Empirical Labs EL-8 Distressor Stereo

The Distressor is the product that started it all for Empirical Labs. Born of founder Dave Derr’s love of classic compressors like the 1176, LA-2A and Gain Brain (among others), the Distressor incorporates his favorite sonic characteristics of these, along with other unique and interesting features that have made it a staple for audio engineers all over the world.

Besides providing a wide range of control and a unique feature set, the Distressor offers a warm, vintage sound by using a custom designed gain control circuit. This “warmth” or “vintage sound” has become a major issue in the last few decades, as the super clear and linear digital technology does next to nothing to soften “harsh” sounds, nor emphasize the bass frequencies in music sources. Conversely, older analog tape, vinyl records and tube equipment could not be prevented from coloring the sound, often to the frustration of recording engineers.

Key features:

• Offers a warm, vintage sound by using a custom designed gain control circuit
• 8 of the Distressor’s curves are unique and distinctive
• 3 modes that color the signal, even without compression:Basic distortion modeDistort 2 - emphasizes tube-like 2nd order harmonicsDistort 3 - dominated by 3rd harmonics more closely resembling tape
• 2 HP filters – one in the audio path, one in the detector path - are also available to help with low frequencies that can cause pumping and breathing