NMDRD! (Strymon Content)

[Verne Bunsen]

That's "New Multi-Dimensional Reverberator Day"... Strymon Big Sky has arrived!

I sold a Telecaster and a Blues Deluxe to finance it, and I have no regrets. In stereo, in headphones, it is LUSH. I'm working on putting together stereo monitoring in-the-room, weighing some options there, but for now playing in the headphones is plenty. I've only had it a couple of days and have only scratched the surface of what it does, but man is it fun.... The underside of this board already looks the inside of a PLC cabinet, I'm going to have to tear into that to get a good clean permanent installation. Gotta figure out if I like this layout or if I want to move things around...

 

[rgand]

Very cool. I looked at their site. Mighty impressive. Congrats.

 

[mayfly]

Frig!  That's an expensive pedal!

Glad you like it - it would suck if you didn't 

 

[Verne Bunsen]

Very cool. I looked at their site. Mighty impressive. Congrats.

Thanks! I am having a ton of fun with it. At this point I'm still just playing around with the factory presets, dialing things in from scratch is still fairly daunting. It feels like making modifications to the Hyper Drive...

 

[Verne Bunsen]

Frig!  That's an expensive pedal!

Glad you like it - it would suck if you didn't 

Man, you aren't kidding. In a million years I would never have sprung for it except that I was able to cover it with the sale of existing gear. I've got some things that have been collecting dust, so I am working on turning them into things that will get use. I should really thank Past-Me for his foresight. But he kind of owes me anyway, I've been dealing with his screw ups for my whole life!  :icon_biggrin:

 

[stratamania]

Out of curiosity what do you see of the advantages of the Blue Sky over the reverbs in the Helix?

 

[Rick]

Love the infinite sustain .... sounds like the biggest cathedral in the world.

 

[Verne Bunsen]

Out of curiosity what do you see of the advantages of the Blue Sky over the reverbs in the Helix?

From the get-go, I've found the Helix reverbs to be ... lacking. The "Legacy" reverbs are actually HD era reverbs ported over. I find them to be very "conservative". The Spring reverbs don't have the drippy/splashy/surfy character that I personally look for, although others praise it for the same reason. I have had a Malekko Spring Chicken pedal on the board for some time to fill that gap. In general I find they are just a bit flat. A noteworthy exception is the Cave reverb, it is pretty good. The Particle'Verb was interesting, but I didn't find anything functional to do with it. Just last year they released a few new reverbs built in the HX engine, and they are a big step in the right direction. Still they don't do all that much for me. I don't really know how to put it in words, but the closest I can come is to say that they are over-the-top with their particular tricks, while at the same sounding "tacked-on" to the sound rather than entwined with it. With the exception of the Glitz reverb, I do like that one. None of this is a slight against the Helix, I think it stands to reason. Big Sky alone has almost half of the DSP horsepower that Helix has total, and it only has to concern itself with running one single reverb function at any given time. Meanwhile, Helix is handling the amps, compressors, EQs, dirt pedals, modulation, delays, cabinets/IRs, signal routing, user programmed commands.... and reverbs. Possibly multiple instances of any or all of those simultaneously. It'd be crazy to expect it to perform that single function on the same level as the dedicated device.

 

[Verne Bunsen]

Love the infinite sustain .... sounds like the biggest cathedral in the world.

I haven't even gotten there yet, lol.

 

[stratamania]

Thanks -VB-...I am planning on getting an HX Effects shortly to use with some of my traditional pedals. I am hoping it gives me a good selection in addition to what I already have. Over time I could always add more dedicated units of course if needs/wants to do so arise.

 

[Verne Bunsen]

Thanks -VB-...I am planning on getting an HX Effects shortly to use with some of my traditional pedals. I am hoping it gives me a good selection in addition to what I already have. Over time I could always add more dedicated units of course if needs/wants to do so arise.

For whatever my opinion is worth, I find that the Helix’s modulation effects, delays and dirt pedals are exceptional. Zero compromise there. The only things I have found lacking have been the reverbs and the fuzzes (hence the fuzz pedals on the board as well).

 

[stratamania]

Thanks -VB-...I am planning on getting an HX Effects shortly to use with some of my traditional pedals. I am hoping it gives me a good selection in addition to what I already have. Over time I could always add more dedicated units of course if needs/wants to do so arise.

For whatever my opinion is worth, I find that the Helix’s modulation effects, delays and dirt pedals are exceptional. Zero compromise there. The only things I have found lacking have been the reverbs and the fuzzes (hence the fuzz pedals on the board as well).

I am sure it will add some flexibility for a reasonable cost. I need to go and check one out when I get a chance.

 

[Verne Bunsen]

The factory presets in Big Sky are actually really great demonstrations of some different ways to utilize the various reverb machines, but they are frustratingly disorganized. Like shockingly disorganized. They are not grouped by type of reverb, but rather seem to just be loaded in a completely random fashion. There are 100 preset banks and each bank has three preset slots. In any given bank you may have a subtle room reverb, a 100% wet reverse swell reverb, and a reverb that sounds like you are playing for the Balrog in Moria. In fact, there is a preset called "Moria". There are 100 banks, so 300 total slots, but rather than having the remaining slots left empty the factory presets are just repeated three times. So you are always overwriting something. Want to try out a few different Spring Reverb settings? They are conveniently scattered all over the place for your amusement! I am embarking on a mission to organize them by reverb type, and to "clear" the first 12 banks to allow myself to save three favorites of each type for quick and intuitive access. The audio samples used on the Strymon website are a set of completely different presets for each reverb type, and they detail all the settings in this wonderful YouTube playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNK87V7OJo0&list=PLzRd5PPv5fMuWtHiPo_wA-ig4mG2sKaqB&index=2

I'm going to manually add these to the factory presets, which will put a pretty thorough arsenal in there. It will also be a good exercise in navigating/programming the beast, so there is that. I'll check in in a few years when I've got it all sorted out  :icon_biggrin:

 

[Verne Bunsen]

I have to take back some of that; I have discovered that there is a method to the madness: It is a repeating series of one preset per reverb machine. So a Room -> Hall -> Plate -> Spring -> Swell -> Bloom -> Cloud -> Chorale -> Shimmer -> Magneto -> Non-Linear -> Reflection -> Repeat. It's 8 complete sets, then a partial with 4 more, presumably to bring the total to 100. Still not the most intuitive for browsing, but at least it makes some sense...

 

[stratamania]

There is madness in most methods or method in some madness. Anyway a good spot of what this method of arrangement is.

 

[Verne Bunsen]

Well, I liked the Big Sky so much I decided that I really must see what its brother, the TimeLine Multidimensional Delay, is about. I sold my trusty Atomic CLR cabinet and put some of those funds toward this. I am not disappointed.....

I'm running them both in stereo, Timeline -> Big Sky, in a Helix Stereo FX Loop. Lots of wire, but I re-did everything from scratch kept things pretty clean. (Sorry for the bad lighting, the lighting was.... bad....)

Pretty easy to lose track of time with this rig........

 

[BigSteve22]

:headbang: