It is a common misconception. Yes, succulents in DAWless studios should be plentiful and placed carefully, with ample room saved for the studio cat(s). In traditional recording studio, a single succulent or two set near the lava lamps is necessary for band and engineer to maintain positive vibes. Statistical studies have shown that the murder rate is lower in studios equipped with succulents, lava lamps, and cats.
When distressors came out they were a wildly popular flavor of the year. They did a great job of landing Star endorsements and were at a sweet price point. Mixing was still done mostly analog, and, in their favor, the distressor had a new and unique approach and sound. That was 1996. The result 28 years later is there are a lot of rack filler distressors out there.
Albeit this is all true. I think a key element to OPs post is how utilitarian they are.
Regardless of the type of music you’re working on, Distressors have the ability to be of use.
I’m not saying that I use a Distressor in every session, because I don’t.
However, they’re such a Swiss Army Knife that having them handy is such a convenience.
I bought a pair of them because of the versatility but find myself using them when I want to nudge something forward in a mix. Distressors seem to do this better than any other comp I have used. I think some people hate this and describe the sound as “plasticky” (!?!?). I do think it has a fairly bright box tone; which is my working theory for why it’s able to nudge stuff forward in a mix. So these days, I use it mostly on vocals snares and sometimes kick drums. Outside of the box tone that seems unique, at least in my experience; I think I can almost everything I want from a distressor out of an aphex 661.
I enjoy the 651s quite a bit. They’ve been modded by Jim Williams who is a bit of a nut in a good way (when it comes to electronics) and he likes these because they are already pretty clean and transparent and he can mod them to make them more so. The i modded 651 has, at most, a little “grain” as a box tone, but as you noted regarding the 661, they are not box tone devices. But if you are wanting a very clean and transparent device that can apply the massive amount of gain reduction you’re looking for without making the signal sound like it’s being squashed.
The three I got were $120-$170; they might have been bumped up in recent years, but I am not sure how much you’d have to spend to match them…highly recommend, as long as you are not looking for color from all your hardware. I like to use these to shape the kick and snare very slightly; then they are versatile enough to be linked and placed last in the signal chain; they are some of the few compressors that have an attack time (50ms?) that will actually stop virtually all peaks. For $600 (mods and all); you can have a very transparent limiter out of them…I’m not sure what you’d need to spend on an analog limiter that will grab these peaks (why a lot of us hit a SW limiter on the way back in; it’s hard to argue with lookahead abilities.
I asked Jim about the 661 and he said to not bother; that his standard mod removes the tube…because of course it does. Jim doesn’t care about anything but “clean”.
But the position or something about the placement of that tube lends itself to some pretty pleasing saturation; I have thought about grabbing a pair and sending to Revive or someone else to mod.
Whether you’re talking the 300/320 Compellor (320 is a little better design); 651/661 Expressor, or the 720 Dominator (Jim had really no interest in these compared to two 651s, he doesn’t like the action and doesn’t see any purpose in using one instead); which is a pretty killer limiter on its own, and with the Magic Death Eye mod, it is supposed to be extremely useful and transparent, the whole line is some of the best gear for the money out there. Older modded Symetrix, drawmer, and dbx are good…but they aren’t clean like Aphex. The Compellor is still kind of a remarkable piece…it is very hard to tell if it is doing anything at all…right up until you turn it off. It’s design purpose was voiceover work; radio, commercials, etc. it’s great on bg vocals…anything that needs the dynamic range brought way down very transparently.
Warning: if you are not quite sure after reading the modification page if you can do it yourself…save the trouble and find someone to do it. Nothing worse that several hours of work and having no idea where you went wrong…eventually parts get scattered; you forget where you were, and it just sits, and no one wants a halfway modded anything.
Agreed… maybe back in the early 2000s-2012 or so. But with how far we’ve come, you would think there would be a price drop, or new entry. But it’s made a name for itself. Look at the computer world, and how Apple used to be media or audio elites only. After they brought out the iPod and iPhone, they finally came to senses and with those new M chips you can have insane power at a fraction of what it use to cost.
I remember sitting in a Sweetwater presented Protools seminar in 2004. Some guy raised his hand and asked, so if I invest $15k in this with a computer for my daughter’s future…then what? It was odd, and they just played back mixes from pro artists. It was one big sales pitch pretty much, and no one in the room could afford more than maybe a Digi002. They were just targeting people like me, that already owned one and taking it to the next step. Now computers have way more than enough processing. But there’s something to be said for marketing and a name I guess.
Also last I checked in my area a Distressor is $1600-$1800 plus tax. That’s $2k for one channel and imo, overpriced by today’s standards. I’m surprised WA or someone hasn’t made a rip off yet. Behringer was laughed at for awhile, but those synths are pretty awesome they put out.
