Fairchild Tube Limiter Collection

The Headroom (HR) control can be increased to make mastering applications a breeze, raising the gain reduction threshold and lowering distortion. Conversely, you can decrease headroom, lowering the gain reduction threshold and raising distortion for grittier textures that work on everything from vocals and drums to guitar and bass.

A Parallel Mix control lets you blend your unprocessed signal with the compressed signal, opening worlds of textural possibilities on everything from a drum bus to a mix bus.

By using the Fairchild’s Sidechain Filtering, you gain another level of control over your tracks. Use it to punch up the drum bus to enhance its impact without triggering the threshold of the compressor with the kick drum.

Although the Fairchild Tube Limiter Plug-In Collection nails the classic sonics of yesteryear, it also sports useful new features for modern workflows.

In 2004, Universal Audio released the Fairchild 670 Legacy plug-in, which was quickly heralded as the best 670 emulation available. Today, UA’s team of DSP experts have improved the original Time Constants and gain reduction curves, while modeling — for the first time ever — the complete tube-powered amplifier and transformer sections of their hardware counterparts. Far beyond other Fairchild emulations, only the new UAD Fairchild Collection is based on an accurate circuit models of Ocean Way Studios' “golden-reference” units.

Combined with the Electro-Optical (LA-2A) and FET-based (1176) compressor plug-ins, the Fairchild’s unique tube-driven sound completes the compression “Triple Crown.” Renowned for its aggressive power on piano, bass, and guitar, the 660 is a stereo/mono version of the original mono compressor, while the flagship 670 is a full stereo compressor that can inject vibe and color into tracks or add the final touch to mixes.

The first Fairchild limiter that audio genius Rein Narma created on Les Paul’s kitchen table transformed recording forever. Soon, these 20-tube, 14-transformer, 67-pound behemoths resided in world-class studios, many of which still employ their vintage Fairchilds. For a half-century, the Fairchild 670 — and its aggressive little brother, the Fairchild 660 — have defined popular music’s most revered vocal and drum sounds. In fact, the world’s elite mixers often employ a 670 simply for the “glow” it brings to their final mixes, even without compression happening.