Although he only stayed briefly with the company in the late 1950s, Narma left behind an awesome audio legacy, the Fairchild 660/670.
Stories differ as to how Sherman had heard of Narma and his new compressor/limiter, but in any event Rein agreed to license the design to Fairchild, and Sherman hired him on as Chief Engineer of the company. Sherman created Fairchild Recording Equipment Company in 1931 to manufacture professional audio and broadcast gear. Sherman had numerous inventions and companies, many of which involved his two passions, photography and audio recording. While at Gotham, Rein developed the plans for a compressor/limiter, which he took with him when Gotham folded and he started his own company.Įnter Sherman Fairchild, heir to the fortune of his father, (one of the founders of IBM), and a genius in his own right. During his career as an audio engineer in the 1940s and 50s, Rein was frustrated by the limitations of the gear then available, and was one of the founders of Gotham Audio Development in 1954, whose purpose was to build quality audio components for professional use. Rein Narma was a genius inventor born in Estonia, who escaped the ravages of World War 2 and emigrated to America while working for the U.N.