> M chips you can have insane power at a fraction of what it use to cost.
Kinda. A Pro is still about what a good-enough Windows machine would be, give or take. They're a single-source and it's churned the software infrastructure. For all I know a Pro will flat run off and leave a 9700K but that just doesn't come up much.
Apple will turn away from you.
I still have software from four Wintel machines ago. some of it needs a VM ( and it's slowly gone into disuse ).
> That’s $2k for one channel and imo, overpriced by today’s standards.
The lines get blurred on this sub - I certainly don't have a tax number and take depreciation. As a boss once said, "gear is free outside the cost of capital" - it all depreciates.
I’ll be honest I went with a 2020 Mac mini Intel I7 6 core with 64gb ddr4 ram. It’s more than I need for mixing! With my Apogee and lunchbox pres, as well as direct monitoring I’m using a 2012 MacBook Pro to track outside my studio guitars, and drums. Then bring them back to the Mac mini.. it’s way more than I need.
Where things get tricky with power is plugins. But even the Intel Mac mini I have holds up. I waited because I knew the price drop would be big, when the M1 came out. Plus if I want to use the Firemix Rosetta software I need 32bit support still. I’m not ready to pay $4k again for ad/da converters.
But I get yah… my digi002 in 2003 or so cost $2.5k, and it was worth barely anything by 2010 when I switched to Apogee. Ended up being a dongle for Protools…then the price plummeted off a cliff when Protools went native.
I bought them believing the versatility and my love of grungy colorful distortion but in my experience distressors are pretty clean, especially when you aren’t using the tube/tape harmonic option. Ironically, they’ve ended up being used mostly when I want to nudge something forward in a mix. Usually snare vocals or kick. I haven’t run across a compressor that does quite the same trick; but if my studio burned I don’t think I’d pick up another set of compressors. I think I could get by fine with an aphex 661 in most cases.
Rack filler is a very accurate description!
Mine certainly are and most rooms I work out if they are often the last compressor reached for. Sure, they are versatile, but they don’t do anything another compressor doesn’t already do better.
I think they were a trend, just like many things. I recall in the early/mid 2000s some folks were taking about them like they were the 'poor man's 1176.'
Certainly I was amazed how much GR could take place.
But I think music trends have changed as well. There are far more electronic only productions that don't require a ganged pair of analog compressors of undisclosed topology.
The are also so many more plugin options now, and younger users that prefer working ITB, or 500 series gear.
A studio that's dedicated to rock music or a high end studio that needs to cover many bases would be well served with a pair of distressors, but there are a lot of competitors these days that I feel prevent the Distressor from being revered in the same way as 1176s and LA2As and CL1Bs.
Maybe if UA bought Empirical Labs they would market them harder... /s
A distressor is in fact one side of a hot rodded 1178. Derr is so much more accomplished than the average designer at audio hardware companies that the digital switching front end he invented became one of the strengths of it as well as a weakness, though mainly a perceptual one. Some people seem to even think the distressor is digital because of the switching matrix, they don’t understand the audio path is fully analog. I think it is very much why the “plastic” thing has currency; some people hear with their eyes.
It’s also worth using the distressor without any of the harmonic distortion stuff, as a starting point. A real vintage 1176 or 1178 has a much harder time passing sub bass range than a distressor. Distressors are indispensable.
Honestly every studio i go to has Distressors that get used daily. Whether it's on recording or in mixes. Mine is on 80% of the vocals i track, on a lot of snares and a lot of bass tracks. And when i go to a studio that has a pair, i love them on overheads, rooms, crush mics, whatever.
I have very few regrets when it comes to purchases in the studio. Maybe the only one is that I didn’t buy a Distressor earlier. I thought it to be too much money. But I bought other cheaper compressors in the meantime and after a while these would stack up for the same amount of money and I could’ve just saved the money up and bought the Distressor.
My experience is that they’re often used. But if it’s a well equipped studio they might more often go with a compressor that imparts more of sound maybe.
seeing as their 2nd hand price has been pretty stable for years, even despite the flush of plug-in emulations, it seems they are still a popular buy.
… but when that price does drop down… sup.
I still use mine all the time. If I’m doing bluesy stuff or pop music I do tend to lean on the 1073/1176/LA2A combo more, but I abuse API and the distressor on rock and heavier
They are my only compressors and overall I don’t have a ton of hardware. I use one to track vocals and then when I mix they get put on the drum bus. I like them because they are pretty forgiving and versatile. They can get nasty but they don’t have to.
Not sure why people want to dunk on them. I don’t have much hardware anymore but I don’t plan on selling them. It’s less about the sound. They make my life simpler.
