Strymon BigSky MX is out now

fretmeister

stonevibe said:

fretmeister said:

Octavio said:

£699. Yikes! Look sooo good though

Bloody hell!

I am feeling increasingly old with each pedal release, even when I am aware they are now complex computers in a box.
I just can't get my head around spending that on a pedal. I still wince when I see burgers anywhere near £10!

19" rack mount reverbs in the '80s and '90s could easily be over a grand. This puts it into a square box instead. 

That's what I tell myself anyway... LOL

I get that completely - it's weird how the form factor of the unit affects my perception of value. Especially as if it was in a rack it would need an controller that would cost more.

BintyTwanger77

Wazmeister said:

I’ve just had to order one…

I wish I’d put a £1 bet on that, I could’ve made… £1.10!

Look forward to a detailed review!

Musicman20

It sounds fabulous. That screen isn't what I was expecting for £699 though - people complain about the Boss screens!

Kultschar

fretmeister said:

stonevibe said:

fretmeister said:

Octavio said:

£699. Yikes! Look sooo good though

Bloody hell!

I am feeling increasingly old with each pedal release, even when I am aware they are now complex computers in a box.
I just can't get my head around spending that on a pedal. I still wince when I see burgers anywhere near £10!

19" rack mount reverbs in the '80s and '90s could easily be over a grand. This puts it into a square box instead. 

That's what I tell myself anyway... LOL

I get that completely - it's weird how the form factor of the unit affects my perception of value. Especially as if it was in a rack it would need a controller that would cost more.

Indeed and people pay 4K for a Klon which is pretty much an empty box!

Greatape

For £700 that's a big ol' slice of 'fuck no, Strymon.' 

Wazmeister

It sure is a lot of money, but it could replace a few of my verbs.

We shall see !

Heartfeltdawn

Greatape said:

For £700 that's a big ol' slice of 'fuck no, Strymon.' 

With one reverb working on the 'fuck, no' and something much longer for 'Strymon' in parallel though. 

chrisj1602

I wouldn’t find a use for most of its functions in a band setting, but I bet you could lose hours playing with it at home. Nice to see a delay added with the Magneto option.

Kent747

Ok, so I can't figure out why I need to start stacking reverbs. I have an H90 (beta tester) and it's amazing and stacking makes sense (delay and verb, delay and flange, flange and verb, etc). Why I need a spring on a shimmer...I'm not sure. £699 is a lot for this much verb. 

P&W is big money indeed.

Wazmeister

Ok, now I've only had half an hour with the Big Sky MX...

Hardly the elephant in the room, but lets get the cost out of the way; it is VERY spendy.
Is it worth it ?

Initial Thoughts

It looks roughly the same size as the original BS, but I haven't measured it.

Out of the box, it looks gorgeous. The big surprise, and the criticism by some (who may not have seen it), is the screen.
Even with the protector on, it's beautiful to look at. Bright and clear, and a huge improvement on the old one.

Very classy.

Silent in use. It has unity volume straight away, which I think is rare and personally of importance to me. No discernible difference in sound or feel, when it is on, or straight into my Redplate CDS2 with the BS off.

I've just been through the presets. Aside from the weird and shimmer stuff, which ain't me, everyone I tried sounded really good; I mean really good. 

Plate is my love. Sounds great. I need to test it against my Neunaber MKII (love, love this pedal), the excellent UAFX Heavenly and the much loved (and underrated) EQD Avalanche Run v2. Then I will see a bit clearer. If the BSMX is that good, I may have to sell these to cover the costs. Well, maybe not the Neunaber

One big strength of Strymon is when you change a preset. It usually lights up a different colour when you hit the exact spot where that parameter was saved. Not on this one - the screen has an arrow to show you where this point is !

Simple to use, which is vital for me.

Very creative, very inspirational, songs and ideas dripping out of my fingers.

A full review to follow when I've had a play...

