Queens of the Stone Age, Slash) has released an incredible new compressor, the UnFairchild. As an avid fan of the original Fairchild 670, a tool he has utilized on countless records, Valentine was looking to create a more affordable take on the classic unit that would still deliver its trademark sound. In the UnFairchild, UnderTone and Valentine have created a replica compressor that stays true to the characteristics of the original while also expanding the unit to be more flexible in the modern studio.

Breathing Life Into A Classic Compressor

The Fairchild circuit could be one of the most coveted and time-tested compressors of all time. It has proven its extraordinary universal musicality for over 5 decades on countless genres of music. The beauty of its design is in its simplicity. The audio path, primarily consisting of only 2 transformers and 4 paralleled vari-mu tubes, can provide a gentle smoothing of levels or an explosive, energizing compression that will make any recording leap out of the speakers. The UnderToneAudio UnFairchild is a painstaking recreation of the classic sound of this circuit.

A Fairchild With Flexibility

There are a few limitations of the original Fairchild that UnderTone set out to address. First, they have made careful adjustments to the circuitry that greatly improve the lifespan and reliability of the tubes. Additionally, they have added a whole host of exciting new features that have never before been available on a Fairchild. The UnFairchild sports 6 original preset Time Constants and 4 variable Time Constants (attack and release), MS function, side chain processing, a true bypass, fine adjustment of left/right balance, user adjustable "DC Threshold", and "Feed-Back" vs. "Feed-Forward" functionality. With the UnFairchild, UnderTone made this extraordinary circuit flexible enough to handle pretty much every compression task on any style of music.