Empirical Labs Distressor Hardware Compressor vs. the UAD plugin (Bass Drum)

The Distressor from Empirical Labs is a great modern compressor, providing extremely fast response for some settings, along with Optical, 1176, tub and tape emulations. I find this compressor works great on the kick drum.

However the budget minded home studio may not readily have access to outboard gear to demo with. So to help with this today we are going to do a little shootout or comparison, and see how emulation (software/digital) stacks up against the real thing (hardware/analogue). Our focus will be the impact of the sound when recording the bass drum.

Preamps used in this video:
Hardware: Empirical Labs Distressor ELX-8 https://amzn.to/3vvq2Uq
Software: UAD Empirical Labs EL8 Distressor Compressor
If you purchase through the above link, I'll make a tiny commission. That'll make me super happy, as I could buy more drums!

Introduction: 0:00
Recording Setup: 0:56
How We Did A True Comparison: 1:56
Samples - Individual Hits: 2:48
Sample - In a Beat: 3:51

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below, and don't forget to subscribe!

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Other Equipment used:
Sonar X1 Producer
API 3124+
UA 6176
A Designs Pacifica

Snare Top: Shure Beta57
Bass Drum (in: batter side): AKG D 112
Bass Drum (out: reso side): Beyerdynamic Opus 99
Top Toms: Electro-Voice ND44x2
Bottom Toms: Sennheiser MD 421 II
Overheads: AKG C451 B/ST
MOTU 8Pre audio interface

Video:
Sony FDR-AX100 4K UHD Camcorder
Tascam DR10L Digital Audio Recorder with Lavalier Microphone

#distressor #drumdrumdrum #recordingstudio