Empirical Labs® EL8 Distressor
Customer Reviews
Empirical Labs EL8 Distressor Compressor
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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.
S. Woolgar
I just love it
I'm not one of those that had the hardware version. But I have to admit that it sounds fantastic on everything I've put it on. This is an ongoing exercise as I try it on more and more things.
C. Clouser
Spot-on emulation of the hardware
I've owned hardware Distressors for twenty years, and the UAD emulation is right on the money. The same crunchy push, the same in-your-face sound - it's all there. They pass the A/B test against the hardware with flying colors.
m. linett
great to have it back.
Great plug in emulation of the mighty Distressor
A. EMIXPRO
Forgot to add!
Pair this with the Fatso in parallel and just WOW!!
A. EMIXPRO
Superb emulation. Super easy to dial in
I own all but the Slate emu and all do a great job. This clinches it though as I find this emulation super easy to dial in, just like my hardware version. All the others take a little more time to get there, but get there they do. If time is money, then this is a no brainer. Best emu yet
J. Maiwald
Very impressed
In comparison with all the competitors, this Baby is the easiest to dial in, and the one with the fastest and best results...obviously it’s home is more the acoustic, real recorded world, but this beast on my drum bus fulfilled with electronic impacts is a milestone in the plugin world. I own all the distressor competitors and with no doubt I will buy this one to have MY distressor finally.
A. Schebstadt
299 USD = 299 EUR is unacceptable discrimination
Money-making-UAD charges EU customers more than US customers. There is no justification (like cost, etc.) for this discrimination of loyal customers who use the UAD platform and products. Back in the days we all paid in USD, than they changed it. Inacceptable.
M. Fletcher
A wonderful compressor
Fabulous sound, great emulation, so glad it has a wet/dry knob would be so much harder to use without it. Can be extremely powerful like a cartoon version of a compressor but also adds very nice glue at lower amounts of mix and 2:1 and 3:1 on the master. Just annoyed it's another mindblowingly good plug I'm having to buy. UAD are hitting homerun after homerun at the moment.
W. Taylor
Distressor vs Distressor
I have 2 hardware distressors. In my study, I find the UAD plug-in to be great, but it is brighter. One of the big things I try to work on in digital recording is smoothing that high end, 'rounding' things out so to speak. My hardware units have more of 'that sound' when I track/mix through them.