EarthQuaker Astral Destiny Octave Reverb Pedal

EarthQuaker Astral Destiny Octave Reverb Pedal Overview

The Astral Destiny is wonderfully transcendent multi-mode octave reverb pedal with a lush built-in chorus. The sheer under-the-hood power, flexibility and unique sound make this one of the best reverb stompboxes for the price. As it’s an Earthquaker Devices pedal, you’re guaranteed stunning build-quality as each pedal is made with love - one-at-a-time - by the team in Akron, Ohio.

Transcend This Realm

The EQD Astral Destiny is an octave-based reverb pedal, with 8 modes to choose from. Whilst the Astral Destiny ships in Live Mode (where what you see is what you get), there’s also a Preset Mode.

With this mode engaged, you can store up to 8 of your favourite dialled-in tones for later recall (which is particularly handy for live and studio use). All of the Astral Destiny’s reverb modes can be used as a basis for a patch.

Lush Built-in Chorus/Vibrato

In addition to the gorgeous reverb algorithms, the Astral Destiny boasts a built-in chorus - which adds another string to the its feature-rich bow. It can add an instant lush texture to your patches and thanks to its wide range, it can go from a subtle shimmer to a full-on vibrato.

Hands-free Tweaking

For quick variation that doesn’t require to bend down to adjust the knobs, Earthquaker Devices have included the fun Stretch switch and an expression pedal input.

The Stretch is a momentary effect that doubles the reverb’s decay time, warping the pitch as it settles back down, as well as affecting the speed of the chorus section. It works well when adding spice to a song transition or if you need to inject some weirdness during a jam session.

The expression pedal input allows you to assign favourite EXP pedal to any parameter, which is perfect for on-the-fly adjustments. For you synthesists out there, this jack also receives Control Voltage.

Eight Distinct Modes

The first reverb mode available is Abyss. This reverb doesn’t use any octaves, making it ideal for when you need a tamer, more traditional verb sound. It pairs beautifully with the built-in chorus.

The Shimmer, Sub and Sub Shimmer modes provide that classic ethereal sound by adding either one octave above, one octave below or above and below to the reverb’s tail. These modes are our go-to for when we want to turn our guitar in an angelic choir or, when used subtly, thicken up a more overdriven sound.

The Astral mode utilises an upper and lower octave with a cascading, regenerating tail. As the octaves of the trails leap, they begin to transcend the range of your instrument and soar into the stratosphere!

The Ascend and Descend modes are where things start getting out-there, as they add upward or downward pitch-bending. These modes are particularly suited to held notes and chords.

The final mode is Cosmos, which creates expansive pad-like textures by adding a regenerating perfect 5th to the tail of the reverb.

Boutique Build

The Astral Destiny has everything you’d expect from a high-end pedal, with silent soft-touch switching, True Bypass, and a choice between analogue dry-through or buffered bypass (with tails or no tails when deactivating the effect).

EQD have done it again, creating a feature-packed and well-priced stompbox. If you’re looking to add a truly otherworldly effect to your sound, the Astral Destiny is a top choice.

Overview by EarthQuaker Devices

An Octal Octave Reverberation Odyssey

We’d like to take this opportunity to welcome you and your instrument of choice to a vast new world of octave reverberation. Unrelenting, radicalized reverb for the modern world; an array of haunting, unearthly delights and ethereal sonic sorcery designed to take you on a deep journey through both time and space. This is your new destiny should you choose to accept it (which we assume you have if you’ve gotten this far…). Anyhow, welcome to your new Astral Destiny.

The Astral Destiny is a compact and powerful modulated octave reverb pedal that features 8 reverb modes with 8 editable presets, assignable expression control, tails for natural reverb decay when the effect is bypassed and a super cool stretch feature that doubles the length of the reverb while adding an adjustable pitch-bending effect.

Astral Destiny features a completely analog dry signal path, totally digital delay path, buffered bypass with and two different bypass states - Tails or Full Bypass. Tails Mode, which is the pedal’s stock setting, allows the reverb to naturally decay after the effect is bypassed, slowly letting you drift back from your ethereal dream state into the waking world. Full Bypass, on the other hand, will cut the reverb effect completely when the effect is bypassed and instantly throw you back into cold clutches of reality.

Let your fate spin out of control by pressing the Stretch footswitch, which doubles the length of the reverb effect while adding a temporary change in pitch. While a short tap will immediately change the pitch, holding the Stretch footswitch depressed gives you a temporary pitch bending effect with the speed of the pitch-bending effect created by holding the Stretch footswitch. This is easily adjusted by turning the Length knob.

While the Astral Destiny offers two different modes of operation, it ships in Live Mode, where each control will operate manually, laying out your fate for you, clearly visible.

Preset Mode, in contrast, lets you chose from one of the 8 unearthly, ethereal factory preset reverb fates, 1 for each reverb mode, the Astral Destiny comes with. Each of these can be edited or completely overwritten just like when the ancient Fates plucked or cut the strings of one’s destiny. Save settings for Length, Depth, Rate, Tone, Mix as well as EXP assignment and Stretch length and recall them instantly. Any of the Astral Destiny’s 8 reverb modes can be used as the basis for each of the 8 presets.

But beware! - There is no undo for preset saving, so make sure you are not overwriting your favourite sound, especially when you are saving presets from Live Mode! – Once the string of your fate is cut, there is no turning back on your destiny.

Freely express any aspect of your Astral Destiny - Shipping with the EXP jack mapped to the Depth control, the expression control can also be swiftly assigned to Length, Rate, Tone, or Mix, plus different EXP assignments can be saved in each preset and you can also use Control Voltage with the EXP Jack.

Each Astral Destiny is built one at a time by a team of Los Angeles-based robots and a handful of real-life humans in the occupied Erie territory presently known as Akron, Ohio.