I actually bought a Distressor

Tadpui

Well-known member
I know, not very exciting news but I'm really stoked!

I've been lusting after an Empirical Labs EL8 Distressor for a long time now, but they're so damn expensive for a single channel of compression. And total overkill for some no-name hobbyist in his basement.

Regardless, I persevered with my ideal price in mind. I spent a couple of months with my offers being rejected and ignored on Reverb and eBay. But today I finally found a seller on Reverb willing to let one go for my price.

Another win for Reverb, another loss for my reputation with my wife! Actually she congratulated me since she knew how long and hard I'd been looking. She's an amazingly cool chick. With a separate bank account :D
 
Go Girl! :)
I sprung for a Mike-e a few years back.
Definitely a bit of splurge.. But very sweet
Will you be mixing with it, tracking..?
 
I'll try it on pretty much everything. Figure I'll use it during tracking for bass and vocals, maybe during mixing on kick and snare. And in another decade when I can afford a 2nd one, I'd like to try them in stereo on a drum buss or even as glue on the master bus.

I just learned of the Mike-e recently. Looks like a handy strip, and I bet that it sounds terrific. EL really seems to do a good job on everything they make.
 
waiting for a review update and rating after some use..... come on and be honest is it really better than the software version?
 
I've seen these on eBay, high end studios etc for years and often wondered what they are like.
So after 3 weeks have you had a chance to try it out? Results?
 
I've seen these on eBay, high end studios etc for years and often wondered what they are like.
So after 3 weeks have you had a chance to try it out? Results?

I have had some past experience with them as well in high end studios. I always loved what they were capable of.

The price and connectivity of my studio allows use of a couple now so I am curious also.
 
There is a software version?

I dont know, I assumed there was a software version. why wouldnt there be? Its a compressor, right?

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The Distressor is the product that started it all for Empirical Labs. Born of founder Dave Derr’s love of classic compressors like the 1176, LA-2A and Gain Brain (among others), the Distressor incorporates his favorite sonic characteristics of these, along with other unique and interesting features that have made it a staple for audio engineers all over the world.>
 
I forgot about this thread!

The day I got it in the mail I racked it up, pugged it into the patchbay, and gave it a try on vocals, bass, acoustic guitars, kick, snare, and on a mono drum bus. Being day 1, I didn't get too fancy but I found it easy to get along with on each source.

Vocals especially could achieve a lot of gain reduction before it got too nasty, even at higher ratios. Acoustic guitar worked well with the hi-pass filter in the detector circuit, but I didn't fiddle with it long enough to find a setting that didn't still pump when the low notes boomed (on a big loud dreadnought). Kick and snare were really easy to crush the hell out of, almost any setting sounded pretty damn good.

It's been a crazy few weeks of family drama and end of season yard work so I haven't had much time do mess with it since then. I went down the other day to play and now the thing is on the fritz. The perils of buying used...

I made a YouTube video of the issue and sent it to the company. Dave himself replied, made a couple troubleshooting suggestions, which I have yet to find time to try. But I'll probably have to send it back to the mother ship for a refurb. Friggin bummer...
 
Ive had some bad-used from GC last few times. I got burnt on shipping, but the return was no hassle.

Hope you get it repaired easily, ..."mother ship"...funny

maybe a drone will come pick it up for you?
 
I too have been dreaming about getting a distressor as well! Glad to see someone pulled the trigger and got one! $1000 is just too much for me right now - one day though!

As far as software goes, I talked with the owner of Empirical Labs about 2 years ago and he said they will NEVER license any modeling of the distressor. But I did come across a freeware (or really cheap) plugin someone made on the internet recently. If I find it, I'll post a link.
 
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