Empirical Labs® EL8 Distressor
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The world’s most popular compressor, exactingly recreated for UAD and Apollo.
Introduced in 1993, the Empirical Labs EL8 Distressor is revered in studios all over the world as the modern, “must-have” compressor. Versatile, super fast, and offering tons of color, the Distressor picks up where the legendary UA 1176 and Teletronix LA-2A compressors leave off — a modern tool that’s equal parts utilitarian and creative, as heard on thousands of hit records.
The only authentic Distressor plug-in endorsed by Empirical Labs’ founder Dave Derr, the UAD Empirical Labs EL8 Distressor is available exclusively for UAD hardware and Apollo interfaces. An exhaustive end-to-end emulation of Derr’s iconic hardware, the UAD EL8 Distressor is the only faithful emulation of this true “desert island” compressor.Now You Can:
Track and mix with the only authentic emulation of the EL8 Distressor — the world's most popular modern compressor
Radically shape guitars, drums, and vocals with nearly infinite gain reduction variations
Harness plug-in-only features like Dry/Wet parallel processing and Headroom for user‑customizable operating level
Creatively color instruments and vocals with famous “Dist 2” and “Dist 3” modes
Embellish, pump up, or destroy bass, synth, and room mics with custom detector filtering
Mix with presets from Joe Chiccarelli (The Strokes), Vance Powell (Jack White), Jacquire King (Kings of Leon), Jimmy Douglass (The Rolling Stones), and more
Take a Listen
5-Min UAD Tip
In this video, learn how the EL8 Distressor compressor can transform your mixes into something truly special.
The Only End-to-End Distressor Emulation
The Empirical Labs EL8 Distressor Compressor plug-in provides all the features and coveted sound of the original Distressor design. UA’s team of DSP experts started with a complete circuit trace and component study of Dave Derr's selected golden unit. Simultaneously, the team analyzed three more Distressors representing the lifetime of the product — ensuring one of UA’s tightest circuit models to date.
When comparing Distressor software emulations, contrast the original hardware’s ultra-fast attack time to quickly hear where most plug-ins fail, and the authentic UAD Distressor succeeds.
The Right Ratio
The crux of the Distressor are its staggering variations in compression —
1:1, 2:1, 3:1, 4:1, 6:1, 10:1, 20:1 and Nuke — each delivering unique tones and curves. Use the 1:1 ratio to gently warm up synths or strings without compression, while adding musical low-order harmonics. At the other extreme, the Nuke limiter setting is famous for adding explosive excitement to room mics, or energizing a entire mix.
Distortion Modes
The Distressor's iconic Dist 2 and Dist 3 modes feature a wide palette of compression coloration, letting you shape sources with even or combined even/odd-order harmonic distortion. From delicate thickening to burnished tape to fully saturated, the Distortion Modes, combined with low-frequency filtering, let you focus the Distressor’s textures.
Powerful Sidechain Controls
The Distressor’s sidechain control lets you easily focus your dynamics. High Pass filter unwanted low frequency pumping and breathing — perfect for drum bus processing. Band Emphasis works to tame strident vocals or can laser in on harsh “power region” instrument midrange peaks, or use both together.
You can also run the Distressor on buses, linked or unlinked, for flexible imaging. Exclusive plug-in features like Dry/Wet Mix offer easy parallel compression on a mix bus or instrument group. Finally, the Headroom control lets you optimize the Distressor’s overall operating level to your playback system.
“The UAD EL8 Distressor feels just like the hardware, giving me results that I’ve been missing in the box.”
– Jacquire King (James Bay, Kings of Leon, Tom Waits)
“The Distressor is capable of such radical compression tones, that it becomes its own instrument. I’m confident the UAD version will become just as useful as the hardware.”
– Joe Chiccarelli (Jason Mraz, Beck, The Strokes, Morrissey)
“The Distressor is the perfect all around compressor, and no studio should be without a few of them. Now with the UAD Distressor, you can have as many as you need!”
– Vance Powell (Jack White, The Dead Weather, The Raconteurs)
“From subtle compression to destruction, the Distressor handles everything with style.”
– Hector Delgado (A$AP Rocky, Selena Gomez, Lana Del Rey)
“The Distressor truly is the desert island dynamics tool, for controlling levels or creatively reshaping instruments into sounds that couldn’t be heard otherwise.”
– Chris Coady (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Beach House, Future Islands)Watch The Reviews
Customer Reviews
r. sveinungsen
August 12, 2019
Very Natural
I use this all the time on acoustic instrument. Sound so smooth ang making the transient nice and smooth.
