Death By Audio

Death By Audio was founded in 2002 by Oliver Ackermann, who also sings and plays guitar in the noise-rock band A Place to Bury Strangers. One account says the company started in a warehouse in Virginia before moving to Brooklyn, where it spent nine years in a Williamsburg building that doubled as a venue, recording studio and living space and became well known in the music world; another says it started in New York. After the venue closed in 2014 the workshop moved to Queens, where the pedals are still handmade.

The Fuzz War and the Interstellar Overdriver are among its best-known designs, and a German review says it is hard to imagine the boutique pedal world without them. The catalog also includes the Supersonic Fuzz Gun, the Echo Dream 2 delay, the Total Sonic Annihilation 2 and the Absolute Destruction, which uses a power amplifier chip and slider controls. Tape Op described the Supersonic Fuzz Gun as having a toggle that switches between gate and oscillator modes and a darker, heavier 1970s fuzz character.

Ackermann has been building effects since 2002, and customers have included The Edge, Trent Reznor and Kevin Shields. He co-designed the Time Shadows II delay with Jamie Stillman of EarthQuaker Devices.