Distressor Plugins

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Mustang Martigan
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Distressor Plugins

Post by Mustang Martigan » Mon Nov 20, 2017 4:25 pm

I'm interested in buying a Distressor plugin. To my knowledge there are four, Disto, Arouser, FG-Stress and the UA Distressor/Fatboy.

Has anyone compared all of them? Just interested in hearing opinions on these different options. Disto is the only one in my price range, and the only one without a demo. I'm planning on demoing the other three this week.

Thanks.

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joninc
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Re: Distressor Plugins

Post by joninc » Mon Nov 20, 2017 5:06 pm

The arouser has a subscription rate - $50 for a year I believe. It's way more in depth in terms of controls. The fg stress is decent too if you want the slate bundle $15/month.

None sound as 3D and texturally satisfying as the real thing. I own a distressor and ubk fatso fwiw
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Mustang Martigan
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Re: Distressor Plugins

Post by Mustang Martigan » Mon Nov 20, 2017 6:21 pm

joninc wrote:
Mon Nov 20, 2017 5:06 pm
The arouser has a subscription rate - $50 for a year I believe. It's way more in depth in terms of controls. The fg stress is decent too if you want the slate bundle $15/month.

None sound as 3D and texturally satisfying as the real thing. I own a distressor and ubk fatso fwiw
Ya, it seems like that's the case with all emu's; HW always wins.. except in price. At $15/mo, the Slate Everything Bundle seems like a great deal. I've been wanting to demo all their stuff, but haven't gotten around to it.

I guess I'm the most curious about the Disto since there's no demo. Now I guess it would be the Disto-S (v3), and from what I read on the website, the Disto-R (v2), which I assume will be cheaper.

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Re: Distressor Plugins

Post by drumsound » Mon Nov 20, 2017 7:17 pm

I think you can just buy the Arouser as well.

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Re: Distressor Plugins

Post by MoreSpaceEcho » Tue Nov 21, 2017 3:02 pm

you can. garages was raving about it to me awhile back, maybe he will chime in here.

i have the disto-s. it's....ok. i want to like it more than i do.

Mustang Martigan
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Re: Distressor Plugins

Post by Mustang Martigan » Wed Nov 22, 2017 9:46 am

MoreSpaceEcho wrote:
Tue Nov 21, 2017 3:02 pm
you can. garages was raving about it to me awhile back, maybe he will chime in here.

i have the disto-s. it's....ok. i want to like it more than i do.
I've heard mixed reviews about the Disto. Many all of 'em were for Disto v2, but it seems like the only difference between v2 and v3 is that the GUI is easier to navigate.

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Re: Distressor Plugins

Post by Mustang Martigan » Thu Nov 23, 2017 1:37 pm

MoreSpaceEcho wrote:
Tue Nov 21, 2017 3:02 pm
you can. garages was raving about it to me awhile back, maybe he will chime in here.
Which was he raving about?

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Re: Distressor Plugins

Post by MoreSpaceEcho » Fri Nov 24, 2017 10:48 am

the arouser.

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Re: Distressor Plugins

Post by drumsound » Fri Nov 24, 2017 6:11 pm

MoreSpaceEcho wrote:
Tue Nov 21, 2017 3:02 pm
you can. garages was raving about it to me awhile back, maybe he will chime in here.

i have the disto-s. it's....ok. i want to like it more than i do.
Yeah, and he's a hardware Distressor guy. Its hard for me to pull the trigger on a plugin that pricy.

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Re: Distressor Plugins

Post by cgarges » Sun Nov 26, 2017 8:51 pm

The Arouser is GREAT! I have four hardware Distressors. I bought my first one in 1998. I know these units VERY well.

The Arouser is built by the guy who designed the Distressor. I mean, how much closer do you need it to be? Is it EXACTLY the same? No, but it does all the same cool stuff and even more. It's pretty much exactly what you would expect from the brilliant guy who came up with it to begin with, along with almost 25 years of thinking about how to make it better and then getting all of THAT right.

UA just came out with an actual Distressor plug-in, which was done in partnership with Empirical Labs and they are claiming that it's the ONLY real, 100% approved actual Distressor plug-in. I'm sure it's great, as well. Most of the UA stuff really is. But the Arouser has a few things that make it worth the extra bucks. Both of these are kind of pricey, but the Arouser's extra features, plus the fact that it includes free updates until 2020, made it worth the price for me. It also makes me kind of happy to be able to throw some money directly at David Derr for finally coming up with something like this.

I haven't used any of the other Distressor-like plug-ins. I'm sure they're some version of "good" to "great."

I've got a lot of really excellent software compressors, but I think that like the hardware DIstressor, if I were gonna drop some coin on ONE that would be REALLY versatile, I wouldn't have any problem with this being that one.

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Re: Distressor Plugins

Post by lysander » Thu Nov 30, 2017 10:32 am

Klanghelm has a great compressor that will get you right in that neighbourhood. It's incredibly inexpensive, as well. I listened to the Arouser drum samples and the Klanghelm does that same thing.

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Re: Distressor Plugins

Post by drumsound » Sat Dec 02, 2017 3:53 pm

lysander wrote:
Thu Nov 30, 2017 10:32 am
Klanghelm has a great compressor that will get you right in that neighbourhood. It's incredibly inexpensive, as well. I listened to the Arouser drum samples and the Klanghelm does that same thing.
Samples are cool to get an idea, but I always feel like using something in a production is the best way to get a feel for any gear.

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Re: Distressor Plugins

Post by MoreSpaceEcho » Tue Dec 05, 2017 10:02 am

lysander, which one? the dc8c or the mjuc? i have both, just got the mjuc based on reading lots of raves, and it must be me but i can't really get with it. maybe i just need to spend more time with it.

gotta say, i have a bunch of plugin compressors, and the one i keep coming back to is u-he presswerk. it just does what i want it to do with a minimum of fuss. it's beaten my hardware comps (distressor, fatso, 1968) more than once.

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Re: Distressor Plugins

Post by vze26m98 » Tue Jan 16, 2018 4:31 pm

IIRC, ELI doesn’t bill the Arousor as a Distressor emulation, but an advancement. Also, there’s Sly-Fi’s Deflector that plays in this dynamics genre.


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