In late 1994 (or early 1995... who could remember stuff like that?) we got this random call from some guy named Dave Derr who said he was working on a compressor. In our usual fairly unimpressed manner we said, "Sure, ship it up, let's see what you got". What came in was this thing with big butt ugly funky white knobs, a bunch of lights and some buttons called a 'Distressor'. So we plugged it in and played with it, and lo and behold, it was pretty cool. So Dave and Fletcher got to talking... back then, Mercenary was still pretty heavy into the 'vintage gear' business, so from those conversations we ended up sending some stuff like Neve® 2254's, Fletcher's personal Teletronix LA-2A, and a few other things here and there. After way many months of passing it back and forth Fletcher called Dave and said "Dave... I have a model number for you". Dave said "What are you talking about... I'm going to call it the 'distressor', which is short for 'distortion compressor'. Fletcher said "Fine... but I really think it should have a model number... I think EL-8 would be the balls". When Dave heard that he said "What are you talking about? Empirical Labs 8? It's our first product" [he sounded impatient... like he was talking to a complete blithering idiot... and he was]... Fletcher responded with: "nah, EL-8 has nothing to do with Empirical Labs "8"... all the time we've been passing this thing back and forth I thought it was getting better and better... today, I'm elated" (get it... elated, EL-8... pretty clever huh... no? shit). The band "Cracker" bought the first units and golly, things haven't stopped nor slowed down from there. The EL-8 has become a staple of recording studios and tours alike. It seems you can't pick up a magazine or go to a show without seeing at least 2 'distressors' in the racks. A couple of years after the distressor came out the first proto-types of the FATSO first appeared. We were promised one to play with in like January 1998... but didn't see one until well after that. About two years later [like 2000 sometime] and the FATSO Jr. was finally released. Ya see Dave puts an incredible amount of attention to detail into his designs. As Judy [Mrs. Derr] likes to say... "No wine before it's time". The FATSO Jr. is possibly one of the most radical designs ever dreamed. It simulates all kinds of analog anomalies for a cold digital world. Things like Harmonic Generation with a soft clip of the wave form, high frequency saturation (warmth), classic knee compression, and a favorite around our shop... Transformer and tape head emulation. In 2002 the EL-8X was released (notice that the nomenclature for that is in "Mercenary Gold"). It featured the "British mod" which sort of approximates the action of pushing in all 4 buttons on an 1176 LN, and the "image mod" which enables two distressors to track better in stereo.

Empirical Labs DerrEsser 500-Series De-Essing Limiter Shipping Weight: 7lbs. *Now Shipping!* EMPELDS $749.00 Mercenary $650.00		Empirical Labs EL8 Distressor Single Channel Compressor/Limiter Shipping Weight: 15lbs. EMPEL8 $1,899.00 Mercenary $1,300.00
Empirical Labs Lil FrEQ Single Channel EQ Shipping Weight: 15lbs. EMPFREQ $2,000.00 Mercenary $1,850.00		Empirical Labs EL8X Distressor w/"British" Mod Single Channel Compressor/Limiter Shipping Weight: 15lbs. EMPEL8X $2,299.00 Mercenary $1,475.00
Empirical Labs Fatso Jr. (Full Analog Tape Simulator & Optimizer) Shipping Weight: 15lbs. EMPEL7 $3,199.00 Mercenary $2,250.00		Empirical Labs Distressor EL8S Stereo Pair Shipping Weight: 25lbs. EMPEL8S $3,798.00 Mercenary $2,600.00
Empirical Labs EL8SX Stereo Pair w/"British" Mod Shipping Weight: 25lbs. EMPEL8SX $4,599.00 Mercenary $2,850.00

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