The product that started it all for Empirical Labs. Born of founder Dave Derr’s love of classic compressors like the 1176, LA-2A and Gain Brain (among others), the Distressor incorporates his favorite sonic characteristics of these, along with other unique and interesting features that have made it a staple for audio engineers all over the world. With over 28,000 units in the field, it’s safe to say that the Distressor is one of the best selling high end compressors of all time… if not THE best selling. A prominent recording engineer recently wagered that there probably was not a top 40 record made in the last five years that didn’t have at least one Distressor on it.

The product that started it all for Empirical Labs. Born of founder Dave Derr’s love of classic compressors like the 1176, LA-2A and Gain Brain (among others), the Distressor incorporates his favorite sonic characteristics of these, along with other unique and interesting features that have made it a staple for audio engineers all over the world. With over 28,000 units in the field, it’s safe to say that the Distressor is one of the best selling high end compressors of all time… if not THE best selling. A prominent recording engineer recently wagered that there probably was not a top 40 record made in the last five years that didn’t have at least one Distressor on it.

Arguably the coolest and most unique device in the Empirical Labs arsenal, the FATSO (Full Analog Tape Simulator and Optimizer) is a digitally controlled analog device that gives musicians and engineers easy access to many of the desirable characteristics exhibited by older tube and Class A electronics and magnetic tape mediums. This two channel audio processor musically integrates frequencies and transients, increasing the apparent volume while keeping tight control over peak levels.

In today’s modern age of digital recorders, DAWs and software plug-ins, Mike-E is the ultimate solution for getting a clean and strong, yet warm and musical signal into the box…and it couldn’t be easier to work – its front panel layout is so straight ahead that even inexperienced engineers will have no problem moving around on it right away.

As with ELI’s other signal processors, the Lil FrEQ Equalizer takes a somewhat unique approach to its job. Instead of daisy chaining several equalizers and frequency processors, we combined most of the sound sculpting tools an engineer needs into a compact single rack space box, while still offering the highest performance of any design in its class.

COSMOS is a drifting memory station designed to work with meditative states through music. The design of the controls, functions and generated soundscapes are intended to evoke, in both performer and listener, states and experiences inherent in meditation, such as limitless space, fluidity, spontaneous development, presence, the ability to hear, tranquility, the experience of subtle harmony and happiness enveloping the whole world.

ENNER is a very expressive sound tool that can generate bits, pads, FX, noises, clicks,  glitches, but also function as a cool vocal mic with built-in analog FX and much more! A musician with a rich imagination and who’s experienced in playing ENNER can perform an entire exciting gig using just this synth. 

METACONFORMER is a smart MIDI router and thru box.

ORNAMENT-8 is an organismic sequencer, or in a broader sense, a synthesizer of behaviour. A unique feature of ORNAMENT is its fully horizontal modular structure that consists of eight equal and independent cells which are special delay lines. It’s in fact an analog computer with a temporal dimension, the behaviour of which is determined by patching and adjusting the temporal properties of each cell involved in the generation of the behaviour. 

Rumble of Ancient Times (RoAT) is an 8-bit noise synthesizer and sequencer inspired by the clever programming of the early PC era when an entire video game would fit on a floppy disk. RoAT is capable of a wide variety of sounds ranging from dense noise scapes to diverse glitching rhythmic patterns. The compact and portable instrument contains many elements that can be combined into surprising musical results.

TERRA is a highly conceptual device. The core idea is unity of nature and technology, and a perfect balance between simplicity and versatility. Behind the extremely simple interface hides a complex polyphonic, microtonal synthesizer with a broad and flexible sound palette that ranges from classical beautiful tones to complex atonal noise, and offers smooth and fast transitions between these extremes.

TERRA is a highly conceptual device. The core idea is unity of nature and technology, and a perfect balance between simplicity and versatility. Behind the extremely simple interface hides a complex polyphonic, microtonal synthesizer with a broad and flexible sound palette that ranges from classical beautiful tones to complex atonal noise, and offers smooth and fast transitions between these extremes.