Fairchild 660 Compressor in 500 Series Format!! By Anamod AM660

[nobtwiddler]

Greg will be here tomorrow, Friday....along with a few friends for a small BBQ I'm having at my studio..
Will get the scoop then.

Just hope I remember whatever he tells me....?
3 Belgian beers on tap....

[sevendaysoff]

pendulum audio told me if i ordered yesterday it would ship within 1 week MAX

[raal]

there's one space left in the 11 space rack, but i'd like two AM660s. shite.

[pan60]

Originally Posted by nobtwiddler

Greg will be here tomorrow, Friday....along with a few friends for a small BBQ I'm having at my studio..
Will get the scoop then.

Just hope I remember whatever he tells me....?
3 Belgian beers on tap....

please give us you thoughts: )~

[raal]

nobtwiddler,
please get the scoop on 500 series ATS-1 modules, 8 unit rack or whatever.

[piotr]

pendulum audio told me if i ordered yesterday it would ship within 1 week MAX

I was told the same thing in an email from last week.
I didn't actually order, so can not confirm if this actually works out this way...
but would love to hear from anyone that did!
;-)

p.

[RoundBadge]

Console ...slots ...waiting...

[pan60]

i spoke with Gregg today, and he said they would be shipping next week!

[Chris]

Iiiiiii... want one.

[jeep]

iiiiiii wanna hear one!

[DJamesGoody]

Originally Posted by nobtwiddler

Greg will be here tomorrow, Friday....along with a few friends for a small BBQ I'm having at my studio..
Will get the scoop then.

Just hope I remember whatever he tells me....?
3 Belgian beers on tap....

We just heard a pair last night at the BBQ, and it was quite good. Firstly, while there wasn't a 660 next to it to compare, it certainly gave me *that* feeling. It worked swimmingly on bass, and quite good on a vocal track as well. We didn't run full program through it, but my sense is that it would do what you'd expect. The addition of the 2A and 2B release presets seemed to be effective, especially for modern material.

And, as Greg said, the meters are actually usable and accurate - a welcome breakthrough. Also, they nicely dim when the unit is in bypass.

Mind you, we were at the tail end of a *beer* session, so we didn't put it through ALL of its paces - but the thing sounded REALLY good - certainly a must try for anyone that needs to fill that world in their 500 rack, or anyone who doesn't quite have the scratch to buy a 660.

[raal]

Originally Posted by RoundBadge

Console ...slots ...waiting...

seeing as you have real 660s i'll be looking forward to your comments on that one.

[nobtwiddler]

As Dan stated above....it was the end of our BBQ & beer drinking party last night when we finally plugged them in.
But Greg, left one here fpr me to play with.
So far I have this to say.

It does exactly what they stated it would,
Works beautifully, and sounds even better.... (some kinda black magic me thinks?)

Does it sound like an original....who knows?
Although let me say this....Greg had an original 660 in his car last night, the one he modeled the new units from, and he offered to bring it in for all of us to compare to...
But it was late, we all had a few beers (Belgian I might add)
I'm sure we wouldn't have made any real quality decisions at that point in the evening, So I opted not to do a comparison at that time and instead just listen to the Anamod 660 by themselves.

The fact that Greg brought the original Fairchild with him for all to hear, leads me to believe he's very proud of his & Dave's work, and sure of what the results would have been if we had listened to it.
If you know Greg & Dave you understand what I'm saying.

As for me, I could care less if it is an exact reproduction of his unit?
I judged it on it's own merits.
It sounds exactly like what I expected it to sound like, and is yet another flavor I now have to pick from in my choice of a 500 format compressors!

Let me add....
It does wonderful stuff on vocals, bass, acoustic guitar, and overheads...

A little more experimenting later today.
I will do some comparisons with my Api's 525, and the Purple Audio Action comps!
But I already have an idea of what to expect.
Each has it's own thing.
Simply put, they have a winner! And I'm going deeper in ebt.
What else is new?

Greg told me the first units have shipped...
So look for more info coming in soon from fellow slutz.

[RoundBadge]

Originally Posted by nobtwiddler

It does exactly what they stated it would,
Works beautifully, and sounds even better.... (some kinda black magic me thinks?)

Thanks good to hear Paul.thumbsup
do you still have the ADL beast around?

[pan60]

Originally Posted by nobtwiddler

As for me, I could care less if it is an exact reproduction of his unit?
I judged it on it's own merits.

Originally Posted by RoundBadge

Thanks good to hear Paul.thumbsup

yes, thank you Paul!

[nobtwiddler]

Hey Badge;
Yes, the Big ole ADL 670 is right here where it belongs!
It ain't ever leaving!
In the meantime,
I took the Anamod out of the Purple Sweet Ten rack to take a size comparison shot for ya
Haha...
Boy this makes it a reality for me to take the sound of a Fairchild on my location sessions.
Obviously I will be listening to both of them very closely either tomorrow or Monday.

Oh,
Anthony DeMaria was also in attendance for the festivities yesterday.
I must say we all had a blast!

Good food, drink, and of course, great people!

[robot gigante]

Originally Posted by nobtwiddler

As Dan stated above....it was the end of our BBQ & beer drinking party last night when we finally plugged them in.
But Greg, left one here fpr me to play with.
So far I have this to say.

