EarthQuaker Devices Rainbow Machine V2 – Pitch Shifter & Modulation Pedal

The EarthQuaker Rainbow Machine V2 is a polyphonic pitch-shifting modulation pedal built around a deliberately imperfect DSP pitch-warping engine. It’s not aiming for clean, natural pitch shifting, but for something stranger, more digital, and more its own thing entirely.

Key Features

• Polyphonic pitch shifting via a DSP-based pitch warping engine
• Pitch control spans a fourth below to a third above your input, with noon as unison
• Secondary (Magic) control adds an accompanying octave to the harmony, recalibrated in V2 for controllable self-oscillation and a wider sonic range
• Pitch is expression-pedal controllable
• V2 circuit updates: reduced noise floor, higher output
• Silent Flexi-Switch footswitches on both Activate and Magic functions

Not a Natural-Sounding Pitch Shifter, On Purpose

This isn’t a pedal chasing transparent, natural-sounding harmonies. It’s one for those who want a little more.

The DSP pitch-warping engine at its core is built to sound slightly imperfect

Whilst digital, it’s coloured and a little unstable which is exactly what gives the Rainbow Machine its character.

At moderate settings you can get classic chorus and slapback tones with the Pitch control near unison.

However, push further and you get genuine polyphonic harmonies across a fourth below to a third above your input.

The Magic control adds a further octave to whatever harmony you’ve dialled in, and V2’s recalibrated version of this control opens up controllable self-oscillation. It is genuinely chaotic but still gives runaway pitch textures you can shape and predict rather than pure noise!

Controls

• Pitch: Sets the interval of the polyphonic harmony layered under your signal. It ranges from a fourth below your input up to a third above it, with the centre position giving you unison. Control it via an expression pedal for real-time pitch sweeps.
• Primary: This is the volume control for that pitch-warped harmony voice.
• Tracking: Sets the delay time between your dry signal and the pitch-shifted one. Turn it up and tracking gets tighter with a shorter delay; turn it down and you get longer, more ambient trails (at the cost of some tracking accuracy).
• Tone: Rolls off the high end for a darker, vintage voicing.
• Secondary: Layers in an additional octave relative to whatever the Pitch control is doing
• Magic: A regeneration control that feeds the Primary and Secondary voices back into themselves and to each other. At low settings it just adds a few extra repeats but push it further and you move through denser ambience, edge-of-oscillation pitch delays, metallic flanging, and eventually full self-oscillation.
• Activate and Magic footswitches: Both use silent Flexi-Switch technology. Tap either once for standard latching on/off, or press and hold for momentary operation.

Note: The Pitch knob doesn’t just set one harmony interval, its position above or below the centre point also decides which direction any trailing sound moves in pitch.

So, if Pitch is turned up past noon, any echoes or lingering notes will climb higher in pitch as they fade out. If Pitch is turned down below noon, those same trailing sounds will drop lower in pitch as they fade.

Power

Runs on a standard 9V DC centre-negative supply. 68mA current draw.

Who Is This For

Worth a look if you want weird! It is for those who want experimental pitch textures rather than a conventional harmoniser. To re emphasise , it’s not a pedal for players chasing clean, natural tones.

Watch The EarthQuaker Devices Rainbow Machine In Action

FAQs