Description
Description
The A I r c h I l d Six Sixty Compressor is our sonic interpretation of the famous vintage 660 studio compressor. Consistently regarded as the best compressor ever made. For years we have used the original 660 and 670 (Stereo) compressors in the studio and decided to try and make that sonic signature available to the guitar community without the $10-$100k price tag.
The typical iconic guitar compressor has created very recognizable tones throughout the history of music, especially Country music. That being said we felt that there were already too many clones of that legendary circuit with few other variants available.
The typical Iconic circuit tends to crush the sound more like a limiter but has also cemented that sound into certain genres of music which is a great sound if so desired. We wanted to make available a compressor that works like a studio compressor which enhances harmonic richness and evens out transients without crushing the entire spectrum. The A I R C H I L D Six Sixty simply makes you want to play more, it increases sustain without crushing your output, it imparts richness to your overall tone and adds feel to your playing. Our target tones were the slide tones of Lowell George and the singing lead/rhythm tones of Mark Knopfler.
OUTPUT - It may sound simple but output is a key feature to getting your compressor set properly. If you want to hear the full squish keep your output at unity or less (It is interactive with the threshold control so as you dial up the threshold your volume will increase so back off the output to hear the compression effect. If you push the output and hit the front of your amp hard it creates gain, therefore, compression gets lost. It will create sustain and harmonic richness but the compression effect will be harder to hear.
TONE - One of the biggest complaints about compressors is how they affect the EQ. A typical dynacomp will introduce noise and mess with the top end in an ugly way. The EQ on the AIRCHILD helps mitigate those typical issues and allows you to balance out the overall EQ to be natural. Turn the knob counter clockwise and it will introduce more bottom and less top, turn it clockwise and it will introduce more top and less bottom. This allows you to balance the EQ for your specific setup, every amp is different.
BLEND - Blend simply allows you to blend your dry signal with the compressed signal allowing for fine tuning so to speak.
THRESHOLD - Threshold in this configuration simply means more or less compression. All the way counter clockwise is fully off and all the way clockwise is fully compressed. You can then Taylor that to your preference by using the blend control to balance it out to your requirements. Please experiment with the threshold control and keep in mind how interactive it is with the output control. The more output the more gain so the effect will be less noticeable with a hotter output. Using compression is a fine art so use your ears and your inherent feel to dial it in to your taste.
POWER - 9V/DC negative tip only!!! 20mA Draw. (No internal battery option)