Sometimes I need some space...A LOT of space.

I love the Transmisser for what it is: An unapologetically, abrasive reverb. Why do I say its abrasive? Because it doesn't do subtle. I have played this as a pad underneath my guitar with my DOD Rubberneck (they're best friends by the way), as a cosmic call to the Elder Ones with my Blue Box (I haven't been the same since), and as wormhole to blast my synths through. As with most pedals, the Transmisser only has so much headroom before you start clipping it, however though, what I'm about to suggest to any owners or people interested in getting one: The artifacts generated from said clipping are effected by the reverb and create a sound that I find pleasant and constantly use in my own music. Though the only gripe I have about it is that you can't bypass the resonant filter. Other than that this is my favorite spaceship.

A wacky reverb from a wacky set of wildcats

If you're here, you probably already know that Earthquaker Devices has a reputation for zany pedals. They tend to take a basic concept and then transmogrify it into some unrecognizable permutation that seems to defy preexisting categories. On this device, they subvert the notion of reverb by mixing it with bizarre filtering choices.Let it be known, right from the get-go, that the Transmisser is no ordinary reverb. This doesn't seek to emulate some realistic studio space or some cavernous churchspace. Instead, you get a weird trail of sound that woozily envelops your tone in some creamy haze. There are a lot of spacey superlatives in the official literature, and they're not far off the mark.

From a practical standpoint, though, the layer of sonic gloop which the Transmisser adds to your sound can be problematic. If you're the kind of person that likes to stack a load of pedals atop one another, you might find that it smothers your tone unsympathetically. There's little nuance once this is engaged. The length of the reverberation tends to last a good while, even on short settings. The mix knob will dominate if you go past 11 'o clock and will be nearly useless when you go past 3 'o clock.

With those caveats in mind, let's get to the fun part. If you stack simply -like, say, just two pedals- between your instrument and the Transmisser, you might have a chance of nailing something utterly unique. The best part about using this pedal, however, isn't the effect it creates when you leave it alone. "Set it and forget it" types won't get much mileage of out this. I hope you're the sort of player who loves to twiddle while holding a sustained note on your synth or guitar. The Darkness knob allows clarity to shine through or can help mute the highs on the overall sound. It's subtle, but its capable of redefining tonality. Truly lovely and trippy things can immediately happen as soon as you tweak the Frequency and Warp knobs. The former messes with the frequency of the filter while the latter sounds like you're messing with a record player's speed. When you mess with them in tandem, physically impossible ambient domains will collapse and explode before your very ears. Of course, this is tough to do while playing live. An expression pedal can help you tweak the Frequency parameter, but, well, not all of us use those add-ons.

So, is this for you? Maybe not. It's not the best pedal for absolutely everything and it won't complement most rigs. Like many Earthquaker creations, it fills a niche you never knew existed. Chances are you won't always need to fill that void. Luckily, the Transmisser will always be there if and when you do need creamy, freaky reverb trails that warble like the final echo of a dying universe.

Unleash cosmic chaos with extreme reverb effects

The EQD Transmisser is a very unusual reverb capable of totally unsubtle and extreme reverb effects. Even with the reverb length set to minimum, it's still pretty long. The tone is governed by a peaky low-pass filter with a sharp Q value, which means it always seems to add some kind of dirt to the signal. It's easy to totally swamp your signal with this one, so you get more reverb than signal very quickly! If you have an expression pedal you can do dynamic filter sweeps with it. The modulation adds slow warbly weirdness or fast warbly weirdness, and at the heart of it all is an unpredictable 'Warp' control which seems to change all the parameters in one fell swoop, including the pitch. I would say it's definitely suited to psych or shoegaze type music; if you want a really clean and hi-fi reverb, look elsewhere. If you want to explore the murky depths of space, get this...

Loved it, couldn't use it properly though

I bough the transmisser after seeing the knobs video and instantly falling in love with the weird dark vibe it gave off. Sadly I could only get very dark reverbs with little subtlety out of it. I probably gave up too soon, but to me it was a very hard pedal to dial in properly.

From Gear Setup

Sounds great but lasts too long