It does exactly what they stated it would,
Works beautifully, and sounds even better.... (some kinda black magic me thinks?)

Great news.

I'm happy for any good sounding new gear on the market, regardless of whether or not it exactly gets the sound of the original. Love that Fairchild squish though, so if they do something like that then I'm exited to try them.

Keep us posted!

[Mike Caffrey]

Originally Posted by nobtwiddler

As Dan stated above....it was the end of our BBQ & beer drinking party last night when we finally plugged them in.
But Greg, left one here fpr me to play with.
So far I have this to say.

It does exactly what they stated it would,
Works beautifully, and sounds even better.... (some kinda black magic me thinks?)

Does it sound like an original....who knows?
Although let me say this....Greg had an original 660 in his car last night, the one he modeled the new units from, and he offered to bring it in for all of us to compare to...
But it was late, we all had a few beers (Belgian I might add)
I'm sure we wouldn't have made any real quality decisions at that point in the evening, So I opted not to do a comparison at that time and instead just listen to the Anamod 660 by themselves.

The fact that Greg brought the original Fairchild with him for all to hear, leads me to believe he's very proud of his & Dave's work, and sure of what the results would have been if we had listened to it.
If you know Greg & Dave you understand what I'm saying.

As for me, I could care less if it is an exact reproduction of his unit?
I judged it on it's own merits.
It sounds exactly like what I expected it to sound like, and is yet another flavor I now have to pick from in my choice of a 500 format compressors!

Let me add....
It does wonderful stuff on vocals, bass, acoustic guitar, and overheads...

A little more experimenting later today.
I will do some comparisons with my Api's 525, and the Purple Audio Action comps!
But I already have an idea of what to expect.
Each has it's own thing.
Simply put, they have a winner! And I'm going deeper in ebt.
What else is new?

Greg told me the first units have shipped...
So look for more info coming in soon from fellow slutz.

You should have had him bring it in.

I believe that if you put the anamod side by side with the original and sent them a tone and flipped the phase on the outputs, you'd have cancellation from 0-20dB of gain reduction - it that's true to the original.

[nobtwiddler]

Mike;
Looking back I agree.
But I never doubted, Greg or Dave's ability to conjure up magic from this little box.

Like I said in my earlier post.
Judged simply on what it sounds like on the few tracks I've used it on over the last few days... it's worth the price of admission....
It gives me exactly what I'm looking for NO EXCUSES~!

It's yet another color I can add to my palette of sonic colors.
What makes this so important for me personally is the fact I can now have this sound in a 500 series format.
Very important for my location sessions with the 8 track label I'm partnered with.

The fun continues tomorrow~!

[Chris]

What do the insides look like?

[3rd world order]

Originally Posted by Chris

What do the insides look like?

i'm betting there's a big black epoxy encased module inside...

[PlugHead]

Exciting news - thx for the update Paul.

As always, another 'must-have' item for 500 format folk.

damn - somethings gotta give - got one more space, but need 2 of these.

decisions, decisions...

Maybe I'll be thinking clearer on Monday...

[Audi Uh Oh]

How does the electronics approximate the tube sound of the Fairchilds?

Is this their "secret" and/or anyone gain any insight into this?

Thanks guys!

Adios

[polybonk]

I have looked on the site and can't find anything. Maby because I am ignorant about the 500 modules in general that I ask this, but is the unit mono ore stereo?

[Dirty Halo]

Did or COULD Anamod post sound files of THEIR Fairchild next to their Anamod 660?

I think that would be HUGE!

-andrews

[raal]

Originally Posted by Dirty Halo

Did or COULD Anamod post sound files of THEIR Fairchild next to their Anamod 660?

I think that would be HUGE!

-andrews

+1.

[DJamesGoody]

Originally Posted by 3rd world order

i'm betting there's a big black epoxy encased module inside...

The ones we saw were not epoxied. It was all in the open. Greg was very forthright in his explanations of the unit. Don't ask me to repeat the specifics, because a few pints of Guiness and a lack of intimacy with quantum physics precludes me from reciting them!

[Mike Caffrey]

It's simple. They digital model something - tape, Fairchild, whatever.

Then thy use a method that they've developed to take the modeled information and regenerate it with analog circuitry rather than digital math via a plugin. Analog + modeling = AnaMod.

[nobtwiddler]

Insides are there for all to see....
Not that it's gonna do ya any good....

Now, back to the music!

[fuddfar]

I received my Ana Mod 660 today and just tested it against Ser. No. 44 Fairchild 670 and against our 1966 LA2A as a reference. It is amazing! I'm fully aware of the difference between an original 660 and 670, but it is so close to the 670 it's unbelievable. The characteristic that I was looking for was the ability to heavily compress a vocal, not lose any highs, and to sit in a track like I can do with the 670 but not have to tie up the 670 during a mix where it resides on the 2 bus. Although the knob settings were different, I got what I was looking for with 3db of compression. I set the return levels on our DMX 100 to be the same and listened back and forth about 50 times. This is just what I was looking for. The LA2A was compressing about 8db on the same peaks and I was starting t hear it work. I love the LA2A but it just can't do what I'm talking about. If I had to point out one difference the 670 has a bump around 700Hz and gave the vocal a little "chest", the 660 was not quite there and that's OK by me when using it on an individual track. Greg and Dave knocked it out of the park in my book.