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The Mercury Recording Equipment Co. 666 Overview and Comparison to the Tube-Tech CL-1b

The Mercury Recording Equipment Co. 666 is our favorite compressor release of 2023! It’s a highly elevated homage to the Fairchild 666 from vintage audio guru Dave Marquette. Since the Tube-Tech CL-1B has been back ordered for years we have been looking for a replacement and we think we have found it. Take a tour of the Mercury 666 and check out our sound samples comparing both on a female singer, male rapper, drums, and bass.

Interested in hearing the Mercury 666 in your studio? Contact Providence Sound And Vision today and we’ll set up a demo at your studio so you can hear the Mercury Recording Equipment 666 in person and in your workflow.

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Jeff Ehrenberg: 

Hello, Jeff here with Providence Sound And Vision. Welcome to our video featuring the Mercury 666, one of the most exciting and interesting compressors to be released in years.

In this video, we’ll review the features and provide some sound samples to show why we are making such a bold statement about this piece. We’ll also share some sonic comparisons between the sound of the 666 and Tube-Tech CL-1B. 

Both are premium tube units manufactured in small batches by experts, and we love the CL-1B. Unfortunately, it’s on back order for many years so might consider the Mercury 666 as an alternative to the CL-1B, that performs at the highest level.

Before we get into the Mercury 666 I’d like to take a moment to introduce David Marquette who’s behind Mercury Recording Equipment. David is a pioneer of boutique audio with roots going back to 1994 before there was a sea of boutique audio manufacturers.

At that time, engineers who wanted premium audio equipment would take mic pres, eqs and compressors out of vintage consoles like Neve, API and Telefunken and mount those modules into rack mount chassis so they could use these components in the studio without the need for an entire console. 

David Marquette was one of the first to offer this service and to this day he has the only shop we know of still racking up vintage modules. 

In his four decades of working on tens of thousands of vintage pieces, David has learned from the masters of audio design and upgraded these designs to be more durable and compatible with modern studio workflow. 

With the Mercury 666, David pays homage to the Fairchild 666 while improving durability, integration and workflow. Both the Mercury and Fairchild 666 are hybrid tube and solid state compressors. Whereas the better known Fairchild 660 and 670 are all tube.

While we love the legendary Fairchild tube units, the solid state hybrid is much more affordable and there’s a case to be made that it’s more functional in modern production and when used in stereo for mastering and stereo bus.

For one, the signal path has a lower noise floor. Noise floor was not an issue in recording to tape because tape has a higher noise floor and hiss. When producing a clean, clear vocal or mix the noise floor could be an issue. 

The other benefit of the 666 design is the solid state gain reduction element, which is highly accurate especially in stereo use. The Fairchild 670 design uses the infamous variable MU gain reduction control handled by tubes which can drift as tubes age throwing off the compression balance in the stereo and can make recalling a mix or master challenging.

You might ask – don’t tubes sound better? Yes. They sound great – but the tubes used in the variable MU design are not in the signal path. They control the gain reduction but do not touch the audio itself. The Mercury 666 does have a tube output stage for that harmonic tube glow on the way out.

As a bonus for mixing, mastering, and recall every control on the Mercury 666 has detents for easy stereo matching and recall. This feature usually costs extra on the mastering version of other audio equipment, and it’s included complimentary with every 666. 

At $3,888 US for a single, or $7,776 for a pair – this is a tremendous value for a premium compressor handmade in small batches by a master craftsman in the United States.

The modern studio no longer needs racks and racks of outboard gear, most want a few premium pieces that they can use on everything while tracking drums, bass, guitar, synth and vocals. Then, turn around and use the same piece for the mixing or mastering session. 

In a couple minutes, we’ll demonstrate a variety of sounds through the Mercury, but we encourage you to demo this piece for yourself in your studio. Please reach us at provsv.com or DM us on social media to set up your demo.

Now, lets take a tour of the front panel controls of the Mercury 666 and then we’ll show some sound samples of how you can cover all your needs with this piece. 

Starting with the left side, we see a link switch. This enables the compressor to be used in stereo, when the link is on, with a jumper cable on the rear that connects two units.

Next we see the beautiful kidney-shaped VU meter with zero control. Sometimes VU meters can drift, all you have to do to get back to zero is set the meter to gain reduction, lower the output gain all the way and use the zero dial to bring the meter back to zero.

The OP or GR switch lets you view either gain reduction or output on the VU meter.

Threshold is just like any compressor, this is the point where compression or gain reduction begins.

There are two side chains on the 666, the highpass side chain with option 90 or 150 Hz settings will prevent the low end from triggering the compressor, allowing for more bottom end. This is a modern feature not found on the vintage 666.

The insert switch connects to an insert loop on the rear, which allows for inserting external outboard gear for custom side chain effects, or keying a signal like kick drum if you want to pump or duck the compression in time with the kick.

Next, we see a Baxandall EQ that is after the compression stage. The baxandall EQ is a broad, gentle tone shaping EQ that massages the sound of the source rather than imparting its own character. Many pay thousands for a Baxandall EQ on its own, here it’s built into the Mercury 666.

Returning to the top row of controls we see 11 presets for attack and release. The first 6 positions are exactly as found on the original 666. Positions 7 through 11 in red are additional settings paying homage to other classic compressors. Positions 7 and 8 are calibrated for use with vocals and we’ll hear those in a moment compared to the CL-1B. Position 9 is set to match the attack and release of an LA-2A. Position 10 matches the single slope mode of a Gates STA-Level, and position 11 matches the Gates Double Slope mode. 

Already, we see a ton of versatility and flexibility in this piece. 

Here we have the Output Gain control – this drives the tube output stage and allows you to make up the gain the compressor is dipping.

And here we see a unique feature called DC Adjust. DC adjust is whats happening in the tube variable MU design, but in the solid state domain we have complete control and recallability.  Between less and more it sounds like the difference between a soft knee or hard knee compressor.

To get used to this unique control, we recommend starting with the knob near More, dialing in the compressor to the gain and speed settings you want, and then playing around with the DC adjust. 

Moving back downstairs we see a hardwire Bypass so you can hear exactly what the 666 is doing to your music. 

And last, but not least, a wet/dry Mix to be able to blend the compressed and uncompressed signals.

So now we’re going to get into some sound samples but again, if you’re interested in this unit or anything else for your studio we invite you to our showroom in Los Angeles, or we’ll come to you and set up a demo in your studio so you can hear anything we offer with music and monitoring that you’re familiar with. 

You wouldn’t buy a car in this price range without test driving, so why would you buy a tool for creativity without experiencing it for yourself.

We are Providence Sound And Vision and we are here to help you sound your best. 

0:00 / 0:00
Drums - Mercury 666
Drums - Tube-Tech CL-1B
Bass - Mercury 666
Bass - Tube-Tech CL-1B
Female Vocals - Mercury 666
Female Vocals - Tube-Tech CL-1B
Male Rap Vocals - Mercury 666
Male Rap Vocals - Tube-Tech CL-1B

Female Vocals by Rora Wilde 
Male Rap Vocals by Aaron Strauss

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