NPD: Death By Audio Apocalypse 'overdrive'

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Doog
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NPD: Death By Audio Apocalypse 'overdrive'

Post by Doog »

Image
Instantly smitten, and not just because it looks so good.

It manages to cover hyper-scooped Muff sounds to fat, almost 'cocked wah' midrangey shit, as well as overbiased glitchies, octave-up and some chunky overdrive sounds. The 'equaliser' control changes per mode, so you get waaaaaay more variety across the pedal than you normally would in your standard fuzz.

Any dirt pedal that sounds good 'direct to board' on headphones (how I've been demoing it) will sound amazing into a real amp and this fits me SO well; considering DBA's lineage, the Apocalypse has some very warm ORGANIC sounds as well as some harsh shit- will try and do a super simple demo at some point soon.

While not super affordable, I feel like this can replace a lot of boxes in my ever-growing fuzzstable, which has got preeeeeetty big in the advent of lockdown boredom.
Last edited by Doog on Thu May 06, 2021 10:50 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Freddy V-C
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Post by Freddy V-C »

Ooft!
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Re: NPD: Death By Audio Apocalypse 'overdrive'

Post by BearBoy »

Doog wrote:it looks so good.
It does. But you ought to clean up your coffee stains, young man.
Doog wrote:will try and do a super simple demo at some point soon.
Please do, am interested.
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ekwatts wrote:I'm just going to smash it in with a hammer and hope it works. Tone is all in the fingers anyway.
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Doog
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Re: NPD: Death By Audio Apocalypse 'overdrive'

Post by Doog »

BearBoy wrote:
Doog wrote:it looks so good.
It does. But you ought to clean up your coffee stains, young man.
Nothing about the pube on the bottom left?
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sunshiner
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Post by sunshiner »

Congrats, I still remember your praises to a Humdinger. How do the two compare?
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Doog
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Post by Doog »

sunshiner wrote:Congrats, I still remember your praises to a Humdinger. How do the two compare?
I'm at my gf place's right now so can't compare directly, but there's definitely some overlap, especially given the octave and bias options on the Humdinger. It obviously has the same core "TOAN" though, whereas all the modes on this cover a lot more (generally grosser) ground.
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Bacchus
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Re: NPD: Death By Audio Apocalypse 'overdrive'

Post by Bacchus »

Interesting. I would be immediately and probably permanently put off by a "sweepable frequency equalizer" being one knob. Which is irrational I suppose, because I have plenty of pedals with just a tone knob. Is it just a tone knob or does it do anything else? I remember reading a review of some amp or other (always thought it was a THD, but that seems not to be the case....) that had a single "EQ" knob, that changed the character from Fendery bright to chimey Vox through Marshall to Orange darkness. Not just a tone knob, but boosted and shaped things as it swept. It's going to bug me trying to remember what it was....
Doog wrote:
BearBoy wrote:
Doog wrote:it looks so good.
It does. But you ought to clean up your coffee stains, young man.
Nothing about the pube on the bottom left?
Pubescreamer
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Doog
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Post by Doog »

:lol:

opens 'Songtitles' in Notes app
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Bacchus
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Post by Bacchus »

LIDO BOSS! was another possible songname I came across recently, but it might be a bandname instead.
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Doog
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Re: NPD: Death By Audio Apocalypse 'overdrive'

Post by Doog »

Bacchus wrote:Interesting. I would be immediately and probably permanently put off by a "sweepable frequency equalizer" being one knob. Which is irrational I suppose, because I have plenty of pedals with just a tone knob. Is it just a tone knob or does it do anything else? I remember reading a review of some amp or other (always thought it was a THD, but that seems not to be the case....) that had a single "EQ" knob, that changed the character from Fendery bright to chimey Vox through Marshall to Orange darkness. Not just a tone knob, but boosted and shaped things as it swept. It's going to bug me trying to remember what it was....
Blackstar ISF maybe?

It's an interesting control on the DBA for sure, definitely more than just a normal 'brightness' kind of tone control. It seems like clockwise end of the dial is adding more upper mids (not really 'treble'), but doesn't just dump the low end like a Big Muff tonestack does, and it doesn't ADD loads of bass when it's pulled back anticlockwise. From what the 'manual' says, it really is controlling multiple frequencies that change dependant on the mode, or at least that react different depending on how that mode is voiced. It's totally usable in a lot of settings though.

On the J-FET mode (the most traditional OD-fuzz mode), the very bottom of the dial seems to add top end back in, and also results in a big gain boost, almost like it's a tone bypass on those old Muffs.. it's probably my favourite setting, sounds fucking MASSIVE.
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Hurb
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Post by Hurb »

I do love a DBA pedal! The design of them is always legit.
This is the fuzz war plus extra stuff one right? I just got rid of my Fuzz War(for charity) it always seemed quite tame with my setup but I did enjoy it.

looking forward to hearing your demo pal!
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Freddy V-C
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Post by Freddy V-C »

I had a Laney combo years ago (an LV100 maybe?) with that kind of "tone shaping" knob which was supposed to sweep from an American-style voicing to a British-style voicing. It had a 3-band EQ on top of that as well though, so perhaps not what you're describing Paul.
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Thom
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Post by Thom »

Looks well smart! Looking forward to the demo.
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Post by Noirie. »

Keep meaning to try one but never do. Where'd you pick it up from?
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Doog
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Post by Doog »

Gear4Music- there's a cheaper used one on Reverb in Liverpool, but I wanted to make sure I could easily return if I haaaaated it
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Re: NPD: Death By Audio Apocalypse 'overdrive'

Post by dezb1 »

Doog wrote:
BearBoy wrote:
Doog wrote:it looks so good.
It does. But you ought to clean up your coffee stains, young man.
Nothing about the pube on the bottom left?
Ain't no Big Muff without pubes
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Re: NPD: Death By Audio Apocalypse 'overdrive'

Post by NickS »

dezb1 wrote:Ain't no Big Muff without pubes
So the Pubescreamer - a MBM special combining Big Muff and TS?
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Post by Mike »

Always thought their pedals had great looks and they certainly do a lot with the enclosures to make even something like a volume control look cooler

Never tried one in person but built a few circuits, and they were quite mad - but I think they were early designs.

What's going on there is that a multiposition toggle for the 'modes'?
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Doog
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Post by Doog »

Mike wrote:What's going on there is that a multiposition toggle for the 'modes'?
Yeah, more than a coupletones, that big ol' SFE DIAL seems to do way more than just EQ carving too; the circuit reacts differently to the extremes so lots on offer. Will pinch an audio interface this week to do a quick-n-dirty.
The Apocalypse is our jack-of-all trades fuzz pedal. After being dramatically overdriven, the signal is routed to one of five selectable post-amplifiers for five wild and unique fuzz tones. Toggle through its five signal paths and choose your desired apocalyptic sound. To further refine this beast, control the Sweepabale Frequency Equalizer and carve your tone out just the way you like it.

Twin-T Scoop: A circuit adding bass and treble simultaneously. Quieter volume than the rest.
War Fuzz: A very full and dynamic distortion with rich harmonics and sustain.
Dual J-FET: Similar to the War Fuzz setting using dual J-FETs to get its sound.
Octave Rect: Sums the bottom and top halves of a waveform to create an octave up.
Gain x1000: The gain is cranked super high on this post amp causing erratic results.

Sweepable Frequency Equalizer: This is a special tone knob designed to function as a multitude of tone controls simultaneously . Its range is extreme, starting with a bass booster that fades into a mid scoop, followed by a mid boost, and eventually into a few stages of treble-boosting to give you a beautiful bright sound.
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