Description

The FG-Stress is a digital replication of one of the industry’s most highly coveted analog compressors, the Empirical Labs Distressor. Every aspect of the Distressor has been modeled, which is no simple task due to the Distressor’s unique topology where every ratio is essentially a different compressor! Like the hardware in which it models, the FG-Stress can mimic the tone of some of the industry’s most famous compressors like punchy VCAs, fat tube compressors, and even vintage opto units.

The FG-Stress is an authentic replication of the Empirical Labs Distressor. In order to demonstrate how precisely we matched the hardware, we had some hardware Distressor users process some files with their hardware, and then we matched it using the FG-Stress. The files below are comped between the hardware and software files, and as you’ll hear, the transitions are so seamless that it’s difficult to hear when one stops and the other starts.

It’s important to note that in the examples below, we had the hardware Distressor users follow a strict calibration procedure to align the gain reduction precisely with the software. This is crucial because even 1db of gain reduction discrepancy will make even two hardware units sound very different. We then carefully matched the timings and output, and due to component tolerances differing, sometimes the hardware setting was slightly off from the software settings. For instance, a user’s attack at 5 could equal the software attack at 4.7, and yes, this very small difference is audible on this unit! If you’d like to match your own hardware Distressor, please download our calibration file package and then follow the calibration directions in this video HERE.