The Fairchild sound?

[144dB]

Hey all,

 

 

 

The Fairchild 670 is a revered vintage compressor, and I'm curious if there is a good audio example of what makes it so well known. The Beatles are mentioned frequently, but I don't know if they used it on vocals, on guitar, on drums, or on the whole track as a buss compressor.

 

 

 

If a song comes to mind that really smacks of Fairchild, please reply.

 

 

 

Thanks in advance.

 

 

 

 

[nat whilk II]

These are examples where they really pushed the Fairchild hard -

 

Ringo's drums on Sgt. Pepper - those huge, resonating toms. Also the cymbals - they would have Ringo's kick trigger the compressor on the cymbals, to get that bwooOOOSH bloom on the crashes.

 

Paul's piano on Lady Madonna - very, very compressed thru Fairchild

 

According to a Sound on Sound article titled "Classic Compressors;

 

Geoff Emerick always put the Beatles' vocals through it [the Fairchild 670] for precisely this reason: "Just the sound of the amplifier, even if you didn't do any limiting, just added a certain presence.”

 

nat whilk ii

[onelife]

I don't say this with any authority but "Taxman" sounds to me like the entire mix is pushed through one.