EL-8 Distressor

[MetalWorks]

Anybody using the EL-8 Distressor here?

Anything to say about it?

I see it in alot of studios and especially with those that do alot of metal bands.

I've been thinking about getting one for a long time but am wondering whether the standard is most practical or if the British Mode and Image Link version is the way to go.

 

[Sly]

I've been using the Distressor for one year and a half now : it's a great piece of gear that you can use quite everywhere (it emulates different types of well-known compressors, depending on how you use it).
It's very good on kick drums (try 4:1 or 6:1 on kick with fast release and attack), snares (dist3, from 3:1 to "nuke" depending on what you want to do, fast attack and release...), room mics (10:1 to "nuke", crush those transients !), guitars (dist3 and british mode), bass, vocals...
You'll want to use it on everything, that's why some people find it boring. But for metal music it's very good, and very instinctive working.
If you want a damn good compressor, the Purple Audio 1176 is known to be absolutely killer : it has more balls in the low mids, it's faster, and has killer gritty high mids. I got the UA 1176 which sounds a bit the same, but the Purple is a "UA 1176 on steroids". I find those compressors to work amazingly on drums and bass. They produce a warm and agressive sounding "distorting" in the high mids with big balls. If you principal aim is to use your compressor on drums or bass, go 1176 !