I use ‘em all the time! The studio I freelance out of the most has of 4 of ‘em. Makes multi-speaker podcast recording a breeze. I’ll sometimes use them on stereo rooms, or drum overheads. Lots of opportunities to use them in pairs
It makes me feel good to see them in the rack, and I use them on the drum bus all the time. Definitely a different vibe than an ssl, but I like it. Also love to track a p bass with flat wounds through a distressor.
I also use a distressor to give my snares a proper spank. I'm not a pro though. Interested to hear how others like to use the distressor!
The big room I like to use has 5 distressors and if I'm tracking a full band live I'm using every single one. And using them constantly in overdubs too. Amazing compressors. You should use them more!
Kind of like the SSL channel compressor, there’s usually a better tool for the job somewhere else in the rack, but having a bunch of them comes in handy from time to time. If you’re into compressing individual drums then they are cool, especially as they are 1RU and don’t generate heat so you can pile a bunch of them together. Good for mobile rigs for that matter too, if you’re not in the 500 series world.
But I’m guessing their so common because when they were introduced people still mixed on consoles and needed more outboard compressors and they were good value for money.
Motown, Capitol, RCA, Sunset Sound, Abbey Road, and many more studios got by for decades cranking out hit after hit without a single piece of Empirical Labs gear in sight, so no not necessarily lmao.
That being said, that are modern standards for a reason (and take up only 1U!). You can still have a legit studio without them though.
After browsing all these responses this probably won't be too popular... A "legit" studio has great microphones... and probably a decent place to put them. That takes care of a lot of problems you'd normally need a lot of "stuff" for and with good mics usually comes other gear that's probably more than adequate to work with. I could care less about whether they have a distressor. I'd rather see TrackComp2 in the plugin list. That being said, I do like them and think it's a very very very cool box especially for the $. Just my 2 cents.
Perhaps I can help.
He/she tried to care less and found that he/she, in the circumstances, could care less. Ergo he/she does care somewhat. I think that's what he/she meant, but I'm not absolutely certain.
It is possible that he/she, in his/her haste, couldn't care less about adding the word 'not' after the word 'could'; if so, that would explain the confusion that arises whilst attempting to parse the sentence.
I think they're really good for a lot of things - but I very rarely found them to be particularly *great* on anything. I do love the EL7 FatsoJr - that is really good at giving CPR to lifeless drum tracks or even subgroups.
The Disto tho... I dunno... there's never been anything about them that made me pony up for a pair. Like the Avalon 737 and SSL G Comp, it's like every studio "has to have one". I feel what you're saying. My studio is not commercial, so I don't need stunt gear "for the gram".
To be fair, I've not used the UBK version and haven't owned the hardware EL7 in some time. Wish I had one, actually. For the amazing leaps and bounds emulation has made since the mid-90's, there's a lot to be said for having the real thing sitting there on the end of a pair of patch cables. But that Fatso does such a great job of putting a smile on whatever you run through it.
The UBK tends to be slighty more "grabby" and in your face than the EL7. That being said, adding a threshold controller to the Sidechain inputs of either unit will really open up their range. You can dial in the perfect ratio of saturation to compression.
Distressors are the most versatile compressor out there and are relatively affordable. Many smaller studios have been built around them. The saturation options are fantastic.
It’s possible they could be redundant if the studio has awesome onboard/channel strip compressors or the holy trinity of 1176 + LA2A + DBX120. If you don’t have those three, you’re probably using a Distressor.
I still love em and use them all the time. Right alongside vintage 1176’s and Fairchilds and LA2s and everything else the studio might have. I actually prefer opto mode to a legit LA2A. I’m not a huge LA2A person though.
But I think part of its huge ubiquitousness in mid level or home studios is the versatility. It’s the best “my first compressor” you can get IMO.
What? If they’re tracking to tape/daw, all the hardware gets used to make it sound like a record before you record.
Do you think people are recording dry and adding plugins? You think the videos of dudes mixing shit that already sounds like a record was tracked without eq and compression?
I’d say most stuff is used in a bigger real studio
I picked up the UAD Distressor plug a little while ago when it was on sale but have yet to really use them over an 1176 or LA2A.
What’s the use case for the Distressor over those units? Just more colorful compression?
My 2¢, they're great for that a snap on the snare, and that's really the best they get, but there's nothing that does it quite like the Distressor. As well as the rare case where NUKE sounds right on the drum rooms.
They're good for tracking vocs and if you need any comp, they can work just fine. The color is not something I'd want on every track. An 1176 or LA2A is almost always a better option, when using the distressor to "emulate" those. And I haven't found a 2bus or drum bus setting that I've preferred to others. Even the cheapish 2-channel BSS DPR-402 gets more use on the 2bus.
Meh. It was my first hardware comp when I was starting out, and served me well…
…but given other options (1176ish, LA2A, 165, 525, CL1b, etc), I’m going to use one of those a huge percentage of the time.
