Empirical Labs® EL8 Distressor
Customer Reviews
Empirical Labs EL8 Distressor Compressor
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A. Taccône
Simply fantastic
Great on Bass, Kick drum, Snare, etc etc but I think it's like mayonnaise
"It goes out of everything"
c. morrison
A Must have
Just incredible. Really didn’t want to spend the money but it’s so good. Raised the bar and gets even closer to analog in the box IMHO
P. Kostov
gamechanger!
This is a must-have tool for every mixing engineer! Its working so precise with the audio signal so i can do anything with it. But the thing i love most with this comp is extending the low end of a kick, using it on parallel kickbus. Thanks a lot for making this possible!
-. Trips
UA WINS the DISTRESSOR PLUGIN WAR!
Hands down, of ALL the emulations I have used, from FG-Stress, to Sknote Disto and Disto-S, to Empircals own Arouser, just to name the most recent.. this UA version absolutely takes the cake!
They don't call it "the swiss army knife of compressors" for nothing. And I have literally used this on everything since buying it. The other other similar plugin I am still using is Arouser. But if I was forced to pick a single Distressor emulation and ditch all the others, without a doubt, this would be the one.
E. Budzynski
Brilliant on all sorts of source material
A real swis army knife of compressors. This emulation can recreate all sorts of different compression from opto settings to more subtle light taming. Highly recommended. Plugins with many uses are always useful and this is no exception.
J. Lewis
One of my go-to plugins
If, like me, you are running a lot of UAD plugins on a relatively ordinary computer, you will at some point feel the CPU strain. The legacy versions will help a lot. And you will want to use those to make CPU room for the Distressor, which I find is by far the biggest CPU monster in my UAD system. This is an absolutely must-own plugin for me. It is utterly utterly killer, it is magic, it is bright, it is brutal, and it is colossal in the mix. I am a big fan of the Pultec, Neve EQ and 1176 legacy versions, and by using those legacy versions wisely, I can use my Distressor...even more wisely! This is one for your arsenal, without a moment of hesitation. You might not use it on everything, but you will use it where you should.
B. Gardiner
Ok, but nothing special
Nothing I can't so with other native plug-ins to be honest. It is quick to setup so if you are familiar with the Distressor interface then why not.
Just expect to be stung for a paid upgrade to the brit mod version some time soon!
B. Gardiner
Handy, but not that special
Nothing I can't do with other native plug ins to be honest. but setting up is quick so if the distressor interface is something your used to then why not!
Just wait and you will be stung for a paid brit mod update sometime soon.
M. Cartwright
best compressor in UAD I have used.
the blend knob is great. This thing can to lots of good things. subtle or smashed. I like it.
V. Trendel
Great !!!
It's just the best compressor created to date, if you do not know what it brings to the sound, you do not know much !
s. maitland
Softube/UAD Chandler Curve Bender plugin
Stunned, just awesome so useful and sounds so good.
J. Johnson II
I lOVE It!
It sounds like the hardware! End of story from me. Buy IT!
M. Kramer
The best.
Let me keep this short. This is the best Distressor emulation out there and I freaking LOVE it!
j. elliott
top of the heap
as an owner of 2 distressors, this is easily the closest plugin version out there currently... get it!
J. Park
Just like a Real Thing
I have 2 units of EL8-X and UAD is most similar things in plug-ins. Arouser is OK but they are complicated. FG-stress and Deflector are way to go.
c. nagel
WOW!
So nice to have this on the Drum-Bus- So easy to get great sounding drums on one Fader!
Thanks!!!
D. Gallucci
Hard to believe
Sounds exactly like the hardware version
M. Olsen
Best of the best...
The UAD EL8 and FG-Stress are very close contenders. I'd already bought FG-Stress as it sounded amazing and was practically indistinguishable from the real unit in A/B tests. I also own EL's Arousor, which sounds and acts quite a bit different. But in my shootout between UAD and Slate, I favored the UAD slightly and appreciated the additional HR (headroom) dial. Also, I like the stand-alone interface a lot more. What tips it further is the ability to use it live in Console (wish UAD Console had MIDI control though). I ended up picking up the UAD EL8 at a discount while registering new hardware. Well done, UA. You got me again.
e. Thorngren
Deserted Island Compressor
If I could have only ONE compressor this would be it.
J. Schweitzer
Sounds Amazing
As promised, this little gem, like all UA emulations just sounds great. From a touch of compression to slamming the meters, this guy delivers that classic distessor creaminess.