slamcrank Don't you think Empirical Labs could have capitalized more on the Distressor name themselves rather than licensing it out to a limited platform like UAD? I have the Arouser, and it's great. I'm just saying from a business standpoint, they could have done a perfect emulation of the Distressor (like they did with UAD) that would reach MANY more people.
Not really. I think Empirical Labs did the smartest thing by letting the team at Universal Audio do the truest emulation, while at the same time developing a more modern outtake on the compressor and releasing it as their own plugin. Universal Audio's team has an impeccable and unmatched knowledge of circuit modeling and I'm sure that is why Derr wanted to use them for the Distressor. The licensing fees paid to Empirical from UA, I'm sure, are substantial and all parties win. Also, I don't think of UAD as a limited platform. The plugins are available for Mac and Windows, in all plugin formats. If you are saying that they are "limited" because you have to run them on UA's DSP, then I guess I can see your point, though I disagree with it. They are only limited if one cannot afford them, and by that logic, they are no more limited that a hardware Distressor.
Slate's plug ins are great for what they are, but in my opinion, UAD is in their own league. I was excited to see UAD do Distressor backed by the creator!
But remember "it's *probably* indistinguishable from the hardware" so there's a chance the UA didn't succeed at making it "indistinguishable" from the hardware...man this guy is good!
I wish they had given some examples or spent time on the development of the plug in instead of constantly switching to a useless hipster smearing paint on everything.
WTF? The "useless hipster" you're whining about is David Derr, the guy who invented the most popular compressor in contemporary music, the Distressor. 😂 Chill out bro, there's a UAD 5 minute Distressor video due out in the next week or so that will have the audio examples. And like he said ^ there are audio examples on the UAD website.
Very different plugins. From what I've heard in theory, the FATSO is a more mellow, fattening, tape saturation unit while the Distressor is an aggressive, colorful, punchy compressor.
I don't know how they compare but I love the FATSO - technically speaking it's listed as a Tape Saturator first and adds a lot of nice warmth on top of the compression. When it's on, you know it's on! Mellow would NOT be the first word I think of with the FATSO but I guess it could be used in a mellow way if you want. I can't help but dial it up though.
I wonder when UA started developing this plugin. Did UA just bust this out from start to finish this year, or have they been working on this for several years, do you think?
I think they mean popular as far as contemporary music goes. The Distressor is probably the most widely sold hardware unit over the past decade or two.
I don't understand why UA puts these videos out. I don't care that someone (even if it's Dave Derr) talks about the plugin. I want to hear it in action!
I wish developers would spend their time trying to come up with plugins that are BETTER than old, museum artifact hardware like this. Almost 30 years have passed since the Distressor came out, and there were not many alternatives then. Today's technology is much more advanced so I don't want to be limited by 30 year old ideas. Instead of moving forward and coming up with amazing new things, we're constantly looking back in time and have to put up with emulations of old outdated and ancient gear. It's so frustrating. ok the distressor was popular back then, blah blah blah, now how about creating something new and exciting that is BETTER? Look at how cars have evolved in the same time... we have gone from big american gas guzzlers to electric cars. Imagine if car manufacturers were still trying to emulate old crappy cars, it would be ridiculous, but thats what audio plugin developers are doing these days, it's so stupid.
