Distressors?

What do they do?

It's a compressor unit made by Emperical Labs that also lets you add harmonic distortion like tube gear.

The distressor is based on ua's 1176ln. the difference is that it is without transformers or discrete circuitry. it also has an analog clipper for the saturation modes. so the distressor is more flexible than the 1176 and sounds different also. i prefer the 1176ln but that is just my opinion.

my just got one and he swears by it now

I read up on the Empirical Labs products and from what I read the Fatso seemed like the way to go, but everybody seems to love the Distressor. What's the word?? Also, I got an Avalon 737 but am lookin in the future to cop at least a couple more beautiful outboard pieces...any suggestions?? I know about expensive ass Manley sh*t, a little out of my range.....

The Fatso is more for running your whole mix through, the distressor is a bit more flexible, guitars sound great through them, that's probably 90% of what they're used for.

....Blessing my 2-track final mixes was what I wanted that thing for(Fatso)....anyway, so I get it the distressor is for tracking and what not....thank you...

morgan wrote:The Fatso is more for running your whole mix through, the distressor is a bit more flexible, guitars sound great through them, that's probably 90% of what they're used for.

Wouldnt that be a part of mastering?

MarkWolbirgh wrote:Wouldnt that be a part of mastering?

Sometimes, or you might run your drum submix through it. Drums benefit the most from tape compression so it might be better to just run them through it rather than the whole mix. Get a bit of contrast in. But really, seeing as there are no rules you can do whatever you want.

L. Tombstone wrote:....Blessing my 2-track final mixes was what I wanted that thing for(Fatso)....anyway, so I get it the distressor is for tracking and what not....thank you...

no worries. you could use two distressors with the link mod for your whole mix but the fatso would be easier for that. If you can get your hands on a distressor try putting some really up-front aggressive vocals through it, sounds great.

if u r spending this kind of money on units it is best to test them in your set-up in real studio situations. this is what i do before i commit to any piece of gear that i haven't used before. and yes the fatso is for tape saturation. the distressor is a tracking compressor

For tape saturation, check out the Neve Portico 5042. Haven't heard one yet, but I'm dying to get my grubby mits on one.

http://www.rupertneve.com/porticorange.html

just wait until ua releases the space echo for the uad-1. they have to emulate tape saturation in order to emulate a tape echo, and ua is always on point

that's brillaint BeatGod, I wonder if they will let you use the tape without the delay engaged? that would be cool.

The trick behind tight drumz is ( M I X B U S S C O M P R E S S I O N )

Sleep these words they are what you need. And and every track is sub mixed to a buss compressor.

You have your 12 or 16 ch mackie or whatever u use.....Group the drumz to a buss with tight compressor on it.........

Not the distressor that's more vocals like the urie 1176...you need something that's hard like the

SSL G Series compressor 2000

or be clever and get the Alan smart C1 (Whom created the above compressor)

98% of all tracks you herein Hiphop/R&B have there drums mixed through this. It will give you that thump you want.

i would say the most widely used compressor in hip hop is a vintage dbx 160 not the ssl. the 1176 works very well on drums or anything for that matter. i have never heard anyone say it is not good for drums. in fact all buttons mode is specifically for drums. mix bus comp was popular because most studios dont have 30 compressors so instead of routing each individual part to the compressor u creat a sub mix and then compress that. with the advent of high quality emulations such as the uad-1 you r now able to have 30 compressors or of whatever u want. i sometimes compress a submix but only after compressing each individual sound. as far as all buttons mode on the 1176. u do a mix of the drums and then u bounce it to stereo. u then squash it to death with all buttons mode. u then use the original mix and raise the fader on the squashed track until u hear what u want