this is a cheap emulation of the empirical labs distressor that everyone swears by.
 
http://www.sknoteaudio.co...sformers-with-midside/

I've been interested in finding an affordable solution, thanks

It's pretty good .  I should have said inexpensive rather than cheap

Holding on until Slate's FG-Stress arrives.

Forty bux is nearly no-brainer.
 
Well, I have no brain, so it's in my VST folder now.

Fleer
Holding on until Slate's FG-Stress arrives.

How about the:
 
FG-X V2?
SSD5?
 

Hold on. I'm coming.

I've got a collection of Antress Modern plugins. They're free and there's a very good Distressor in the bundle.
It's a zip bundle of about 20 plugins that are very stable and all 64 bit. Pretty good GUIs as well.

Click here

While poking around the sk-note site, I noticed this intriguing plugin called SoundBrigade.
 
It's basically a dynamic equalizer, but with a very different approach from any other dynamic EQ I've seen. At first glance, I thought: I can do all that with MDynamicEQ and/or MSpectralDynamics. But upon further examination, it appears to be capable of more than just straight-up dynamic equalization, including pretty radical soundshaping. As with all of his plugins, the price is quite reasonable - 30 bucks.