Wazmeister

damm73

Looking forward to the review @Wazmeister…interested to see if this could replace my CXM+Cloudburst combo 

RaymondLin

Looks great but I don't even use the BigSky to it's fullest....so spending another £300 more would be wasted on me. 

ColWilkie

@Wazmeister (or anyone else that's pulled the trigger), how are you getting on with it?  I owned the original Big Sky years ago, and did like it.  Decided not to go down the Mercury X route.  Sold my LVX and returned to the good old Volante,  Big fan of the sound, but kept gravitating back to more basic presets and realised I'm not really a tinkerer.  My UAFX Golden has been a staple for a couple years now and I was tempted to add a Cloudburst.  This might change my mind.

Wazmeister

ColWilkie said:

@Wazmeister (or anyone else that's pulled the trigger), how are you getting on with it?  I owned the original Big Sky years ago, and did like it.  Decided not to go down the Mercury X route.  Sold my LVX and returned to the good old Volante,  Big fan of the sound, but kept gravitating back to more basic presets and realised I'm not really a tinkerer.  My UAFX Golden has been a staple for a couple years now and I was tempted to add a Cloudburst.  This might change my mind.

To be honest, I’ve been so busy that I haven’t had exhaustive time with it…

However, we are truly spoilt in this day and age I guess. Quality reverbs everywhere! I really
like the UAFX Heavenly and I love the Neunaber Immerse MKii.

£700 is a lot of wedge, but this seems to becoming more of the norm with HX Stomp, MERIS etc.

The Big Sky is a wonderful sounding pedal. I do think the Strymon layout is easier to use, and the new screen is lovely and makes things easier.

I think all the new v2 Strymon I’ve tried are an improvement- which they should be at the price. I think the new JFET might have something to do with it…

I haven’t played the Meris MX, but owned the LVX twice but never really got my head around it. But I’m sure that they are wonderful pedals too…

Maybe @BintyTwanger77 can add some more

ColWilkie

Thanks for the feedback mate, much appreciated!  It is indeed a lot of cash, I remember forking out for V1 thinking I'd never spend that much on a pedal again....how things change

It's the layout and ease of use that brought me back to the Volante (for the 4th time!).  

I had an El Cap v2 before going back to the LVX, really loved it and probably should have just held on...but winter and too much time on my hands happened!

If I can get a plate close to the UAFX with the BigSky, might be tempted to pull the trigger.

BintyTwanger77

@ColWilkie I’d echo a lot of what @Wazmeister said, the new Big Sky is a definite improvement on the original. The UI is very intuitive and it’s really easy to dial in rich, beautiful reverb sounds. The updated plate and hall algorithms are excellent, darker and more organic-sounding, if that makes sense (though it can be useful having the voicings of these from V1 readily available). I still love the less conventional engines like cloud, bloom and non-linear, and really impressed by the new chamber and impulse engines. Then you factor in being able to use any combination of two reverbs per preset in series, parallel or split between 2 outputs, it’s a huge step up. Very impressive.

ColWilkie

Thanks @BintyTwanger77, that's very helpful.  I do tend to run plate on the darker side so that could work nicely.  It sounds like it's going to be the next addition to my board

Jonathanthomas83

BintyTwanger77 said:

 (though it can be useful having the voicings of these from V1 readily available).

So you have the new algo's AND the old ones available? I knew that was the case for the shimmer, but didn't realise that was the case for the others too, very cool.

BintyTwanger77

Jonathanthomas83 said:

BintyTwanger77 said:

 (though it can be useful having the voicings of these from V1 readily available).

So you have the new algo's AND the old ones available? I knew that was the case for the shimmer, but didn't realise that was the case for the others too, very cool.

Just for 5 engines: room, hall, plate, spring, shimmer…

They have also added different parameters to the other reappearing algorithms, Impulse has replaced one engine, and they got rid of Swell and added that as a parameter to (I think) just Hall.

The 2 completely new reverb engines, Impulse and Chamber are superb, by the way, and for the former I believe you can add your own IRs (max 10 secs).