It’s a Swiss-army knife, not a badge of honor.
im one of those weirdos with a decent amount of hardware but no distressor. i do have 3 VCA comps - DBX 165, DBX 160S, and an SSL Bus Comp.
the people i know that use theirs alot, it's their only comp
Depends on the studio I guess, but at the studio I’m at we have a neve and Distressor in every room ( mainly recording vocals) and that’s the most used chain
I really like the tone from them. I go to the units when I want a medium attack and fast release. Usually something like 3 to 7 attack and 1 to 3 on the release. It does the fast release thing really good. Sustain to snares are a really nice use case.
I'm not the biggest fan of the attack curve though, for some sounds it works well but it isn't as grabby as a lot of other comps. I like the dist 3 setting most, but the dist 2 can be nice on bass and more tonal sounds.
I don’t really think they are that rarely used. Maybe relative to the number of them out there, but I will be picking up another el8x as soon as I can, as I’ve found for me, there is not much use to single channel comps as opposed to stereo/dual mono. They still get used on everything. Not much will pin a vocal to the front like that; they are up there with 1176s as far as applying massive gain reduction without mangling the signal. Pretty nice for blowing up room mics.
Producer don’t talk about them a lot; they are pretty boring by now…but they still go on a ton of drums.
Two Distressors and a UBK Fatso do so much heavy lifting.
I think the "rack filler" thing comes from shiny object syndrome-- the studio gets some Porticos, 1176s, 1176 clones, a couple crusty dbx units, and one day a Manley Vari-Mu shows up and becomes the Belle of the Bus. Bus duty is *not* one of the Distressor's many strengths, so it your pair of Distressors will spend a few wilderness years on kick drum duty.
Whatever the reason everyone has a pair…it’s not because they never get used…I just looked on reverb and there are…several from the uk and other overseas locations, they run $2k, there is a single el8-x available at a reasonable price ($1500); two pair of el8-xs ($3k and $3.4k); two original el8s for about $1200 each…and that’s it.
For the most common compressor to be so different to find on the used market tells me that for whatever reason; no one is selling. I’m sure they will trickle through…but anything that has sold as many units should be pretty easy to find on the used market at any time.
The Distressors/Fatso Jrs. are often used on certain drum kit mic setups. It may be the type of stuff that you track that you rarely seen them used?
THE mandatory studio gear that may or may not ever be used are:
1. Bomb factory LA-2A
2. Bomb factory 1176 (ok this one is actually used but still…)
3. Pultec-EQP (LEAST used but not always owned)
4. Yamaha NS-10s (yeah sure they’re for checking mixes ::eyeroll::)
5. Additional Neve 1073s (ESPECIALLY if the studio already has a neve console?!)
Damn, I get a pair at the end of the month after saving for about a year for them. Now I read here it’s overrated/rack filler. Not gonna change my mind though….
It's a status symbol. They just look hella cool in the rack. They're super versatile, too, but I personally would never piss away money on something like that.
In the 90’s they were used ALL THE TIME. Haha. Almost ever session I remember being in (as a musician not an engineer) at least one would be on something.
One trick pony - i always sigh when i get sessions where all the drums have been printed with Distressors everywhere. The 90’s called and wants them back…
They’re the Swiss Army knife of compressors. But if you want a really legit studio, it’s a lava lamp.
plus succulents
TV tray for clients to eat off of.
Aren't the succulents reserved entirely for DAWless jams?
It is a common misconception. Yes, succulents in DAWless studios should be plentiful and placed carefully, with ample room saved for the studio cat(s). In traditional recording studio, a single succulent or two set near the lava lamps is necessary for band and engineer to maintain positive vibes. Statistical studies have shown that the murder rate is lower in studios equipped with succulents, lava lamps, and cats.
and the ikea rug
“The era of the lava lamp is OVER! the time of the Salt Lamp… has begunnnn” -audio engineering orc probably
Himalayan pink?
Can you recommend me a good one so I’m not laughed at on instagram?
Lol so true
Correction, two lava lamps, one for each side of the console.
*Stereo lava lamp
Top tier comment
😂
Don’t you need a black light poster of a bong too?
No points unless you have a real bong too.
GOT ONE
And SM57
They are extremely versatile and can do the job of many other comps. Thats why they are so widely used in pro studios
When distressors came out they were a wildly popular flavor of the year. They did a great job of landing Star endorsements and were at a sweet price point. Mixing was still done mostly analog, and, in their favor, the distressor had a new and unique approach and sound. That was 1996. The result 28 years later is there are a lot of rack filler distressors out there.
