Comparison
UnFairchild plug-in vs. hardware
We sell both, at $149 and $9,995. Nobody has less incentive to oversell you one of them than we do. Here is how to choose.
The hardware
The UnFairchild 670M II is a twenty-tube, fourteen-transformer vari-mu compressor. It is the real circuit: the weight, the transformers, the behavior of actual tubes under actual program material. It processes one stereo path at a time, it lives in a rack, and it is the version of this sound that exists in the physical world. $9,995, through dealers, with a two-year warranty.
The plug-in
The UTA-D UnFairchild plug-in is a painstaking recreation of the same unit, built with MIXLAND under Eric Valentine's direction. It runs as many instances as your CPU allows, recalls perfectly with your session, and adds three controls the hardware does not have: output level, wet/dry mix, and an overall THD control. $149, perpetual license, 14-day free trial.
How to actually decide
| If this is you | Get this |
|---|---|
| Mixing in the box, want the sound on many tracks | Plug-in |
| Need perfect recall across dozens of sessions | Plug-in |
| Tracking and mixing through an analog chain every day | Hardware |
| The mix bus is the centerpiece of your sound | Hardware, with the plug-in for everywhere else |
| Not sure yet | The free trial. That is what it is for. |
The part most companies will not say
For most engineers, most of the time, the plug-in is the right first move. It costs 1.5 percent of the hardware and carries the same design DNA. The hardware earns its place when your workflow is genuinely analog, when clients are in the room, and when the mix bus deserves the real iron. They are not rivals; they are the same idea at two scales.
Quick answers
Does the plug-in sound like the hardware?
The plug-in was built with MIXLAND under Eric Valentine’s direction as a painstaking recreation of the 670M II, modeled against the hardware. It also adds software-only controls: output level, wet/dry mix, and an overall THD control.
Can I run more instances of the plug-in than I own hardware?
Yes, and that is the point. One hardware unit processes one stereo path at a time. The plug-in puts the circuit on every track, bus, and stem you want, simultaneously, for $149.
Which one should I buy first?
Start with the plug-in trial; it is free for 14 days. If the sound becomes core to your records and your work runs through an analog chain, the hardware is the destination. Many UTA customers end up with both.