The linuxDSP FC70 limiter is now available. Inspired by the classic Fairchild 670 limiter, the FC70 emulates the fully balanced transformer-coupled design of the original using innovative DSP to provide a delay-free feedback topology, replicating the original circuitry.
Includes the Lateral / Vertical and Independent Left / Right stereo modes of the original hardware, together with a stereo Linked mode more suitable for conventional stereo operation.
A soft-knee limiting curve provides level dependent compression / limiting for smooth effortless dynamic control.
There is a mono version planned - though as with the real hardware, the (Fairchild 660 Mono limiter) is a slightly different design to the stereo. I’m always hopeful that with A3 it will be possible to just put a stereo plugin in a mono channel (perhaps it already is).
is it suitable as a mastering limiter for modern mastering purposes?
It is if you want it to be - it has character, whether that is appropriate depends on what you want to achieve. A lot of people use the original - or modern replicas - on a master buss, with just a few dB of limiting to ‘glue’ the mix together.
The original was designed as part of the mastering process (literally) - its function was to stop over-modulation of master disc-cutting lathes which is why it has very fast attack. (The lateral / vertical mode refers to the movement of the cutting head - equivalent to ‘middle’ and ‘sides’ in modern terms).
I can see this becoming a no-brainer replacement for the LADSPA fast lookahead limiter across my master bus on everything…
Oh, and KVR Audio have the “Analog Signature Dual Limiter LM-662” that claims to do exactly the same thing at a price of $149 (MSRP) and doesn’t run on Linux, of course.
@LeatusPenguin: There was a deliberate decision not to link the controls, mainly with regard to the two (stereo) channels, to stay true to the original design. The thinking being that while it is possible to make these things happen on a digital version, not doing so causes you to think differently and perhaps approach familiar tasks in a new / different way, in much the same way that similar ‘limitations’ of the original hardware do - and as such is as much a part of the emulation as getting the processing correct.
“I am sure they are worth it tho, just like the Ardour/Mixbus combo, great plugins are worth the cost to have a good setup running under Linux!”
My comment has nothing to do with the price of each plugin, believe me I HAVE paid more! I fully understand how investing so much time for so little return feels, and I meant nothing derogatory in my comment
All I meant was that to grab them all at once was an “ouch!” moment is all…
@smurf: I appreciate that it seems expensive, however I can assure you that the cost of development and the lack of ‘economies of scale’ which there might be on platforms with a larger user-base makes the GBP 20 - 30 which we charge for a plugin the absolute minimum possible. An important distinction to be made is that this is not like someone writing some software in their spare time on a computer they would probably own anyway - once a business is operating on a commercial basis (which in this case it needs to be in order to guarantee the resources and importantly, time, for producing what is hopefully a high quality product) the actual cost of doing business - and that means making the product available, as well as testing it, advertising it and all the administrative nonsense, go up exponentially.
I can assure you no-one is getting rich out of this, and the hours are insane - as an example the personal cost of developing the Pultec EQ was almost enough to persuade me never to attempt anything like it again, so for anyone who thinks that GBP 25 - 30 is a lot for such a product, I can appreciate that, but I can assure you I had to pay a lot more to get my copy of it
@seablade: They look very impressive - I’d be the first to admit that you can’t beat the ‘real’ analogue hardware, something just gets lost going through a sound-card, no matter how good the emulation is (but I believe its very close), but at least with the digital versions you can have as many as you want - I think each (Pultec) hardware EQ is only a mono unit (at least that was the case with the original originals…)
I can assure you no-one is getting rich out of this, and the hours are insane - as an example the personal cost of developing the Pultec EQ was almost enough to persuade me never to attempt anything like it again, so for anyone who thinks that GBP 25 - 30 is a lot for such a product, I can appreciate that, but I can assure you I had to pay a lot more to get my copy of it :)
Interesting timing at it’s best! For those that think they are paying to much for the Pultec EQ or other plugins from LinuxDSP, you can now go back to the originals…
For the measly starting investment of $2500, you can completely avoid using LinuxDSPs $45 plugin:)
Seablade
PS Not really picking on anyone, just found the timing humorous. I literally JUST got an email from Sweetwater advertising the Pultec EQs being back in stock, complete with huge graphics trying to grab as much attention as possible.