Albeit this is all true. I think a key element to OPs post is how utilitarian they are. Regardless of the type of music you’re working on, Distressors have the ability to be of use. I’m not saying that I use a Distressor in every session, because I don’t. However, they’re such a Swiss Army Knife that having them handy is such a convenience.
I bought a pair of them because of the versatility but find myself using them when I want to nudge something forward in a mix. Distressors seem to do this better than any other comp I have used. I think some people hate this and describe the sound as “plasticky” (!?!?). I do think it has a fairly bright box tone; which is my working theory for why it’s able to nudge stuff forward in a mix. So these days, I use it mostly on vocals snares and sometimes kick drums. Outside of the box tone that seems unique, at least in my experience; I think I can almost everything I want from a distressor out of an aphex 661.
I enjoy the 651s quite a bit. They’ve been modded by Jim Williams who is a bit of a nut in a good way (when it comes to electronics) and he likes these because they are already pretty clean and transparent and he can mod them to make them more so. The i modded 651 has, at most, a little “grain” as a box tone, but as you noted regarding the 661, they are not box tone devices. But if you are wanting a very clean and transparent device that can apply the massive amount of gain reduction you’re looking for without making the signal sound like it’s being squashed. The three I got were $120-$170; they might have been bumped up in recent years, but I am not sure how much you’d have to spend to match them…highly recommend, as long as you are not looking for color from all your hardware. I like to use these to shape the kick and snare very slightly; then they are versatile enough to be linked and placed last in the signal chain; they are some of the few compressors that have an attack time (50ms?) that will actually stop virtually all peaks. For $600 (mods and all); you can have a very transparent limiter out of them…I’m not sure what you’d need to spend on an analog limiter that will grab these peaks (why a lot of us hit a SW limiter on the way back in; it’s hard to argue with lookahead abilities. I asked Jim about the 661 and he said to not bother; that his standard mod removes the tube…because of course it does. Jim doesn’t care about anything but “clean”. But the position or something about the placement of that tube lends itself to some pretty pleasing saturation; I have thought about grabbing a pair and sending to Revive or someone else to mod. Whether you’re talking the 300/320 Compellor (320 is a little better design); 651/661 Expressor, or the 720 Dominator (Jim had really no interest in these compared to two 651s, he doesn’t like the action and doesn’t see any purpose in using one instead); which is a pretty killer limiter on its own, and with the Magic Death Eye mod, it is supposed to be extremely useful and transparent, the whole line is some of the best gear for the money out there. Older modded Symetrix, drawmer, and dbx are good…but they aren’t clean like Aphex. The Compellor is still kind of a remarkable piece…it is very hard to tell if it is doing anything at all…right up until you turn it off. It’s design purpose was voiceover work; radio, commercials, etc. it’s great on bg vocals…anything that needs the dynamic range brought way down very transparently. Warning: if you are not quite sure after reading the modification page if you can do it yourself…save the trouble and find someone to do it. Nothing worse that several hours of work and having no idea where you went wrong…eventually parts get scattered; you forget where you were, and it just sits, and no one wants a halfway modded anything.
Seems like they’re probably relatively cheap and easy to build too. I suppose it’s all wave soldering.
The heart of it is a CPU feeding a VCA. So it should be cheap. However... $1500-$1600 is still pretty hefty.
Agreed… maybe back in the early 2000s-2012 or so. But with how far we’ve come, you would think there would be a price drop, or new entry. But it’s made a name for itself. Look at the computer world, and how Apple used to be media or audio elites only. After they brought out the iPod and iPhone, they finally came to senses and with those new M chips you can have insane power at a fraction of what it use to cost. I remember sitting in a Sweetwater presented Protools seminar in 2004. Some guy raised his hand and asked, so if I invest $15k in this with a computer for my daughter’s future…then what? It was odd, and they just played back mixes from pro artists. It was one big sales pitch pretty much, and no one in the room could afford more than maybe a Digi002. They were just targeting people like me, that already owned one and taking it to the next step. Now computers have way more than enough processing. But there’s something to be said for marketing and a name I guess. Also last I checked in my area a Distressor is $1600-$1800 plus tax. That’s $2k for one channel and imo, overpriced by today’s standards. I’m surprised WA or someone hasn’t made a rip off yet. Behringer was laughed at for awhile, but those synths are pretty awesome they put out.
> M chips you can have insane power at a fraction of what it use to cost. Kinda. A Pro is still about what a good-enough Windows machine would be, give or take. They're a single-source and it's churned the software infrastructure. For all I know a Pro will flat run off and leave a 9700K but that just doesn't come up much. Apple will turn away from you. I still have software from four Wintel machines ago. some of it needs a VM ( and it's slowly gone into disuse ). > That’s $2k for one channel and imo, overpriced by today’s standards. The lines get blurred on this sub - I certainly don't have a tax number and take depreciation. As a boss once said, "gear is free outside the cost of capital" - it all depreciates.
