In this video for Pro Tools Expert, Technical Editor James Ivey chats with Tom Waterman from Universal Audio about the new Distressor dynamics processor for the UAD-2 plug-in platform. 

James and Tom try out the Distressor on a simple 2 mic drum kit recording, showing how the tone of the now legendary Empirical Labs Distressor has been faithfully captured in this stunning sounding plug-in.

Recording Drums With 2 Mics

In this audio example, the drums are being recorded with just 2 microphones. The Kick drum has a Sontronics DM1-B large diaphragm condenser mic just outside the resonator head and the "crotch" mic is a Warm Audio WA-87 positioned between the Kick and Snare drums pointing just above James' knee.  This is a simple technique to get a nice punchy Kick and Snare Drum sound without to much bleed from the cymbals. 

Tom has set the Distressor quite aggressively to show off just how much you can push the emulation to get that classic and sought after Distressor tone.