These Are the Top 10 Death By Audio Pedals You Should Try in 2024
Death By Audio is currently one of the most innovative guitar pedal companies. The brand has everything: from essential basics such as the Interstellar Overdrive to mind-bending inventions like the Robot pitch transposer.
Some of the big names using Death By Audio pedals in their setups include Radiohead, The Flaming Lips, Nine Inch Nails, Wilco, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and so on, showing how reliable the brand's products can be.
In this article, we present our 10 best Death By Audio pedals in 2024. In our list, we included everything: from overdrive to modulation and pitch shifters. We believe these are some of the best-sounding effects units on the market. Without further ado, let's get started!
In a hurry? Check out our quick guide with the 10 best delay pedals in 2024 at the end of the article.
A Brief History of Death By Audio
Death By Audio was founded in 2002 by singer-guitarist Oliver Ackermann (A Place To Bury Strangers). The brand has gathered a cult following in the underground guitar community thanks to its engagement with the music scene and superb craftsmanship.
Death By Audio is also famous for its former Williamsburg warehouse. Closed in 2014, it served as a pedal factory, recording studio, and venue. Currently, the brand's headquarters is located in Queens, NY, where each pedal is handmade.
Apart from everything we already mentioned, what makes Death By Audio so special is their innovative spirit: the brand is determined to explore uncovered grounds by using unusual technology on their guitar pedals, such as medical-grade IC chips and military surplus electronics.
10 Best Death By Audio Pedals in 2024
Interstellar Overdriver
Main Features
- Based on vintage tube amps
- Extremely responsive controls
- Transparent circuit
Starting off with a basic yet essential pedal, the Interstellar Overdriver is a natural-sounding overdrive that functions similarly to vintage tube amps, meaning the more you crank up the volume the more of that sweet analog saturated tone you get.
This pedal is very reliable thanks to its responsiveness. Within the two very sensitive knobs, there is a wide range of tones you can achieve, and unlike many other pedals, the master volume parameter is not only strictly utilitarian: fiddling with it will actually impact your final sound.
Overall, the Interstellar Overdriver will be a great choice regardless of your genre or playing style. Listen to the demo below to hear what we're talking about.
Reverberation Machine
Main Features
- Versatile reverb pedal
- Two distinctive modes: dark for darker tones and light for brighter tones
- Independent gain control
As the name suggests, the Reverberation Machine is a literal reverb powerhouse, capable of doing anything between subtle, bright spring reverb and otherworldly cavernous reflections, thanks to its wide array of parameters. It has been praised by Troy Van Leeuwen, from Queens of the Stone Age.
Apart from the usual volume and reverb controls, this pedal has two new cards under its sleeves: the dark/light control, which lets you quickly switch up your tone's flavor, and the altitude control (marked by a triangle). The altitude control works like a gain knob but can produce some crazy sounds when cranked up to the maximum level.
Thanks to its versatility, we believe the Reverberation Machine is one of the capable reverb pedals, whether you want to give your tone a splash of ambience or dive deep into colossal reflections.
Space Bender
Main Features
- Chorus modulator
- Dynamically modulated delay lines
- Perfect for vintage and experimental sci-fi tones
The Space Bender combines dynamic delays and modulations to create "almost paranormal" tones. While it's a great option for experimental-oriented players, it can also have a place in more traditional pedalboards if you're looking for something to spice up your sound.
On the left side of the pedal, you will find three switches. With the delay time control, you can set the range from very short to medium-long, as well as invert the polarity of the envelope. The rest is pretty straightforward, with the modulator switch setting the modulation source for the delay, and intensity doing what it says.
Finally, there are two knobs to control the speed and depth of the effects. Fiddling with the parameters, you can achieve many interesting effects, such as modulated delays and even more traditional chorus and flanger tones. We suggest you take a look at the video below to hear this pedal in action.
Echo Dream 2
Main Features
- Complete delay pedal
- Delay times of up to 1 second
- Built-in modulation
- Fuzz mode
The Echo Dream 2 is a robust delay pedal with built-in modulation and a fuzz mode as a bonus. This pedal covers so much ground that it can be considered an echo powerhouse, with delay times of up to 1 second.
While you can use the Echo Dream 2 to give only a splash of ambience to your tone, getting experimental with it is where it's at. The modulation, in particular, sounds superb, allowing you to evoke some sci-fi chorus effects.
This delay pedal has a fuzz knob, which is almost a hidden feature. By messing with it, you can introduce various levels of saturation to your reflections to either give it that subtle analog flavor or make it sound crazy.
Apocalypse
Main Features
- Fuzz pedal with five unique fuzz tones
- Built-in sweepable frequency equalizer
- Sounds good on guitar, bass, and synthesizers
With such a suggestive name, the Apocalypse is a fuzz pedal with five unique modes and tones to explore. Not only that, this pedal can also be used as an amp simulator and a bass boost.
