EarthQuaker Devices Time Shadows

The EarthQuaker Devices Time Shadows is a delay pedal built as a collaboration between EarthQuaker Devices and Death By Audio, and the makers call it a Subharmonic Multi-Delay Resonator¹. In plain terms, it takes your input signal, drives it with digital distortion, blends in a polyphonic sub octave, feeds the result into a delay, and then pushes it through a highly resonant envelope-controlled lowpass filter¹. It is not a conventional echo box: it handles pitch shifting, pitch modulation, delay and everything in between².

The pedal has two lives. The original Time Shadows came out in 2020 as a limited edition of 1,000 units, sold exclusively on Reverb, and sold out immediately³¹. It became a collector's item, changing hands for well above its original price⁴. In June 2024 the two makers re-released it as a full production run, sometimes called Time Shadows II or Time Shadows 2.0, adding a third mode, six presets and user-assignable expression control³⁵.

What it does: a subharmonic multi-delay resonator

The concept behind the pedal is that each maker designed one half of it. EarthQuaker's Jamie Stillman designed the EQD side, and Death By Audio's Oliver Ackermann designed the DBA side, with a toggle switch choosing between the two¹⁸. The collaboration was inspired by Reverb's full-length documentary, The Pedal Movie³.

On the EQD side, the signal chain runs from digital distortion into a polyphonic sub octave, then into a delay, then out through a resonant envelope-controlled lowpass filter¹. Ackermann described the EQD side as an insane synth buzz bazooka sound and the DBA side as a multi-intertwined delay filter remorphinator of cosmic waves³.

The DBA side is what the makers call a multi-delay filter remorphinator, which they say goes from icy shimmers to cosmic space caves of bouncing repeats¹. In Dan Epstein's article on the EarthQuaker Devices blog, the EQD mode with Time and Filter cranked and Span low turned low-string single notes into a hellish cello or tuba-like roar, while the DBA mode at moderate settings produced a shimmering interstellar delay he described as "Spacemen 3 meets The Cure, yet oddly cheerier"⁴.

The three modes

The original 2020 pedal had a two-position toggle: EQD side or DBA side¹. The 2024 version uses a three-position toggle, and the third position, called !¡ Mode, is a program that existed as an unfinished easter egg in the original and was completed for the re-release⁴.

GuitarPlayer described the three as "wildly different modes"⁵. In Epstein's testing, the dual delay mode with Time at 7 o'clock and Span and Filter at 5 produced a raygun-like cascade of simultaneously ascending and descending notes: "it was as if my guitar had magically transformed into a raygun!"⁴

The controls

The updated pedal keeps the original's three sound knobs, Time, Span and Filter, which dial in the sound in each of the three modes⁶⁷. It adds a fourth control for the preset system.

Guitar.com's review of the reissue noted that the Filter control in EQD mode has a huge sweep, from barely-audible rumble to piercing resonant screeches⁹.

The preset system works in two states. In Live Mode (green LED), the pedal operates exactly where the knobs are set, and any changes have no effect on stored presets unless saved. In Preset Mode (red LED), the pedal recalls stored settings for each control and ignores the actual knob positions⁶. There are six preset slots, and stored presets include the expression pedal mapping¹.

Power and switching

The pedal runs on a standard 9V DC power supply with a 2.1mm negative center barrel¹. The maker lists a current draw of 68 mA for the original version⁸, and the V2 draws 75 mA⁶.

Switching is EarthQuaker's Flexi-Switch Technology: silent, soft-touch, relay-based true bypass that supports both latching and momentary operation¹⁶.

The pedal is mono only⁷, with input impedance of 500 kΩ and output impedance below 1 kΩ⁸. It is made in Akron, Ohio, USA⁵.

Expression control

Any TRS expression pedal can be connected to the EXP jack to control Time, Span or Filter, and the assignment is user selectable¹. To assign a control, you set the expression pedal in toe-down position and wiggle the knob you want mapped to the jack⁴. On the updated version, the desired function can be independently assigned to each preset, and Guitar World's review lists manual control of Time, Filter or Span via expression pedal among the pedal's selling points¹⁰.

Versions and the Cyberpunk edition

• Original Time Shadows (2020): limited to 1,000 units worldwide, sold exclusively on Reverb, no longer in production³¹.
• Time Shadows II / 2.0 (2024): full production run at $199 MAP, adding the third mode, six presets and expression control⁶¹.
• Cyberpunk edition (2024): a limited edition of 500 copies in a black enclosure with graphics created by Oliver Ackermann, sold exclusively through the EarthQuaker Devices Reverb store³⁵.

The original is now available only on the collectors' market⁴.

What reviewers said

Guitar.com reviewed the reissue and rated it 9 out of 10, calling it "genuinely weird" and a fantastic collaborative pedal that explores the fringes of what each maker does, while cautioning that the middle mode may be too dissonant for many use cases⁹. The same review noted that there are no real alternatives that sound like it, and that comparable experimental delays such as the Chase Bliss Habit and Thermae, Meris Polymoon, EQD Rainbow Machine and Red Panda Raster, Tensor and Particle are all a good bit pricier⁹.

Premier Guitar's reviewer found the pedal quick to get sounds out of, writing that "the Time Shadows supports crafting a wide variety of cool, surprising sounds fast. And that's fun," and contrasting that with the Red Panda Particle 2, which has a larger learning curve¹¹. Guitar Pedal X's round-up of 2024's time-based effects called it a pretty unique effect all-round, and said the writer was totally wowed by this pitch-shifting resonant delay even though it is a mono only device⁷.

Videos

Click to load

Click to load

Click to load

Questions