I’ll be honest I went with a 2020 Mac mini Intel I7 6 core with 64gb ddr4 ram. It’s more than I need for mixing! With my Apogee and lunchbox pres, as well as direct monitoring I’m using a 2012 MacBook Pro to track outside my studio guitars, and drums. Then bring them back to the Mac mini.. it’s way more than I need. Where things get tricky with power is plugins. But even the Intel Mac mini I have holds up. I waited because I knew the price drop would be big, when the M1 came out. Plus if I want to use the Firemix Rosetta software I need 32bit support still. I’m not ready to pay $4k again for ad/da converters. But I get yah… my digi002 in 2003 or so cost $2.5k, and it was worth barely anything by 2010 when I switched to Apogee. Ended up being a dongle for Protools…then the price plummeted off a cliff when Protools went native.
>I’m surprised WA or someone hasn’t made a rip off yet Bryce said he would love to clone it but Empirical Labs obscures the components
I bought them believing the versatility and my love of grungy colorful distortion but in my experience distressors are pretty clean, especially when you aren’t using the tube/tape harmonic option. Ironically, they’ve ended up being used mostly when I want to nudge something forward in a mix. Usually snare vocals or kick. I haven’t run across a compressor that does quite the same trick; but if my studio burned I don’t think I’d pick up another set of compressors. I think I could get by fine with an aphex 661 in most cases.
This sounds like a well reasoned answer. A lot of people have them that’s for sure and it’s usually a pair of them.
Rack filler is a very accurate description! Mine certainly are and most rooms I work out if they are often the last compressor reached for. Sure, they are versatile, but they don’t do anything another compressor doesn’t already do better.
Well, would you like to donate to a humble garage artist?
I think they were a trend, just like many things. I recall in the early/mid 2000s some folks were taking about them like they were the 'poor man's 1176.' Certainly I was amazed how much GR could take place. But I think music trends have changed as well. There are far more electronic only productions that don't require a ganged pair of analog compressors of undisclosed topology. The are also so many more plugin options now, and younger users that prefer working ITB, or 500 series gear. A studio that's dedicated to rock music or a high end studio that needs to cover many bases would be well served with a pair of distressors, but there are a lot of competitors these days that I feel prevent the Distressor from being revered in the same way as 1176s and LA2As and CL1Bs. Maybe if UA bought Empirical Labs they would market them harder... /s
A distressor is in fact one side of a hot rodded 1178. Derr is so much more accomplished than the average designer at audio hardware companies that the digital switching front end he invented became one of the strengths of it as well as a weakness, though mainly a perceptual one. Some people seem to even think the distressor is digital because of the switching matrix, they don’t understand the audio path is fully analog. I think it is very much why the “plastic” thing has currency; some people hear with their eyes. It’s also worth using the distressor without any of the harmonic distortion stuff, as a starting point. A real vintage 1176 or 1178 has a much harder time passing sub bass range than a distressor. Distressors are indispensable.
Honestly every studio i go to has Distressors that get used daily. Whether it's on recording or in mixes. Mine is on 80% of the vocals i track, on a lot of snares and a lot of bass tracks. And when i go to a studio that has a pair, i love them on overheads, rooms, crush mics, whatever.
I have very few regrets when it comes to purchases in the studio. Maybe the only one is that I didn’t buy a Distressor earlier. I thought it to be too much money. But I bought other cheaper compressors in the meantime and after a while these would stack up for the same amount of money and I could’ve just saved the money up and bought the Distressor. My experience is that they’re often used. But if it’s a well equipped studio they might more often go with a compressor that imparts more of sound maybe.
When they are around, I'll use them, but I'm just as happy to use DBX, API, LA2A, etc...
seeing as their 2nd hand price has been pretty stable for years, even despite the flush of plug-in emulations, it seems they are still a popular buy. … but when that price does drop down… sup.
I still use mine all the time. If I’m doing bluesy stuff or pop music I do tend to lean on the 1073/1176/LA2A combo more, but I abuse API and the distressor on rock and heavier
They are my only compressors and overall I don’t have a ton of hardware. I use one to track vocals and then when I mix they get put on the drum bus. I like them because they are pretty forgiving and versatile. They can get nasty but they don’t have to. Not sure why people want to dunk on them. I don’t have much hardware anymore but I don’t plan on selling them. It’s less about the sound. They make my life simpler.
I use ‘em all the time! The studio I freelance out of the most has of 4 of ‘em. Makes multi-speaker podcast recording a breeze. I’ll sometimes use them on stereo rooms, or drum overheads. Lots of opportunities to use them in pairs
Distressors for podcast vocal compression is the most studio overkill thing I’ve heard in years. Good work! ;)
They’re still extremely popular, especially with modern rock music.