Within the five distinctive fuzz modes, you will find: Twin-T Scoop, War Fuzz, Dual J-FET, Octave Rect, and Gain x1000. Each of these has its own unique flavor, with varied amounts of gain, sustain, and dynamic responsiveness. You can further tailor your tone with the sweepable frequency equalizer knob.
Surprisingly enough, we haven't seen many fuzz pedals as versatile and complete as this one in the market, so the Apocalypse is an amazing choice regardless of your genre or playing style.
Total Sonic Annihilation 2
Main Features
- Feedback loop machine
- Send/receive jacks
- Can be used by itself or to feedback loop other pedals
One of the craziest-sounding Death By Audio pedals, the Total Sonic Annihilation 2 unit was born after a pertinent question: "What if effect pedals were connected back into themselves?". This pedal takes the concept of the feedback loop and turns it into a creative tool.
The way that this pedal works is by connecting your pedalboard back into itself using the send/receive jacks and looping any effect in your signal chain indefinitely. The behavior of this pedal will depend on what other units you have in your setup.
It's hard to describe the effects of this pedal using words. Sci-fi? Lo-fi perhaps? We could talk on and on, but the only way to attest to how crazy this unit sounds is by listening to it in action. Luckily, the video below showcases all of the possibilities within the Total Sonic Annihilation 2.
Germanium Filter
Main Features
- Transparent and responsive overdrive
- Console-style drive circuit and a super intense DBA-style filter
- Built with obsolete germanium transistors
A more traditional and basic pedal, the Germanium Filter combines a console-style drive circuit and a DBA-style filter. Built with obsolete transistors, it can give your tone subtle overdrive to fuzz-like saturation thanks to its widely responsive parameters.
What we like about this pedal is that, despite its simple and minimalistic premise, it is highly versatile and usable in many scenarios, being a great choice for any music genre. We do recommend this pedal though if you're into a rawer, more ragged tone style, as it has a vintage and lo-fi-esque characteristic to it.
Octave Clang V2
Main Features
- Octave up and fuzz pedal
- Up to +39dB of gain
- Independent octave footswitch
The Octave Clang V2 is an updated version of one of Death By Audio's most sought-after pedals. It is an octave-up fuzz capable of producing really dirty fuzz tones with experimental twists. Each of the three parameters is responsive enough to completely change your sound.
The gain knob in this pedal, for example, can provide up to +39dB of raw gain, allowing you to transit freely between overdrive and fuzz. The tone can be further tailored with the tone parameter, which is very responsive in and of itself.
The star of the show is the octave-up effect, which can be activated on the fly via the footswitch. It is a useful feature for helping your solos cut through the mix and create highly experimental sounds.
Disturbance
Main Features
- Multi-fx filter, flanger, and phaser
- Built-in modulation control
- Trip footswitch that freezes the LFO on the fly
The Disturbance is one of Death By Audio's most complete pedals, as it is a filter, flanger, and phaser in one unit. What's also great about this pedal is that each parameter has a wide range of operation, allowing you many tone possibilities.
While the three-way switch lets you switch between each modulation type, you can further tailor the effect Tensity knob (feedback), width, speed, and an enter point parameter that dictates the center point of your modulation LFO.
Last but not least, the unique trip footswitch lets you freeze the LFO on the fly to achieve even more experimental weirdness. Pressing it again will resume the LFO from where it stopped.
Robot
Main Features
- Low-fidelity 8-bit pitch transposer
- Built-in fuzz
- Built-in arpeggiator
- Four distinctive modes
One of the most infamous pedals from Death By Audio, the Robot pedal does what it says: it transforms your guitar into an 8-bit low-fidelity machine by sending the audio signal into a combination of lo-fi fuzz, octave shifters, and arpeggiators.
While this is a niche effect, it is extremely versatile if you want to do some crazy stuff with your guitar. There are four straightforward and distinctive modes: normal, octave down, octave up, and arpeggiator.
While the Robot pedal is versatile when it comes to experimental grounds, it's a very specific kind of unit, so you can expect it to turn your tone into complete madness. Take a look at the video below to hear what we're talking about.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who Owns Death By Audio?
Founded in 2002, Death By Audio is owned by its founder Oliver Ackermann, singer-guitarist of the band A Place To Bury Strangers.
Conclusion
These are our 10 best Death By Audio pedals in 2024. This list is based on personal preference so we recommend you check Death By Audio’s complete pedal line since we have many excellent effects units on our website that weren't featured in the article.
Below is a summary of every pedal covered in this article. Thank you for reading!
| Effect |
Pedal |
Price |
| Overdrive |
$180.00 |
|
| Reverb |
$225.00 |
|
| Chorus Modulator |
$270.00 |
|
| Delay |
$280.00 |
|
| Fuzz |
$270.00 |
|
| Feedback Loop Machine |
$250.00 |
|
| Overdrive |
$225.00 |
|
| Fuzz/Octave |
$225.00 |
|
| Multi-Modulation |
$250.00 |
|
| Multi-FX |
$320.00 |
You can check these and many other pedals in our store!
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