Amp Crash
Play The Room
If there’s one sound guitarists have spent decades trying to fake, it’s a small amp pushed hard. The Amp Crash from Death By Audio and Rainger FX doesn’t fake it. Inside the box sits a real 3-watt amplifier, a real 2-inch speaker and a real microphone, doing what they do in a room: moving air, catching it, feeding it back. The sound isn’t being simulated. It’s happening.
Main Features:
- Collaboration between Death By Audio and Rainger FX – a real amp, speaker and microphone in a pedal
- Real 3-watt amplifier, internal 2″ speaker and built-in microphone – the sound is physical, not simulated
- Blend the direct amp signal with the mic’d sound – from edge-of-breakup overdrive to crushing fuzz
- Built-in Reverb, Echo and Chorus effects – with dedicated Depth and Time controls
- MIC GATE – flip up to keep the internal mic quiet between notes, triggered by the instrument input
- External 8Ω speaker output – plug in a cabinet and it becomes a tiny but very real amp
- Buffered bypass with top-mounted jacks
- Lifetime warranty
- Hand-made in New York, USA
- Powered by a regular 9 V DC PS
- (centre -, 2,1 mm, 300 mA current draw)
Available: Now
The project began when David Rainger came to New York with an idea: put a microphone inside a pedal so ambient sound could blend with the guitar signal, creating new harmonics and unexpected overtones. Death By Audio took that idea and asked another question: what if the pedal contained its own speaker?
The moment the first prototype came together, the project took on a life of its own. The internal speaker and microphone interacted like a real amp in a room, producing the sound and feel of small combo amps pushed to their limits. Touch-sensitive overdrive, walls of fuzz, explosive harmonic feedback, glorious controlled chaos. From there, Death By Audio built a complete multi-effects engine around the concept, adding Reverb, Echo and Chorus to push those sounds even further.
“We’re so excited to be bringing out the Amp Crash with Death By Audio,” says David Rainger of Rainger FX. “The Amp Crash is powerful, unique, flexible and a whole load of fun to use! I’m knocked out by how Death By Audio developed this idea into an amazing product.”
So what is it, in the end? A real mic’d amp experience on a pedalboard, a compact recording tool that doesn’t need a cabinet, a portable practice amp, an experimental effects platform and an endlessly inspiring instrument capable of sounds conventional pedals simply cannot create. It breathes, responds and sometimes even fights back, just like your favorite cranked amp.
Let’s start with the controls. DI OUT sets the level of the direct amplifier signal, MIC OUT sets the level of the microphone, and the blend between them is where the pedal opens up. GAIN drives the internal amp, and turned toward OVERLOAD it starts to fight back, all oscillation and gnarly harmonics you can ride or just let ring. The MIC GATE flips up to keep the mic quiet until you play, since it’s triggered by the instrument input. TONE moves the whole thing from deep and bass-heavy to bright and focused.
The SFX selector wraps it all in three effects. Reverb runs from a small room to a massive cave. Echo is a classic tape-style repeat. Chorus is rich and three-dimensional, turning metallic and flanger-like when you push the Depth. DEPTH fully down takes the effects out of the picture and leaves the raw amp and mic. TIME sets the decay, the delay time or the chorus speed, depending on the mode.
An external 8Ω speaker output lets players connect a real speaker cabinet, transforming Amp Crash into a tiny but very real amplifier. Plugging in a cabinet disables the internal speaker, while the DI and Mic signal stay live for the desk. You can also bypass the internal speaker with a simple headphone adaptor or a disconnected cable. It draws 300 mA, and every unit is covered by a lifetime warranty.
Plug in, turn it up and play the room. The sound isn’t being simulated. It’s happening, right there under your feet.
Authorised ADG dealers can visit the ADG Hub dealer portal for additional information, product pictures, webtexts etc.
Audio Distribution Group is proud be to be responsible for distribution in the UK, Ireland, Norway and Sweden for Death By Audio