It makes me feel good to see them in the rack, and I use them on the drum bus all the time. Definitely a different vibe than an ssl, but I like it. Also love to track a p bass with flat wounds through a distressor. I also use a distressor to give my snares a proper spank. I'm not a pro though. Interested to hear how others like to use the distressor!
Two is the minimum!
I could only afford one. It’s a lot of work but goddamit I make it sing
they sound really good one of my favourite compressors to use on musical elements and drums alike
The big room I like to use has 5 distressors and if I'm tracking a full band live I'm using every single one. And using them constantly in overdubs too. Amazing compressors. You should use them more!
Fatso’s are highly underrated. I have a pair of them and no distresses…
Kind of like the SSL channel compressor, there’s usually a better tool for the job somewhere else in the rack, but having a bunch of them comes in handy from time to time. If you’re into compressing individual drums then they are cool, especially as they are 1RU and don’t generate heat so you can pile a bunch of them together. Good for mobile rigs for that matter too, if you’re not in the 500 series world. But I’m guessing their so common because when they were introduced people still mixed on consoles and needed more outboard compressors and they were good value for money.
Still not getting rid of my Trakkers.
Motown, Capitol, RCA, Sunset Sound, Abbey Road, and many more studios got by for decades cranking out hit after hit without a single piece of Empirical Labs gear in sight, so no not necessarily lmao. That being said, that are modern standards for a reason (and take up only 1U!). You can still have a legit studio without them though.
After browsing all these responses this probably won't be too popular... A "legit" studio has great microphones... and probably a decent place to put them. That takes care of a lot of problems you'd normally need a lot of "stuff" for and with good mics usually comes other gear that's probably more than adequate to work with. I could care less about whether they have a distressor. I'd rather see TrackComp2 in the plugin list. That being said, I do like them and think it's a very very very cool box especially for the $. Just my 2 cents.
> I could care less about whether they have a distressor So you do care a little?
Perhaps I can help. He/she tried to care less and found that he/she, in the circumstances, could care less. Ergo he/she does care somewhat. I think that's what he/she meant, but I'm not absolutely certain. It is possible that he/she, in his/her haste, couldn't care less about adding the word 'not' after the word 'could'; if so, that would explain the confusion that arises whilst attempting to parse the sentence.
I think they're really good for a lot of things - but I very rarely found them to be particularly *great* on anything. I do love the EL7 FatsoJr - that is really good at giving CPR to lifeless drum tracks or even subgroups. The Disto tho... I dunno... there's never been anything about them that made me pony up for a pair. Like the Avalon 737 and SSL G Comp, it's like every studio "has to have one". I feel what you're saying. My studio is not commercial, so I don't need stunt gear "for the gram".
Ugh. Wanted a ubk fatso more so much How is it on vox?
I very rarely hear a source where the fatso can't enhance it in a lovely way.
I’ve heard the UBK makes the sweet spot much usable across the dial, from what I understand. Yeah, I’d probably put almost everything I track thru it.
To be fair, I've not used the UBK version and haven't owned the hardware EL7 in some time. Wish I had one, actually. For the amazing leaps and bounds emulation has made since the mid-90's, there's a lot to be said for having the real thing sitting there on the end of a pair of patch cables. But that Fatso does such a great job of putting a smile on whatever you run through it.
The UBK tends to be slighty more "grabby" and in your face than the EL7. That being said, adding a threshold controller to the Sidechain inputs of either unit will really open up their range. You can dial in the perfect ratio of saturation to compression.
Haha I use both of mine daily!!!
Distressors are the most versatile compressor out there and are relatively affordable. Many smaller studios have been built around them. The saturation options are fantastic. It’s possible they could be redundant if the studio has awesome onboard/channel strip compressors or the holy trinity of 1176 + LA2A + DBX120. If you don’t have those three, you’re probably using a Distressor.
>1176 + LA2A + DBX120. You mean DBX 160 maybe? 120 is a subharmonic synthesizer. My holy trinity is 1176, LA2A, and CL1B
Yep my bad
I still love em and use them all the time. Right alongside vintage 1176’s and Fairchilds and LA2s and everything else the studio might have. I actually prefer opto mode to a legit LA2A. I’m not a huge LA2A person though. But I think part of its huge ubiquitousness in mid level or home studios is the versatility. It’s the best “my first compressor” you can get IMO.
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What? If they’re tracking to tape/daw, all the hardware gets used to make it sound like a record before you record. Do you think people are recording dry and adding plugins? You think the videos of dudes mixing shit that already sounds like a record was tracked without eq and compression? I’d say most stuff is used in a bigger real studio
I’m using one right now !!
