empirical labs distressor - how pure is it?

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Booze_Cruise

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Im uming and ahing about wether or not to buy the distressor atm,
i basically want a compressor that has a lot bite to it, that can easilly squash a sound source. However i also want a degree of purity to what ever i put through my compressor. Is this asking too much of the distressor do you think?
the only other option i can think of is the cranesong trakker, although its maybe a little bit too expensive for my budget.... :rolleyes:
 
It seems like a lot of people are using these things, which doesn't necessarily make them good. I haven't gotten the chance to try one yet, but I can tell you that it's number two on my list of gear to buy. I've heard a lot of good things about that unit.
 
The Distressor does very invisible clean compression when you don't hit it too hard, although it is not known for that. If you start pounding the Distressor, then you get all the crunch, distortion and personality it is famous for. It's a top quality device, a great compressor.
 
As a first real compressor, I can't really think of a better one than a distressor. It may not be the one best comp out there, but I am not aware of one that sounds so good well doing so many tricks:) Its a very serious piece of gear and will often still get used a lot no matter how many and what other compressors you have.
 
I think you'll find the distressor to be a very good all around unit that can do a whole lot of things exceptionally well. Like anything, it does have the potential for abuse... but as long as you don't abuse it too much, you should be very able to attain the results you're trying to attain.

Best of luck.
 
The Distressor is not a 'purist' compressor, it's a 'slam it put it in it's place comp'. It will get relatively clean, clean enough for most rock purposes, but not as clean as a Trakker (about 75% at it's cleanest point). The Trakker is my first recommendation, but for more bang for the buck the Buzz Audio SOC 1.1 can't be beat. It's a fast opto (1ms attack), that is as pure as you could want. Clean enough for acoustic projects, classical, and all two buss applications (unless of course you want it extremely aggressive, which it won't do...however it is tight and punchy sounding). You get two channels for less than the cost of one mono Trakker.
 
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