Slate Digital F G-Stress

Described as “the most challenging
development in [their] history”, FGStress is
Slate Digital’s take on the Empirical Labs
Distressor, Dave Derr’s revered mid-90s
dynamics processor. “It was equal to developing
eight diferent compressor plugins with their
own characteristics,” say Slate, referring to the
Distressor’s chameleon-like ability to sound and
behave very diferently depending on which of
its eight Ratios is selected.
Racked up
A module for Slate’s excellent Virtual Mix Rack
‘shell’ plugin (VST/AU/AAX) rather than a plugin
in its own right, FGStress can be had for the
one-of price above, or as part of their hugely
attractive Everything Bundle subscription
($15pcm or $180pa).
Unlike Empirical Labs’ own Distressor
emulation, Arousor (9/10,
244), which added
various new features to the original design,
FGStress is a near-1:1 copy of it – albeit in stereo
rather than mono, minus the 1176N-style all-
buttons-in ‘British mode’, and a Mix knob for
parallel compression. The whole thing has been
comfortably packed down into VMR’s lunchbox
format, where it looks even more approachable
and straightforward than its admirably intuitive
hardware counterpart.
With the compression ratio setting (see
A certain Ratio) established by clicking the
Ratio button or a speciic Ratio LED, driving the
compression circuit and shaping its response
curve are done with the four main knobs.
Raising the Input level overdrives the
compressor, and two lavours of distortion are
on hand via the Dist 2 and Dist 3 buttons,
introducing 2nd or 3rd harmonics for smooth
valve- or crunchy tape-style distortion. The
adjacent HP button activates an 18dB/octave
high-pass ilter on the output, rolling of
everything below 80Hz for low-end control.
The sidechain signal is stereo by default (with
a stereo source, obviously), but activating the
Link Detector mode sums left and right to mono,
for equal gain reduction on both sides. The
other two Detector buttons tailor the sidechain
with a high-pass ilter (86Hz) to reduce low-
frequency triggering, and a bell-shaped boost at
6kHz for catching high-mid peaks such as
harshness in vocals and cymbals.
The Attack and Release time ranges match
those of the Distressor, too, of course. The
former can sit anywhere between 0.05ms and
30ms, while Release stretches from 50ms to
3.5s, extending to an extremely languid 20s in
10:1 Opto mode.
Stress relief
Near-as-dammit identical to the real thing,
FGStress is the most sonically authentic
Distressor emulation yet. It might not have the
extra bells and whistles of Arousor, but it costs
almost half as much while still capturing the
sound and feel of Empirical’s magical box
perfectly. The very epitome of a ‘Swiss army
knife’ compressor, it’s equally at home bringing
power and punch to drums or lattening and
fattening basslines as it is focusing vocals and
gluing mix busses of all kinds. We can’t fault it,
except to say that, like all Virtual Mix Rack
modules, we wish we could load it as a regular
plugin on its own, rather than having to run the
VMR shell whether we want to or not.
Web www.slatedigital.com
Slate Digital
FG-Stress $199
One of the greatest compressors
of all time inds a new home in
Steven Slate’s Virtual Mix Rack
Verdict
For The closest software emulation of
the Distressor yet
Amazing versatility and range
Dry/wet mix control
Against Virtual Mix Rack feels like
overkill when running a single module
No ‘British mode’
So close to the real thing that you
won’t be able to tell the diference,
FGStress is Slate’s best VMR module yet
1 0 / 1 0
Alternatively
Empirical Labs Arousor
244 » 9/10 » $349
From the makers of the
Distressor comes this pimped-out
and superb plugin reimagining
SKnote Disto
228 » 8/10 » $40
Less Distressor-authentic
than FGStress or Arousor,
but cheaper than a night out
The Distressor’s exceptionally versatile list of
Ratio settings, each with their own threshold
and knee shapes, are central to its sound and
‘action’. Even 1:1 has an audible efect,
introducing beautifully warming distortion;
while at the other end of the scale, the famous
Nuke setting applies energetic brick wall
limiting with a logarithmic release.
In between those two extremes, the 2:1, 3:1,
4:1 and 6:1 Ratios work to an increasingly
steep knee, with 6:1 proving the most ‘general
purpose’ of the lot, and 2:1’s exceptionally
long knee making it ideal for gentle
treatments . The 20:1 Ratio is similar to Nuke
but with a diferent knee and linear release.
Finally, 10:1 switches to an entirely
diferent circuit, for Opto-style compression.
Shift+Clicking the 10:1 button sets the Attack
and Release to 10 and 0 respectively –the
recommended settings on the Distressor for
emulating classic opto-VCA compressors of
old, such as the LA2A and LA3A.
A certain Ratio
98 / COMPUTER MUSIC / January 2018
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