In this article: ''One bedroom is filled with a vintage API console, a huge Doepfer modular analog synth, and an effects rack with a Fairchild 670, Pultecs, 1176s and vintage Neve and UA modules.''

Used for vocals on "a couple of songs" from Continuum, as stated by recording engineer Chad Franscoviak in this October 1, 2006 Mix Online interview.

For Mayer's vocal chain, Franscoviak says that most of the songs were recorded with a Neumann U47. For a couple of songs, he sang into a Neumann M269c, and on “I'm Gonna Find Another You,” which was recorded at Royal Studios in Memphis, he sang into Al Green's RCA 77 ribbon mic. From there, the chain included a Neve sidecar stocked with 1073 mic pre's and then a UREI silver-face 1176. “On a couple of songs, we did experiment with splitting his vocals into two channels — one of them would be kind of a clean and one of them would be kind of a gritty — and we would take the second channel and put it through a Fairchild 670 and really crush it,” Franscoviak explains. “Then we would either blend it together or choose one or the other for the mix.

“[Mayer] loves hearing his vocals really compressed, so he can be as dynamic as he wants to and it always sounds present to him,” he continues. “He likes way too much reverb when he's tracking, and then when we proceed into the mix, it will be reeled in a little bit. Generally, I will compress lightly going to tape or Pro Tools, and then in Pro Tools cream it with usually the Renaissance Vox.”

Paul McCartney is associated with the Fairchild 670 Compressor-Limiter, as mentioned in the Hog Hill Mill Blog's "Outboard" post.

In the YouTube interview "KERWIN FROST TALKS TO MAC DEMARCO," the Fairchild 670 Compressor-Limiter is visible behind a green chair, indicating its presence in Mac DeMarco's studio setup.

Geddy Lee uses the Fairchild 670 Compressor-Limiter, as confirmed by Richard Chycki during the recording of Rush's "Caravan." Chycki stated, "The fourth and last channel is what we call the ‘stun channel’. This is an Orange AD200 MKIII 200‑Watt bass head that’s cranked to the hilt and going through an 8x10 cabinet. This is miked up with a Sennheiser 421, through a Neve 1073 and into the other side of the Fairchild 670." This information was provided by Sound On Sound.

During the recording of Channel Orange, Frank Ocean's vocals were tracked using the Fairchild 670 Compressor-Limiter, as well as the CL1B, by producer Malay. This information is verified by a discussion on the Gearspace forum specifically addressing the production techniques employed on Channel Orange.

Used on John Mayer's Continuum, as stated by recording engineer Chad Franscoviak in this October 1, 2006 Mix Online interview. It was the same unit used for Mayer's vocals.

For Mayer's vocal chain, Franscoviak says that most of the songs were recorded with a Neumann U47. For a couple of songs, he sang into a Neumann M269c, and on “I'm Gonna Find Another You,” which was recorded at Royal Studios in Memphis, he sang into Al Green's RCA 77 ribbon mic. From there, the chain included a Neve sidecar stocked with 1073 mic pre's and then a UREI silver-face 1176. “On a couple of songs, we did experiment with splitting his vocals into two channels — one of them would be kind of a clean and one of them would be kind of a gritty — and we would take the second channel and put it through a Fairchild 670 and really crush it,” Franscoviak explains. “Then we would either blend it together or choose one or the other for the mix.

(...) Jordan's assortment of drums — which seemed to be endless, Franscoviak says with a laugh — were miked fairly conventionally: an AKG D 112, an RE20, a 421 or a Beyer M88 on the kick; snares got 57s on top and bottom; M88s on the toms; an AKG 451 on hi-hats; and on overheads, he either used a U67 or U87.

The only trick that Franscoviak used, which he fully admits stealing from Joe Ferla, was putting a Coles 4038 ribbon mic directly over the center of the kit, parallel to the ground and as close in as possible without impeding Jordan's playing. “I generally compressed the snot out of that and I would run it through a Fairchild,” he says. “That's a really interesting trick because you have all of your tight sounds, but you add that 4038 and it makes everything more exciting.”

He also put a U47 about 18 inches off the ground and four to seven feet in front of the kick drum for a very specific sound. “At some point, we were going to hit that low-end waveform just right and it was going to fill that kick drum out,” Franscoviak explains. “I would compress it a lot with an 1176, a lot harder than the overhead, because I wanted that low end to be there for every hit.”

Used on the rooms mics for Only by the Night, as stated by producer Jacques King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview.

