Death By Audio and Rainger FX unleash the perfect Amp Crash collaboration - a scuzzy ripping dirt box with serious garage punk attitude, based on a mic'd up 2-inch tiny-amp-driven speaker

So David had the core idea which he shared with DBA's Oliver Ackermann 2 years ago - handing over the basic mechanic of the mic'd up mini amp + speaker. It has then taken Oliver 2 years to perfect that concept into the Amp Crash format we see today - with those super cool 3 x SFX onboard too. Oliver has done most of the heavy lifting here, and the units are very much engineered and produced by Death By Audio in New York. I told David that I would have liked a couple more Rainger FX brand echoes within that design - as the design and artwork aesthetics of the device are very much core DBA house-style. I suggested the LED could have at least been in Rainger FX Orange, but no - it's fiery red instead - which seems kind of fitting too for such a fiery dirt box.

You can see from the PCB - that there's a whole load of components that go into this circuit - which includes that Visaton 2" FRWS 5 speaker, and a tiny condenser microphone - which looks similar to a Same Sky Electret Condenser Mic - only about 10mm in diameter.

Beyond noon on the Gain knob - you get into increasingly brash / clangy / ripping / scuzzy territory - and those textures interact brilliantly with the SFX. If you're really brave - just wind the Gain all the way up for maximum sonic destruction. Those less brave can try similar at around 2-3 o'c on the Gain dial. I tend to have Noon as my neutral, 2-3 o'c as my kind of default, and then @ Max for pure unadulterated joy. But not all can handle that crazy degree of scuzziness - I happen to really love how this pedal sounds - every which way.

So as mentioned - Di Out and Mic Out pretty much stay @ 10 o'c for me, with Mic-Gate pretty much always on, Gain mostly at either Noon / 3 o'c / Max, Tone at 1 o'c, and here below are some of my preferred settings for the SFX :

SFX Settings :

• Reverb 1 - Depth @ 9 o'c, Decay Time @ Max : For rolling waves of electrically charged crashing thunder!
• Reverb 2 - Depth @ 9 o'c, Decay Time @ Noon : Perfect character-Reverb - with elegant decay 
• Echo - Depth @ 9 o'c, Delay Time @ Max : Perfect punchy delay - for layering textures on top of each other
• Chorus / Flanger - Depth @ Noon, Mod Rate / Speed / Time @ 9 o'c - incredible flanger style modulation which drones and self-oscillates with Gain at Max

You can deploy the Amp Crash in various different ways. For instance - while I was at Rainger FX HQ - Baptiste demo'd running the Output into the Input as a loop, in fact you can get the pedal to Drone without any Input at all! And of course you can connect a small 8Ω speaker to the  Ext. Speaker Out - which I didn't feel the need to use. Without an Ext. Speaker connected - the onboard Speaker is always on and emitting noise!

Back at Rainger HQ we played the Amp Crash a lot just on its own - with no output. But for me - the beauty of this design is the scuzzy nature of the Mic-captured Speaker sound - which is fed to the Output. This pedal is fully self-contained, and is pretty much expected to be played entirely on its own - I still had my tone-enhancer front-end trio applied, but most everything else in the chain was bypassed. This pedal sits about mid-way in my rig - that's where there was space for it - where it took over the Gamechanger Recoder slot - it's a similar length to that, but slimmer - with dimensions : 3.77" (96mm) x 6" (152mm) x 2.85" (72mm).

The Amp Crash is properly filthy / dirty / scuzzy in the best possible way - a proper noise-box for us more adventurous noise-maker types. If you're looking for something to really annoy your neighbours or family members with with - this is perfection!

I could not imagine a better collaboration between DBA and Rainger than this exact box - it beautifully captures the sonic character of those two sound-design pioneers, and brilliantly represents the personalities and idiosyncrasies of both brands to the fullest extent.

It's an entirely different kind of noise box, and one that I've instantly gelled / connected with. It has elements of that kind of console fuzz sound - but far dirtier and more textured.

Note that you do need to be careful with how you deploy the DI Out and Mic Level controls - as they can overload things pretty rapidly - which is why I keep those firmly lodged in the left hemisphere, alongside SFX Depth - which tends to be max at Noon for me. The Gain and Tone mostly operate in the right hemisphere with just Gain and SFX Time being cranked up all the way regularly.

Everything about the Amp Crash is just perfect for me - I love the concept and the execution - love the way it looks and operates. It's a shame there isn't a little more of the Rainger FX aesthetics DNA in the mix - but it's still pretty much perfect as is.

These are available direct from Death By Audio and Rainger FX - as well as being stocked within their corresponding dealer networks. This much innovation has a price to it, which equates to $395 on the far side of the pond, and £425 (VAT included) on this side of the pond. For sure it's a little pricey for some - but still probably worth it - especially if you're into more richly textured ripping sounds.

You can read up further on both the Rainger FX and Death By Audio Websites.

This is a fantastic and versatile noise-maker - it covers so many different flavours. As expected when two geniuses combine! Thoroughly recommended - while probably mostly for the more adventurous among you!