Death By Audio and EarthQuaker Devices collaboration Time Shadows

The Time Shadows is a collaboration between Death By Audio and EarthQuaker Devices, billed by its makers as a Subharmonic Multi-Delay Resonator¹²³. In practice it is two delay pedals in one box: EarthQuaker Devices founder Jamie Stillman designed one side, Death By Audio founder Oliver Ackermann designed the other, and both circuits were built around one of EarthQuaker Devices' circuit boards⁴. A center toggle switch chooses between the EarthQuaker side and the Death By Audio side⁵.

The pedal first appeared as a limited edition tied to Reverb's The Pedal Movie, sold exclusively through Reverb.com, and it later returned as the Time Shadows II with presets, expression control, and a third algorithm⁶. This page covers the original collaboration and how the II version differs.

Two sides in one box

Each half of the Time Shadows produces a very different delay sound. Death By Audio's own Oliver Ackermann described the pair as⁵¹³¹⁴:

EarthQuaker Devices' product page for the original describes it as a joint collaboration that brings "their sonic soundscape trips to your melted mind"¹⁵. Gearnews reported that the pedal brought two modes and delay sounds that had not previously been heard from an effect pedal⁸.

The two sides are complementary rather than redundant. On Guitar.com's demo video, Cillian Breathnach called the pedal "a wild journey into sonic chaos" with very different but complementary sounds from the two builders¹⁴.

The controls

The original Time Shadows keeps its control set minimal: three knobs and a toggle⁵.

The Filter knob has a different job on each side. On the EQD side, it controls an envelope for the filter frequency and a gate for the cutoff to the input of the delay¹⁶. EarthQuaker Devices' own Dan Epstein, writing about using the pedal, noted that the Time knob "alters the signal's delay time"¹⁷.

Where it came from

The Time Shadows launched in 2020 as a Pedal Movie exclusive, in celebration of a new trailer for The Pedal Movie, Reverb's documentary about pedal builders⁵. Reverb got a group of builders to create collaborative pedals in limited quantities for the occasion, and the Death By Audio and EarthQuaker Devices pairing was one of them¹⁴. It was the first collaboration between Stillman and Ackermann⁴.

The run was limited to 1,000 units, available exclusively on Reverb⁴. The pedal listed at $199 in the US⁵, with a UK price of GBP 158.33 plus shipping⁶. Once the run sold out, the pedal was changing hands for big bucks on the collectors' market, according to EarthQuaker Devices' own write-up¹⁷.

Time Shadows II: what changed

In 2024 the collaboration returned as the Time Shadows II, a full production run rather than a limited exclusive¹⁴. The standard edition listed at $199 in the US¹⁰, with regional pricing of £199 in the UK and €229 in the EU¹⁸. Gearnews reported Thomann pricing of £237.00 and 279.00€⁸.

The II keeps the core concept but adds several new features:

• Preset settings: six presets, with a stored preset mode selected by the preset switch, indicated by a static red Save/Recall switch¹⁹
• Expression control: new to the II version¹⁹
• !¡ mode: a formerly-secret third algorithm with more extreme delay-bending sounds, new to the II¹⁹

Guitar.com's demo described !¡ mode as a new third mode that Stillman and Ackermann created to blend the two sides together¹⁴. Guitar Pedal X described it as a dual delay where each repeat simultaneously shifts up and down with each regeneration¹⁸. Guitar World's Chris Gill found that !¡ mode reminded him of the simultaneous pitch shift up and down effects of the old MXR Model 129 Pitch Transposer⁷.

Death By Audio also offers a Cyberpunk Edition of the Time Shadows II, the same sound in a rugged, white-on-black package with a far-future sci-fi style, designed by Oliver Ackermann and limited to 500 units¹⁹.

What reviewers said

Guitar World's review of the Time Shadows II describes it as an advanced multi-effects unit with three very distinctive algorithms or modes, providing three controls for tweaking sounds, 6 presets, and Flexi-Switch Technology⁷. The reviewer's verdict on suitability was blunt:

Guitar.com's review of the original found no real alternatives that sound like it. The comparable experimental delays it named, the Chase Bliss Habit and Thermae, Meris Polymoon, the EQD Rainbow Machine, and Red Panda's Raster, Tensor and Particle, are all a good bit pricier than the Time Shadows¹³.

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