video still
Fairchild 660
Fairchild
The Fairchild 660 is a mono tube compressor introduced in 1959. It was the first intelligent automatic volume control limiter. Designed by Rein Narma, the first ten units were built by him. The first unit went to Rudy Van Gelder, who used it to cut lacquer masters for Blue Note Records and Vox Records. It functions as a compressor (2:1, threshold 5 dB below normal) or peak limiter (30:1, threshold 10 dB above normal), with fixed 1/10,000-second attack and variable release. Its push-pull amplification and high control voltage yield low distortion, low noise, and no audible thumps.