Hey all, I’m curious about Fairfield Circuitry pedals I came across lately. Considering acquiring some pedals and I do like the sound the Fairfield Circuitry pedals are providing/emulating. Namely Shallow Waters and Meet Maude. I’m interested in vintage lo-fi sound, and it seems they can do it perfectly, at least from the videos I’ve seen. I’m interested in how you are finding them.
I was also considering Strymon Flint or Deco and now Fairfield Circuitry. I know they are different pedals, in my opinion, they all are doing their vintage emulation perfectly. I already have Space, Timeline, El Capistan, MF 108M, and 12 stage phaser, Fusion Box. I’m somehow really into pedals atm, i donno why, maybe need some time off with the synths. I was also considering Empress Reverb.
Anyhow, what do you think of Fairfield Circuitry pedals?
I’ve been using the Shallow Water with both the OT and DK as a way of introducing some non-linear pitch fluctuations and tone shaping (via the LPG circuit). It’s coped well with all sorts of inputs - guitars, mica, synths (Abyss and P600) and random YouTube videos. It’s helped add a little glue to make disparate samples mesh together. I love it - it’s a thing of beauty and my favourite pedal if I want a subtle lo-fi tape vibe.
All the samples in the track below were captured via the SH into the DK:
I’ve owned the whole range at various times with the exception of the Barbershop and the Shallow Water, but have only used them with guitar. FWIW, the Meet Maude is an exceptional delay. Im pretty fussy about delay and have been through tonnes of them, and the MM is probably on balance my second favourite behind only the MF104M. Its FULL of character, lovely dark gnarly, wobbly repeats. It’s pretty unpredictable and tricky to tame which I see as a plus, but it doesnt really do “standard” delays, so wouldnt recommend as your only delay. Very tough to beat for character though - I’d love another. It’s not geared for line level though, and I’ve discussed it at length with Guillaume with reference to potentially getting one for my Deckards. He has said that it’d be susceptible to some additional “graceful” clipping, and recommended that an attenuator might be advisable for synth use.
I own a Meet Maude and love it to death. It has random pitch modulation available via the switch which I believed served as the inspiration for the Shallow Water later down the line. Additionally the switchable compressor really works wonders on the feedback, keeping the oscillation from running away from you. One thing to remember is the Tone and Repeats are linked, and the higher the tone value (ie more treble) the less repeat value you need. It’s an awesome, living, breathing interconnected thing like that.
A frequent collaborator of mine has a shallow water and it’s absolutely gorgeous and sounds great on everything.
I personally really want a Randy’s Revenge. I love ring modulation and it seems like an awesome bit of kit.
I put my Shallow Water thru Timelines dTape engine. Working beautifully.
Another pedal to consider, that’s similar to the SW, is the Red Panda ‘Tensor’. It has a few more tricks than the SW, like tape reverse, and overall I find it a bit easier to find the sweet spots that behave better across playing dynamics (guitar) where as the SW is highly responsive to that, which is both a blessing and sometimes a curse of the SW.
The Meet Maude sounds great. Never had another pedal that does what it does. Loads of great, deteriorating, otherworldly character. The Shallow Water is also great, but can be a bit more subtle. It does that random modulation, kind of like an old wobbly tape deck thing. Great for adding movement to your sounds.
I’ve owned a few Fairfield Circuitry pedals. I currently own a v1 and a v2 Barbershop. Both are awesome. I used to own a Randy’s Revenge serial #69 which I bought from Guillaume years ago. Really great pedal company IMO/IME.
I have used the Shallow Water as an effect send with my mixer. It gives some interesting warm wobbling and nonlinearity. I haven’t competed a project with it though.
I’ve got two Shallow Waters and use them as a stereo pair all the time. I really love everything about these pedals. The LPG is very suitable for a wide range of synth sounds and works perfectly with the MnM sound imo.
Like in any great pedal design the controls are very interactive so its a real joy to tweak them.
I did switch the inputs to line level.
Maybe some day I’ll order two Long Life EQs for my stereo chain as well. They seem to sound lovely for synths and have CV inputs.
I did switch the pads on for a line level input but I haven’t touched the LPG switches yet. Before getting them I was a bit worried how the pedals react when the mix is not full wet because of the phasing but it turned out to work incredibly well.
At 3 o’clock is my usual go to because it then preserves some of the original tone and allows more depth and less smoothing with modulation. Also then its more interesting to have the LPG cutoff/threshold lower for more dynamic response.
I don’t quite understand why all the chorusing and phasing is so musical and not blurry at all when the mix is not 100% wet, especially in a stereo setting. In the past I’ve had huge difficulties with this kind of setups.
I was also considering Empress Reverb.
would prefer rather stereo for delay.