"I had half a dozen mics up for the room sound: a Neumann U67, M49, AKG C12, RCA 44, and/or a Royer SF12 in the echo chamber. I'd leave the door to the echo chamber open so the sound of the drums was happening in there as well, and I'd move the room mics around to get the sound that I wanted for a particular song. I would then bus different combinations to the two room tracks, depending on the song. In the case of 'Sex On Fire' I used a U67 and an RCA 44 for Room 1, and an RCA4 4 and an SF12 for Room 2. Some of these mics went through Neve preamps, some through an old RCA tube mic that Blackbird customised. The combination of room mics was bussed through a Fairchild 670."

Used for Winehouse's lead vocals on "Rehab", as stated by mix engineer Tom Elmhirst in this August 2007 Sound on Sound interview.

Lead vocals

• Urei 1176 blackface compressor, Pultec EQ, Fairchild compressor/limiter, McDSP F2 Filterbank, Waves Q10 Paragraphic EQ, Waves De-esser, Great British Spring reverb, EMT plate reverb.

"I am not a techno snob, I'll use whatever I can to make a great record. Simple as that. I do try to keep compression and EQ analogue, unless it's EQ to notch out specific frequencies, in which case plug-ins are more precise and effective. Amy is a very dynamic singer. She has a lot of bite in her voice, but I wanted it to sound warm and not take your head off. I often use the Renaissance Q10 EQ for radical reductive EQ'ing, and you can see this in the settings I used on Amy's voice. I'm cutting four frequencies by 18dB; in two cases, 465 and 917, with a Q of 100! That's a really heavy notch. At 3107Hz the Q is only 13.7, so that's quite wide. Taking off 18dB here is enormous, but that's what it was.

"There were specific frequencies in Amy's lead voice [the track labelled 'AmC'], that were bugging me. It may be due to hundreds of things, perhaps to do with the microphone that was used on the day. Don't get me wrong, it was not a bad vocal sound, but she does have some hard frequencies in her voice. There are a few tracks on the album that I did not mix [instead they were mixed by Gary 'G Major' Noble], and you can hear on them what she sounds like without the EQ I applied. I also use McDSP's Filterbank F2, probably shelving around 40Hz, and the Waves De-esser cuts around 5506Hz. Amy is not hugely sibilant. The threshold here is 22, which is not that high for me. There would probably be no more than 3dB of de-essing.

"In addition, I was also filtering with a Pultec outboard EQ and on the board as well. The outboard chain on Amy's vocal was Pultec, going into a Urei 1176 blackface compressor, going into a Fairchild compressor. On the Pultec I was probably adding around 12k, just to brighten it up a little bit, adding air. The Urei will have been set with a very fast attack and a super-fast release, doing perhaps 10dB of compression, while the Fairchild will have had a very slow release. I can't quite explain what this does, but in my head the Urei will catch anything that jumps out, while the Fairchild will pick up the slack and keep a more constant hold of the vocal -- ie. smooth things out. During the mix I'll be constantly playing with these two compressors; it's not something I set up and then leave. How hard the signal coming from the Urei hits the Fairchild affects the sound a lot.

"The vocals had a spring reverb which would have been tracked when they recorded Amy, at Chung King Studios in New York. I also recorded an EMT plate on the vocals at Metropolis. You can see both at the bottom of the Edit screen. I spent a lot of time on the vocal, and I would regularly come back to it. Late in the evening of the first day of mixing 'Rehab' I would have the vocal pretty much in the track all the time, and after that I'd constantly be tweaking it a little bit. I don't just do it and leave it. You're getting constantly closer to the final mix, but it's not immediate."

Although the Fairchild model goes unspecified in the Sound on Sound interview, it is specified in a September 2010 Electronic Musician interview covering Mark Ronson's Record Collection, the pertinent fragment of which survives online via Soundgas pages here and here.

I used a lot of external reverbs: a Fairchild 670, old spring reverbs, and a couple 1970s Pioneer Reverberation Amplifier Model SR-202s. They’re old home hi-fi units; they’re not normal! I am not a fan of digital reverb, so I have a few springs I really like... Spring reverb was a big part of the Winehouse record, and it’s in Mark’s sound as well. I use two or three different springs on a track and even on the vocal.

"The room I mix in a lot has two Fairchild 670s"

Marroquin finds that creating stems as he mixes makes for more efficient mixes later on. Based on an audio post-production methodology, he'll create submixes of guitars, drums, percussion, keys and even background vocals. The key, says Marroquin, is to compress these stems, rather than the overall stereo mix. "I'll send individual elements, like the kick and snare, to their own compressors," he explains. "I'll put them on separate busses and send them to a Fairchild 670

Renowned producer and engineer Vance Powell utilizes the Fairchild 670 Compressor-Limiter to infuse warmth and character into his tracks. This classic piece of studio gear is known for adding harmonics and punch to vocals and drums, thanks to its tube-driven gain control and advanced sections. A user-uploaded photo confirms Powell's use of this iconic equipment in his setup.