GEAR SPOTLIGHT
DEATH BY
AUDIO
MICRO
DREAM
REVIEW BY ERIC TISCHLER
STREET PRICE $200.00
If you’re not familiar
with Death by Audio
(and you should be),
its credo is in its name:
the company makes
extreme effects for
musicians who want
to make a dramatic
impact. “Apocalypse,”
“Fuzz War,” “Evil
Filter,” no, these aren’t
the names of Steve
Bannon’s high school
bands, these are Death
by Audio pedals—heck,
even the Echo Dream
2 has a Fuzz feature,
so when the three-
knob Micro Dream
showed up without
making any reference to
destruction, I thought
52
GEAR SPOTLIGHT //
maybe DBA were
slipping; I need
not have worried.
The Micro Dream is
presumably a stripped
down version of the
Echo Dream 2: it’s a
delay pedal with a
much smaller footprint
(including top jacks)
and just three controls:
“F Back” (which sets
the number of repeats),
“Time” (the rate of the
echo) and “Delay” (the
amount of the effect
mixed with your signal).
I set the knobs at what
I felt were moderate
settings, plugged in,
turned on and was
immediately greeted
Death By Audio Micro Dream
by a very aggressive
swelling of the delayed
signal that was quickly
heading into self-
oscillation. This isn’t a
complaint—I love the
sound of a delay pedal
when the repeated
notes overwhelm
the signal, and the
Micro Dream has an
internal trimmer to
set the point at which
it will self-oscillate,
so I could’ve tweaked
it, but I decided to
work with the factory
settings, and my efforts
were rewarded.
I set Delay around 2:30,
which isn’t unusual for
me. I set Time similarly,