EarthQuaker Devices Astral Destiny

The EarthQuaker Devices Astral Destiny is a compact modulated octave reverb pedal: a reverb whose tail can carry an upper octave, a lower octave, or pitch bending, with chorus-style modulation built in and a Stretch footswitch that doubles the reverb length while bending pitch¹. It arrived in early 2021 as the newest and, in the maker's own words, arguably most feature-packed reverb in the EarthQuaker Devices line². Where pedals like the Afterneath V2 or Transmisser shape a single reverb character, the Astral Destiny packs eight distinct reverb modes and eight editable presets into one box.

Eight reverb modes, from Abyss to Cosmos

The Mode control is an 8-position rotary switch, and each position is a different reverb algorithm¹. Four of the eight add an octave or interval to the reverb tail, and three of those bend pitch outright:

EarthQuaker notes that Ascend, Descend and Cosmos are best used on sustained notes and chords, since the pitch-bending effect can clash and run into itself with faster playing³. Guitar.com made a similar point in its review, suggesting the pedal might be the first time shimmer has had a whole multi-mode stompbox to itself, while conceding the tonal variety is somewhat limited if you want to stay spacey and cosmic⁷.

The controls and eight presets

The panel is deliberately streamlined: five knobs, two rotary switches, two footswitches¹.

The pedal ships with 8 factory presets, one per reverb mode, and each can be edited or completely overwritten. Length, Depth, Rate, Tone, Mix, the expression assignment and the Stretch length can all be stored and recalled¹. Premier Guitar's reviewer called the control layout intuitive and streamlined, a point in the pedal's favor alongside its unique modulation tones and cool pitch-bending capabilities⁸.

The modulation itself is unusual. Premier Guitar found that, unlike the chorus-like modulation in most big-sounding reverbs, the Astral Destiny's modulations sound more like a cross between tremolo and pitch modulation⁸. EarthQuaker's own Dan Epstein points out the built-in chorus makes it easy to achieve a rotating-speaker effect, and his 2023 guide covers settings for surf, western, jazz, crunch, drone and jangle pop styles, well beyond shoegaze⁹.

The Stretch footswitch

The second footswitch is the pedal's signature trick. Stretch doubles the length of the reverb effect while adding a temporary change in pitch: tap it for an immediate pitch change, or hold it for temporary pitch bending¹. Guitar.com described it as a stretch mode that doubles the reverb's trail length and adds an adjustable pitch-bending control³.

The main Activate footswitch simply turns the reverb on and off¹. The pedal also has tails, so the reverb decays naturally when you bypass the effect rather than cutting off abruptly¹.

Power, connections and the circuit

The Astral Destiny runs on a standard 9V DC supply with a 2.1mm negative center barrel, drawing 85 mA, and EarthQuaker warns against running it at higher voltages¹.

The expression jack is flexible. Any TRS expression pedal can take control of Length, Depth, Rate, Tone or Mix, and the jack also accepts control voltage over a 0 to 3.3V range, with sleeve as ground, ring as 3.3V and tip as the wiper¹. That makes it usable with synth and modular gear as well as ordinary expression pedals. Input impedance is 500 kΩ and output impedance is 100 Ω¹.

Inside, the pedal is FV-1 based, built on the Spin Semiconductor FV-1 DSP chip, and EarthQuaker describes it as a bit larger than the others in their reverb line². The dry signal path is all analog and the effect signal path is fully digital⁴. Each unit is built one at a time in Akron, Ohio, and the enclosure artwork is by Matt Horak¹³. The maker covers it with a limited lifetime warranty: if it breaks, they will fix it¹.

What reviewers said

Reviews were positive, with one recurring caveat. Premier Guitar concluded that:

for players whose bedrock is big, octave-colored reverb sounds, while listing one con: it could use one more conventional reverb voice⁸. Guitar.com's reviewer put the maximum decay time at somewhere around 12 swirling seconds¹⁰, and the site later included the pedal in its best affordable effects pedals of 2021 feature, noting that if you want to get spacey and cosmic, this is the pedal for you⁷. GuitarPlayer listed it at $199 street at launch⁵; by 2026 Guitar World's Towers review carried a $249 price for the Astral Destiny⁶.

Videos

Click to load

Click to load

Click to load

Questions