Distressor

[music]

How many of you all are using these and in what capacity? Guitars, vox, bass, snare? I have heard a few of Andy's mixes where the guitar harmonics are absolutely spot on and I am trying to get a little more of that in my recordings. Andy, do you use this each and every time or is it just a flavor thing? I am thinking on buying one soon and am hoping someone has a really good Distressor porn story to convey.

Constant search for improvement.

 

[Ermz]

Kick, Snare & Vocals. Total win.

I try to print Distressors on the way down as often as possible.

 

[ahjteam]

Should be at http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/equipment-414/


edit: and I have kinda love&hate relationship with Distressor.

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

I use it whenever I get the chance to work at a studio that has one. Actually, if the place has one, it pretty much always gets used. Snare, vocals, drum room, fuck yeah!

 

[punkrockacademyfightsong]

I have two and wouldn't wanna live without them! I track room mics, bass and vox with distressors on the way in. Sometimes use it on drumbues (paralel) in the mix and on the masterbus.

 

[Skinny Viking]

Kick, Snare & Vocals. Total win.

I try to print Distressors on the way down as often as possible.

the couple times I've had the chance to work with one this was how it was used and as was stated = total win

 

[ratsapprentice]

St.Amand's bass tones = win

 

[lolzgreg]

I like it a lot on guitars as of late. If you use it in the tape saturation mode, in noticeably fattens the track, and if you set up your attack and release just right, you can get rid of any peaks from palm muting if the player/guitar isn't up to par.

It's great on just about anything, no exaggeration.

 

[C_F_H_13]

Love em and use a pair daily.

Tracking drums I use a pair of them for the inside and outside kick mics. Just subtle 1-4 db of compression. Usually attack around 7 and release at zero. Might just be me but 7 on the attack seems to be the magic number for drums.

When mixing I wish I had 3. I either use them as a pair for parallel compression, or as just a mono crush parallel on the snare. I wish I could do both in realtime, but I usually end up printing the mono crush (and repritting over and over again).

I'll be honest, never been a fan on vocals but it's been forever since I've tried it. I also am not a fan on bass, but that's only cause an 1176 works so much better.

All and all an incredibly versatile comp.

 

[Skyweaver]

how good is the distressor in the post processing ? i see a lot of people track with it, just interested to see how useful it is after the sounds have been captured

 

[lolzgreg]

Remember, as long as you have the mic'd signal, you can near-perfectly imitate using the Distressor on the way in after the fact; all you need to do is run it out of your interface, into the Distressor, and back into the interface

 

[Skyweaver]

thanks Greg, I've been thinking about getting one for a while, looks like the next purchase

 

[Ermz]

To be fair, they're only really useful if you're at a point where you feel your mixing/tracking abilities have exceeded the quality allowed by standard plug-ins.... and the plug-ins are getting very good these days.

Wouldn't want everyone to think it's a great investment for them. Took me 6 years of doing this professionally to feel I could actually make good use of one back home. There are certainly much more important things to consider than which compressor is squeezing a vocal on the way down.

 

[Tommy Gun]

I always use them on Kick and Snare during tracking. Never actually tried them on Vocals, and never used them while mixing. Might try the plug-in versions for mixing at some point, but I doubt I'll ever track drums without them.

 

[B36arin]

That's true, but I did a session a few days ago where I had an SSL pre and compressed on the way in. I might just suck at plugins, but it sounded noticeably better than my vocal recordings usually do after compression.

Edit: This was a response to Ermz's post

 

[music]

Thanks. That was a nice bit o porn. I appreciate it. The focus of my synapses firing off in uneven spurts is that I would like to add some more harmonic content on the way in when tracking heavy guitars. The addition of the actual 2nd and or 3rd order harmonics, just a smidge, is what I am trying to improve upon.

ahjteam - what is your love hate relationship with the Distressor?

 

[lolzgreg]

To be fair, they're only really useful if you're at a point where you feel your mixing/tracking abilities have exceeded the quality allowed by standard plug-ins.... and the plug-ins are getting very good these days.

I really don't think you can get the same kind of grit and harmonic distortion from a plug in. Not that sounds that RIGHT, IMHO. Plugins are definitely getting better and better, but it's still not enough. I feel like the Distressor has helped my mixes a lot. As soon as I have time, I'm going to post some A/B comparisons on things.

 

[music]

lolzgreg, I heard one of your mixes on your site. Are distressor's on the guitars? Sounds nice and full and a bit gritty but still even and controlled. Could be the guitarists hands not sure. An a/b would be awesome.

 

[lolzgreg]

Can you name the particular mix? Nothing on my myspace has a Distressor ATM. I just got it, but it will be on guitars/vocals for some recent reamps and mixes.

 

[ahjteam]

ahjteam - what is your love hate relationship with the Distressor?

Well, I think Ermz post on #13 was a bit on the point. It's really hard unit to master and really easy unit to overdo. If you are living in the moment and don't have to look back to it (say a live gig or a quick mix), it's great. Distressor is one of those units that sounds awesome almost no matter how hard you drive them because it's a compressor with distortion and the distortion is part of it's sound. We had three guys in the room and we all liked the version with Distressor better when we tracked the vocals. Then we returned to the mix after 2 weeks and noticed that the vocal track is totally distorted by the Distressor and we hated it, then we spend the day to retrack the vocals. Without the Distressor.

Also: I love how it sounds, but I hate how it's priced.