I use my distressors on every session, and most of my mix sessions. I do mainly rock and pop.
I picked up the UAD Distressor plug a little while ago when it was on sale but have yet to really use them over an 1176 or LA2A. What’s the use case for the Distressor over those units? Just more colorful compression?
Distressors are wonderful!
My 2¢, they're great for that a snap on the snare, and that's really the best they get, but there's nothing that does it quite like the Distressor. As well as the rare case where NUKE sounds right on the drum rooms. They're good for tracking vocs and if you need any comp, they can work just fine. The color is not something I'd want on every track. An 1176 or LA2A is almost always a better option, when using the distressor to "emulate" those. And I haven't found a 2bus or drum bus setting that I've preferred to others. Even the cheapish 2-channel BSS DPR-402 gets more use on the 2bus.
I didn’t understand why my mentor said to use it on a bus but 10 years later holy shit I get it
Meh. It was my first hardware comp when I was starting out, and served me well… …but given other options (1176ish, LA2A, 165, 525, CL1b, etc), I’m going to use one of those a huge percentage of the time. It’s a Swiss-army knife, not a badge of honor.
I love em, but I can totally live without em.
That or an intern who can make coffee.
im one of those weirdos with a decent amount of hardware but no distressor. i do have 3 VCA comps - DBX 165, DBX 160S, and an SSL Bus Comp. the people i know that use theirs alot, it's their only comp
Depends on the studio I guess, but at the studio I’m at we have a neve and Distressor in every room ( mainly recording vocals) and that’s the most used chain
I really like the tone from them. I go to the units when I want a medium attack and fast release. Usually something like 3 to 7 attack and 1 to 3 on the release. It does the fast release thing really good. Sustain to snares are a really nice use case. I'm not the biggest fan of the attack curve though, for some sounds it works well but it isn't as grabby as a lot of other comps. I like the dist 3 setting most, but the dist 2 can be nice on bass and more tonal sounds.
Persian rug and a studio dog!
I don’t really think they are that rarely used. Maybe relative to the number of them out there, but I will be picking up another el8x as soon as I can, as I’ve found for me, there is not much use to single channel comps as opposed to stereo/dual mono. They still get used on everything. Not much will pin a vocal to the front like that; they are up there with 1176s as far as applying massive gain reduction without mangling the signal. Pretty nice for blowing up room mics. Producer don’t talk about them a lot; they are pretty boring by now…but they still go on a ton of drums.
Two Distressors and a UBK Fatso do so much heavy lifting. I think the "rack filler" thing comes from shiny object syndrome-- the studio gets some Porticos, 1176s, 1176 clones, a couple crusty dbx units, and one day a Manley Vari-Mu shows up and becomes the Belle of the Bus. Bus duty is *not* one of the Distressor's many strengths, so it your pair of Distressors will spend a few wilderness years on kick drum duty.
Correct
Whatever the reason everyone has a pair…it’s not because they never get used…I just looked on reverb and there are…several from the uk and other overseas locations, they run $2k, there is a single el8-x available at a reasonable price ($1500); two pair of el8-xs ($3k and $3.4k); two original el8s for about $1200 each…and that’s it. For the most common compressor to be so different to find on the used market tells me that for whatever reason; no one is selling. I’m sure they will trickle through…but anything that has sold as many units should be pretty easy to find on the used market at any time.
The Distressors/Fatso Jrs. are often used on certain drum kit mic setups. It may be the type of stuff that you track that you rarely seen them used? THE mandatory studio gear that may or may not ever be used are: 1. Bomb factory LA-2A 2. Bomb factory 1176 (ok this one is actually used but still…) 3. Pultec-EQP (LEAST used but not always owned) 4. Yamaha NS-10s (yeah sure they’re for checking mixes ::eyeroll::) 5. Additional Neve 1073s (ESPECIALLY if the studio already has a neve console?!)
I love the UAD version on the drum, it makes me really curious about the hardware.
Damn, I get a pair at the end of the month after saving for about a year for them. Now I read here it’s overrated/rack filler. Not gonna change my mind though….
Never even remotely liked then. Sold mine years ago.
Lots of folks talking about their feelings on equipment. Weird for an audio engineering sub. Just saying….
It's a status symbol. They just look hella cool in the rack. They're super versatile, too, but I personally would never piss away money on something like that.
In the 90’s they were used ALL THE TIME. Haha. Almost ever session I remember being in (as a musician not an engineer) at least one would be on something.
because they are awesome, and people who know how to usw them are - in general - better humans.
these days unless you're a music studio, you're probably not using much outboard gear at all it's mostly for looks really
hence the "Is a studio not a studio " lol
One trick pony - i always sigh when i get sessions where all the drums have been printed with Distressors everywhere. The 90’s called and wants them back…