Bomb Factory Fairchild Bundle

Bomb Factory’s Fairchild Bundle is a two plug-in set of plug-ins. I’m not sure what all of the formats are that this is available in, but I run an RTAS version of it on an Apple computer. It should be compatible with most systems, although definitely check to make sure that it will run with your system. I didn’t encounter any issues with installing this bundle, as it was as straight forward a process as you can have. Even if you don’t have experience using a real Fairchild, which I would imagine most users won’t, it’s easy enough to use these plug-ins without any help from a manual. The two plug-ins, which are essentially virtual versions of the Fairchild 660 and 670 compressors, are the same in make up and are very easy to use. Each plug-in has parameters for input gain, threshold, and time constant. The 660 is a mono plug-in, while the 670 is a stereo one. If you know anything about compressors, you should be able to understand how to use these plug-ins without hesitation.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

I’m currently running the Bomb Factory Fairchild Bundle at home on my Pro Tools LE system, and have also run it in professional studios on a Pro Tools HD system. At home I’m running it on a Mac Book Pro that has a 2.2 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 4 GB of RAM. I run Pro Tools LE 8 with a Digi 002R audio interface or a Digidesign Micro Box if I’m not working at home or in a studio. These plug-ins don’t take up much processing power at all, as I’ve always been able to run a bunch of them simultaneously without any lag on my computer. It will definitely depend on your system, but if you’re currently comfortable running your DAW and some plug-ins, you shouldn’t have any problems with this bundle.


OVERALL OPINION

While not the first compression plug-ins that I turn to while mixing in Pro Tools, these are definitely nice to have in my plug-in suite. They’re pretty much fool proof to use, and have a good enough sound quality that they can be used in a variety of situations. I mostly use the plug-ins on electric guitars, but also have used them on acoustic guitar and drums. They have their own sound to them, but definitely don’t come close to the sound of a real Fairchild, as should be pretty obvious. This plug-ins bundle is cheap enough that I’d definitely recommend checking it out if you’ve got Pro Tools or another compatible DAW.