Dave joins Nate, Ben, and Neil to talk about the recording experiences, friendships, and design decisions behind Empirical Labs. We trace his path from Eventide to his own studio, the development of the Distressor, and the request from his friend John Patterson that gave us the Nuke setting.
Along the way, Dave explains how compression shapes a room, why a soft knee can make gain reduction less obvious, and what separates feedback and feed-forward designs. We also get into the UAD Distressor and FATSO emulations, Arousor’s separate saturation control, and why transformer behavior can be difficult to capture in software.
There are big white knobs, a detour into Project Hail Mary, a dinner with Rupert Neve, and a closer look at what makes the FATSO such a useful box. Dave also shares what he was considering for future products at the time of recording.
If you’ve ever wondered how the gear you love came to be—or why crushing a room mic can make everything feel bigger—this one’s for you.
00:00 Therapy for transients: Meet Dave Derr
02:03 Sound Discussion show intro
02:37 From Eventide to Empirical Labs
03:56 The recording experiences behind the Distressor
05:57 Why the big white knobs?
09:48 Getting the Distressor into studios
14:32 Kush Audio and the modified FATSO
15:46 How John Patterson inspired Nuke
18:49 Trademarking the Empirical Labs knobs
20:50 Old vs. new Distressors and the XXX edition
24:31 Hardware vs. the UAD Distressor and FATSO
27:18 Analog bandwidth and Dave’s thoughts on transients
30:46 Anechoic chambers and hearing a room
33:26 Project Hail Mary and seeing through sound
36:18 Back to compression
38:04 What does a compressor’s knee actually do?
41:05 Feedback vs. feed-forward compression
43:53 Designing useful attack and release controls
46:06 Using compression to shape space and tone
47:03 Lil FrEQ, DocDerr, and saturation in digital audio
50:12 Arousor, BIG FrEQ, and separate saturation control
52:31 An Empirical Labs channel strip—or a console?
55:50 Compression vs. clipping
56:40 Tube-like saturation and low-frequency harmonics
58:59 Why transformers are difficult to model
01:03:02 Dinner with Rupert Neve
01:06:22 Focusrite consoles and Class A circuitry
01:08:40 Dave’s first band and memorable product names
01:11:48 Why Dave loves the FATSO
01:15:31 Future ideas, ParaDyn, and wrapping up
Key Five Takeaways
1. The Distressor grew out of a recording need. Dave’s experience with an 1176 on a room mic sent him looking for the behaviors that made that sound so compelling.
2. Nuke started with a request from a friend. John Patterson wanted more extreme room compression than the prototype’s 20:1 setting offered. He helped inspire the setting and supplied its name.
3. Compression can change the apparent space. Dave describes how a fast attack can suppress initial transients and bring out the room’s decay, creating a reverb-like effect.
4. The controls are part of the design. Useful attack and release ranges, knee behavior, calibration, and component tolerances all influence the experience of using a compressor.
5. Saturation has several jobs. It can catch fast peaks, change tone, and add harmonics that help low-frequency content become more audible. Dave explains why those behaviors matter in both hardware and software.
Empirical Labs: https://www.empiricallabs.com/
Distressor: https://www.empiricallabs.com/distressor/
FATSO: https://www.empiricallabs.com/fatso/
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