Death By Audio Collaborates with Black Angels for Phosphene Scream

September 14, 2019 · 3 sources

Death By Audio announced the Phosphene Scream, a limited-edition reverb and delay pedal created with Oliver Ackermann of the company alongside Alex Maas and Christian Bland of Austin psych-rock band The Black Angels¹. The pedal was limited to 420 units and sold exclusively through the Levitation webstore, with pre-sales beginning September 12, 2019¹². It carried a $200 pre-order price².

The Phosphene Scream combined a reverb and a multifunctional delay in one box. Death By Audio described the reverb as one that "multiplies internal reflections of segments of comb filtered waveforms from zero to infinity," and said the pair of effects covered every reverb and delay sound from '60s psychedelic to futuristic¹. No Treble reported the unit was designed to pay homage to the psychedelic rock legacy of Austin, Texas².

Controls were a three-knob, one-switch layout³:

• Reverb: sets the mix of the reverberated signal and adjusts reverb time at the same time¹
• Feedback: sets both delay feedback and delay level, from zero of each to almost never-ending screaming repeats¹
• D-Time: sets the time between delay repeats; at short times it allows comb-filter-like results¹
• Filter toggle: changes the character of the repeats and reverb between low passed, unfiltered, and high passed¹

A three-way toggle also adjusted the tonality of the decays for all effects: left for deep thundering booms, middle for full range, and right for a bright vintage edge¹.

The pedal ran on a standard 2.1mm negative center 9V adapter or the included 9V battery, drew 80 mA, and measured 4.88" x 3.68" x 2.15" including hardware, weighing 13 oz¹. It was built by hand in an underground warehouse in Queens, NYC and carried a lifetime guarantee³.

The Phosphene Scream joined other Death By Audio collaborations with Levitation, including the Speed Tripper, and sat alongside the company's Rooms reverb pedal in its lineup of delay and reverb offerings.