About

Death By Audio handmakes effect pedals in an underground warehouse in Queens, NYC.

Founded in 2002 by A Place To Bury Strangers singer-guitarist Oliver Ackermann, Death By Audio’s inaugural years were spent warehouse-jumping from Virginia to Brooklyn, eventually spending nine years in the infamous Williamsburg Death By Audio effects pedal factory, venue, recording studio, and live-work space. After the venue closed its doors in 2014, Death By Audio moved the effects pedal workshop to Queens, where Oliver and crew continue to make pedals by hand.

Every effect pedal we build features sturdy construction to survive even your loudest and most energetic live performances and we precisely engineer each pedal with the best components available to expand your musical horizons with new and original sounds. Bizarre technologies like medical-grade IC chips, obsolete transistors, and military surplus electronics are pushed beyond their limits to create dozens upon dozens of loud, abrasive, and mind-bending effect pedals that inspire musicians from DIY noise freaks to touring pros at the practice spot, in the recording studio, and onstage.

Originally a web-based effects customization service, Oliver turned artists’ wildest pedal desires into chaotic realities using his decades of rock ‘n roll know-how and Rhode Island School of Design training to develop radical new circuit design and layout ideas to redefine how musicians interact with their equipment, sometimes using intuitive arrays of sliders, dip-, and toggle-switches instead of traditional controls to help players break out of the same old set-it-and-forget-it sounds and discover new sources of inspiration.

Our goal at Death By Audio is to inspire you. Go and play some music right now. Hear your sound transform through one of our effect pedals. Turn your instrument upside down and play it with your other hand. Tape a microphone to your head. Search for cool and interesting sounds to make something new in the world.

And because we like to destroy things, all Death By Audio effect pedals are guaranteed for life. If you can possibly break it, we will fix it. We guarantee it.