Read MoreA. Vax
July 19, 2019
best emulation of classic hardware
I've compared real deal with Slate FG-Stress, ELI Arousor, SOR8, Sknote and UAD Distressor. Slate and UAD are really close but release is better on UAD. So I've get the Distressor.
Read MoreA. Vax
July 19, 2019
best emulation of classic hardware
I've compared real deal with Slate FG-Stress, ELI Arousor, SOR8, Sknote and UAD Distressor. Slate and UAD are really close but release is better on UAD. So I've get the Distressor.
Read MoreJ. Bryant
July 14, 2019
Replaced my hardware
REALLY close to my hardware piece that I was selling off IF it worked on the Unison side. It does!! I can also run 10 instances with additional my satellite quo and quad interfaces!
Read MoreC. Bevins
July 3, 2019
Perfect emulation!
I use the real thing all the time for vocals. But not anymore, this plugin nails the sound.
Read More -
Key Features
Painstaking, end-to-end circuit emulation of the iconic hardware designed by Dave Derr, exclusively for Universal Audio
Provides the entire circuit path and control set of the original Empirical Labs hardware
Features seven fixed ratios, including Optical and Nuke, Distortion Modes, and Detector Modes
Plug-in-exclusive features include Dry/Wet parallel processing and Headroom for user-customizable operating level
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Customer Reviews
Empirical Labs EL8 Distressor Compressor
r. sveinungsen
Very Natural
I use this all the time on acoustic instrument. Sound so smooth ang making the transient nice and smooth.
D. Tetmyer
Thick
Love the push this gives sounds
A. Vax
best emulation of classic hardware
I've compared real deal with Slate FG-Stress, ELI Arousor, SOR8, Sknote and UAD Distressor. Slate and UAD are really close but release is better on UAD. So I've get the Distressor.
A. Vax
best emulation of classic hardware
I've compared real deal with Slate FG-Stress, ELI Arousor, SOR8, Sknote and UAD Distressor. Slate and UAD are really close but release is better on UAD. So I've get the Distressor.
J. Bryant
Replaced my hardware
REALLY close to my hardware piece that I was selling off IF it worked on the Unison side. It does!! I can also run 10 instances with additional my satellite quo and quad interfaces!
C. Bevins
Perfect emulation!
I use the real thing all the time for vocals. But not anymore, this plugin nails the sound.
o. duran
Great sound
Great on drums, vocals & bass guitar
B. Schumacher
Not close enough to the hardware
Attack phase sounds so much better on the actual hardware unit. Especially obvious on drums
R. Costa
My Favorite compressor!
Thank you, I love it!
L. Santini
Amazing
Sounds so similar to the real deal that I can’t hear any difference! And it’s easier to use as well...
A. Tomashenko
Perfect for drums and vocals
The best emulation you can get. Sounds fantastic on drums and vocals, use it in every project.
L. Adler
Big, fat and awesome...
Truly makes my mixes sound larger than life.
J. Roecker
Smashing!
Great tones and dirt come out of this plugin with ease!
r. passuti
master of compression!!!!
if you know the original hardware, you can understanding what I mean!
T. Qumok
Swiss army knife of comps
After demo'ing it and reading many reviews I finally bought it. It's a great investment.
I produce my own music, which is metal, and the distressor is used everywhere. It's the only compressor I like on my vocals.P. Daly
Mmmm.... butter
Butter those bass lines into submission
P. Pendlebury
Immediate Goto
Drums / Bass buss glue on every project from now on. Fantastic.
P. Uszyński
My new go-to comp
For quite some time I had a feeling that I'm missing a really good comp in my mixing chain. Previously I was using Waves H-comp ("character" compression) and C1 ("transparent" compression), then I started demoing some comps from UA. Distressor is the one that made my things (mainly vocals) really shine. You can make it characterful, you can make it transparent and gentle, in case anything is missing, you can always go to something else, like 1176 or LA-2A.
And yes, I'm a UAD acolyte, the only non-UAD things in my mixing chain for now are FabFilter Q-3 and iZotope RX tools, because UAD simply beats everything I tried.E. Stokes
My Favorite Plugin
I love this plugin on kicks! It's Like Magic to me! But I use it for other stuff as well! Amazing!!!
C. Piper
To be honest I was looking to get a hardware unit of the distressor but then a friend of mine invited me to his Studio to try out this uad plug-in. So we did that a b comparison and I honestly can say it was so close this comparison right here actually had me go and get the Apollo twin quad core. Enough said I have beat around the bush for years on uad not anymore.
