Death By Audio Time Shadows II

The Death By Audio Time Shadows II is a subharmonic multi-delay resonator pedal, a collaboration between Death By Audio and EarthQuaker Devices designed by Oliver Ackermann and Jamie Stillman¹. It is a delay pedal in the broad sense, but not a straightforward one: it layers sub-octave echoes, multi-delay washes and pitch-shifted repeats through resonant filtering, and Guitar World's reviewer Chris Gill called it "an advanced multi-effects unit with three very distinctive algorithms or modes"².

The II is the full-production follow-up to the original limited-edition Time Shadows, which was created in limited quantities for the film project The Pedal Movie³. The new version keeps the two original delay engines and adds a formerly-secret third algorithm, six presets and an assignable expression jack¹.

The three modes

A three-way toggle selects which algorithm the pedal runs: EQD, DBA, or the secret "!¡" setting, and each mode changes how the rest of the controls behave¹.

EQD mode is the EarthQuaker Devices side. Death By Audio describes it as "a pitch morphed fuzz delay filter that takes the input signal, blows it out with power of digital distortion, blends it with a polyphonic sub octave, feeds it into a delay, then outputs into a highly resonant envelope controlled lowpass filter"¹. Guitar World's reviewer found that EQD mode "can combine deep, gritty sub-octave boom and bowed string or horn textures with hypnotic cavern reverbs"².

DBA mode is the Death By Audio side, described by the maker as "a multi-delay filter remorphinator that goes from icy shimmers to cosmic space caves of bouncing repeats"¹. Premier Guitar's reviewer found that it "really hones in on the pedal's delay characteristics, creating crisp repeats and clean sounds with a little less midrange in the filtering, but lending the ability to cut through a mix at volume"⁴.

!¡ mode sits in the middle position. It is a formerly-secret third algorithm with more extreme delay-bending sounds, new to the Time Shadows II and not featured on the initial limited-edition version¹². Guitar.com's reviewer Cillian Breathnach described how it works under the hood: "This mode uses your attack to initiate two parallel delay lines, with each repeat, one climbs in pitch, one descends," making it inherently dissonant⁵. Guitar World notes the mode was created by EQD's Jamie Stillman, and that its sound reminded their reviewer of the simultaneous pitch-shift-up and pitch-shift-down effects of the old MXR Model 129 Pitch Transposer².

The controls

The control set is small, but each knob does different things depending on the mode selected¹.

Guitar World describes the II iteration as adding "a fourth knob/rotary switch that accesses six user-programmable presets"².

Presets, expression and CV

The pedal has six preset slots for saving and recalling settings¹. It runs in two states:

• Live Mode (green): the pedal operates exactly where the controls are set, and changes do not affect stored presets unless saved¹.
• Preset Mode (red): the pedal operates from a stored preset selected by the preset switch, ignoring the physical control positions¹.

A user-assignable expression jack can map an expression pedal to any parameter¹⁶. The jack also accepts Control Voltage, with a CV range of 0 to 3.3 V¹.

Power and switching

The Time Shadows II runs on a standard 9 VDC power supply with a 2.1mm negative center barrel, drawing 75 mA¹. There is no battery option in the specifications.

History and versions

The original Time Shadows was a 2020 collaboration between the two companies, created in limited quantities for The Pedal Movie, with a center toggle choosing between the EarthQuaker side and the Death By Audio side³⁷. In June 2024 EarthQuaker Devices and Death By Audio re-released the pedal as a full production run, adding the third mode, presets and assignable expression control³⁵.

The standard Time Shadows II ships in a purple and silver color scheme¹. A Cyberpunk Edition variant, designed by Oliver Ackermann, brings the same sound in a rugged, white-on-black package with a far-future sci-fi style; it was limited to 500 units and available exclusively at Reverb for a limited time¹.

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