Distressor Shootout: Arouser vs Comprexxor vs Deflector vs Disto-S vs FG-Stress (vs Mike-E)

[plexuss]

Goes to show how mixing is a workflow! I own all of these and of the bunch, Arousor and FG-Stress(especially Arousor) are the least suitable for what I wanna use a Distressor for in mixing, yet in both tests I picked the FG-Stress.
I think the tuning methodology of the compressors wasn't ideal as well, since the Comprexxor and Mike-E sound very similar with matching settings and GR but very different to the other options. I guess those plugins have different attack and release curves, and the GR meter is likely responding differently as well.

I think it would be helpful to reiterate my methodology so you have more context for what you hear. Here are the steps I took. I was not trying to be scientific. I was aiming to have a test that was good enough to hear difference to help with making decisions about which to use for what or to buy. I know it could have been more scientific, such as matching all compressors using PluginDoctor and also paying attention to dynamics timing, two things I didn't really do. Part of my methodology is measurable, mostly loudness, and the rest subjective...

1. Mix dry tracks by ear
2. Using Crave EQ, EQ tracks to-taste soloed, then mix EQ and level by ear to-taste
3. Bring up Nugen MasterCheck loudness meter on each track post-EQ (pre-compressor loudness)
4. Instantiate Slate FG-Stress on each track (The first compressor I decided to start with)
5. Mix each FG-Stress and track level by ear to-taste
6. Instatiate another MasterCheck post-compressor (post-compressor louddness)
7. Bring up all the loudness meters and play the track over and over adjusting the compressor output so the pre- and post- loudness of each track are within +/- 0.5dB LUFS
8. On the first pass, adjust track levels for a mixed master buss target of -16 LUFS +/- 0.5dB between renders.
9. Tweek the EQ and Compressor by ear to-taste until I felt it was a good mix
10. Bypass FG-Stress on each track
11. Instantiate the next compressor on each track. Set the compressor GUI options the same as FG-Stress.
12. Adjust compressor input, attack and release, to roughly the same GR meter dynamics and also by-ear
13. Adjust compressor output so post- loudness is within +/- 0.5dB of pre- loudness
14. Ensure master buss loudness is -16 LUFS
15. Render. Rinse. Repeat

[fcamp]

Thanks a lot, plexuss, great job!

[plexuss]

Thanks a lot, plexuss, great job!

You're welcome. It was interesting to work on this.

If you open this Expose display of all the tracks, visually the waveform graphs have some distinct groups:

Similar groups appear to be:
Dry and Complexxor, and Mike-E to some degree
FG-Stress and Arousor (ratio adjusted), with a lot of similarity to Arousor

Then if you look at the voting, 8 and 8 out of 21 for both Arousor and FG-Stress. This could be some correalation... just a hypothesis with some initial potential for it.

Seems like FG-Stress and Arousor are perceived to sound similar in terms of musical quality (the poll was about which was more pleasing).

Good news that FG-Stress is on a rare $49 sale! If... you can put up with VMR (I don't mine it - its not a preferance but I can be productive with it).

[illegal4Hunna]

I think it would be helpful to reiterate my methodology so you have more context for what you hear. Here are the steps I took. I was not trying to be scientific. I was aiming to have a test that was good enough to hear difference to help with making decisions about which to use for what or to buy. I know it could have been more scientific, such as matching all compressors using PluginDoctor and also paying attention to dynamics timing, two things I didn't really do. Part of my methodology is measurable, mostly loudness, and the rest subjective...

Yeah I don't mean to criticize you or your test at all by the way, you're not getting paid to do this or anything and it's a fun and informative experiment that I assume is very useful to people looking for which to buy.

[4damind]

Interesting test and thanks for all the work!
Steven Slate will be happy that many people like FG-Stress. If you now compare the price of Arousor for $200 and FG-Stress until 10 June for $48 (PluginDiscounts), there is a clear winner for me.

[The_Ogre]

I'm glad Arousor was my favorite as I regularly sing it's praises (often into the void). Although, the workflow can be a bit clunky at times with all the extra knobs, expert panels, alt ratios and blue dots. That said, what ratio was used for these tests? I fear Arousor may have been compressing a bit less due to the "4:1 on a Distressor equals 6:1 on Arousor" thing. IK was #2 for me, with Slate behind that. Interesting. Maybe I should give the IK version an actual proper demo. But then again, I've got Arousor, Slate, and UAD so no...not gonna part with more dollars!

The other thing with Arousor that is probably still a bit under appreciated, though it's a new feature, is the two new Opto modes. Try the Opto B default settings with the Opto A saturation on a strummed acoustic guitar. It's brilliant I tell you!

The way I set compression was, all the compressor models on a given track I set them to the same ratio and adjusted the gain so GR was averaging and peaking the same on the GR meters across all the models. Output gain was adjusted so that they were at equal loudness.

Looks like if Arouser is the most pleasing, FG-Stress @$49 is the current bargain. I'll probably go for it since I already have some VMR modules and don't mine using it. I was going to go for Comprexxor but this has changed my mind, and saved me some $.

Thanks for this plexuss!

I already have the Disto-S and am looking for a second contender for the job (I like to have at least two good plugins for each category, as some may respond in different ways depending on the source). The Slate is the bargain of the moment, but I don't have anything from VRM and don't have the dongle (it's too costly here in Brazil nowadays), so... I'd stick with the Comprexxor or the Deflector - as both are costing 69 bucks this weekend. Thoughts...