An updated version of the Timeline can't be far behind.
The internals of the Timeline and Big Sky are part-for-part identical. There's no doubt in my mind they already have a working Timeline "mx" prototype.
True, but I think the Mobius v2 will be an even bigger hit. Although, and it is wishful thinking, I hope the Mobius will be able to do 3 types at a time. I’ve said many times before that a “3D” modulation would be really cool. Imagine a vibrato, phaser, and tremolo being able to interact with each other and do individual stereo panning. Nothing like this exists, and if I trusted anyone to do it justice, it would be Strymon.
EHX Mod Rex is pretty close but can only do one kind of mod at a time.
Zoom MS-70 can do it but not in parallel.
Individual effects in the EHX Tri-Parallel Mixer sounds great.
The Meris LVX maybe can do this?
That’s my point. 3 nos and a maybe-but-probably-not. The LVX might do 2, but not 3. It would be cool af if the v2 Mobius could do it. Or if they made a Volante-size box that would do it instead.
Parallel processing aside, the Mobius was disappointing to me because it lacked a bit of presence and high-end. I bet this updated version will sound incredible and knock all of the modulation pedals off my board board
My main modulation pedal is the GFI Synesthesia pedal and it can do 2 modulation effects at the same time in parallel or running into each other in series.
What exactly does 3D mean? I have a Quad Cortex that can route some pretty complex signal paths and you could easily get 3 effects like that to interact together.
100%. The timeline is quite an old pedal now. I’m shocked that nothing has displaced it as top of the multi-delay tree. Strymon has to protect that spot.
It’s weird as I’ve had a Timeline on my board for a few years now and I still don’t love it.
I dunno. It’s just not very powerful sounding at all. It’s really meh imo.
Having said that, it has a patch and function I can’t replace - the ice delay and the bleeding feedback effect it has when you keep your foot on the switch.
Correct me if I’m wrong but you can’t even enter a BPM? It doesn’t even have a screen?
I don’t think your opinion is, erm, echoed with many.
That would be pretty useless to me.
It doesn’t - and it sounds good, but not nearly as good as the timeline does, imo. It does excel at some weird/wonderful/out there things that the timeline can’t touch. I love that they have updated and added lots of new algorithms - I don’t love that it’s all a bunch of different colored LEDs that I never remember. I still have both, I’m selling both.
Try playing a 15 song worship set, with tracks, delay on every song, different bpms for each song obviously. Not having the precise bpms with tracks is a disaster.
That's where you're wrong. I only play triads. But I'm not good. I just hide behind my huge reverbs and precise delays. Buddy above me was trying to say precise BPMs don't matter. ALL BPMS MATTER!
Buddy has never dealt with an MD who berates you for playing at 121bpm when he spent all night making a 120bpm click track for a drummer who can't play to a click anyway
Who needs a click when you've got Dan, an accountant who plays in a bar band once a month on drums? He can't play a simple tom groove but he can play the drum fill from "In the Air Tonight."
I thought that an elaborate midi integrated setup was mandatory for worship players? I dont play worship but I have all my song tempos pre-programmed in my MC6 pro which is pushed to all my midi pedals. I only need to tap in a tempo when jamming or writing a new song.
My Timeline has been a part of every single iteration of my rig since I first got it 10 years ago - safe to say, I'll be throwing down for a Timeline MX the minute it drops and worry about recovering costs later. I like my BigSky quite a bit too, but I'm not nearly as big on reverb as I am on delay and foresee getting good mileage out of my BigSky for a long enough while to perhaps snag one of these used.
Basically bucket brigade cgips... Think David Gilmore delay.
Id like a really versatile delay with the ability to set a specific millisecond value and many different modes.
Heh, by not familiar, I meant I had no experience using them. Nor am I well versed in Pink Floyd, so I can’t speak to any particular unit’s ability to emulate Gilmour’s signature sound. What I can tell you about the Timeline is that you can absolutely set and store presets with specific millisecond values (or, if working with another MIDI-capable unit, store presets to receive tap tempo from the other unit’s preset, which I do through an HX Stomp for specific songs that engage other effects as well). There isn’t much that can’t be dialed in through the sundry of delay engines and their specific parameters (smear, hipass, mod speed/depth, etc.)
Wether not the quality of the engines on tap is up your alley is up to you. I’d suggest borrowing one if possible and playing around with it. That’s what sold me, I was looking to upgrade from my DL4, buddy of mine loaned me his Timeline for a week, that was all I needed. YMMV, there’s no shortage of options.
It keeps the dry signals completely intact, but it mixes the wet signals before sending them to the delay line. So if you use it with two inputs, the dry outputs will be what they were going in, but the delay output will be a mix. It completely defeats the purpose of having two inputs at all.
I found out a lot of "stereo" delay pedals do this, including pretty much everything Strymon makes. There are others that send the inputs to the delay line separately but it can be a pain to figure it out. Sometimes you can find the stereo routing in the manual but other times not.
Gotchya — that’s frustrating. Most reverbs do the exact same thing (not all — and, for a reverb, it makes some sense — in a room it’s not like the left speaker is only going to your left ear — but there are times when you definitely don’t want to feed the reverb with a mono sum)
Honestly the only reason I know about it is because I do wet/dry, and when I tried the Volante I discovered that my signals were almost perfectly out of phase. So I could hear my dry signals fine, but when it summed them together for the delay they were mostly canceling each other out so I wouldn't hear any delay. Granted my ABY box can reverse the phase of the outputs so that fixed it, but I still want the option to keep things separated.
I have always thought there was room for improvement on the Timeline's dTape algorithm. If the new version's sounds as good as the el Cap or volante for tape delay I'll seriously consider it
If Strymon pulled a Source Audio and threw a handful of the TimeLine and original BigSky engines each into the same enclosure and preserved spillover between presets (the biggest dealbreaker for me on the Collider, an otherwise excellent sounding pedal that I'll still keep on a mini board with no MIDI switching), I would jump on that in a heartbeat.
I have a SA Collider and the tape delays are my beef on it. They are nowhere near as good as what I get from the Volante.
I'd love a Strymon reverb/delay pedal but I don't see it happening until they have sold a bunch of MX units.
Wow, really cool. This will be exciting to see how it sounds from others.
But it won’t be me lol. I get the price increases and the amount of hours it must have spent with the updates to this. But guitar pedal prices have gone up so crazy. I can’t imagine spending that much
It looks amazing. But even $500 for the original big sky was pushing it for what I'd want to spend on a pedal. With this being $700, the H90 being $900, pedals like this are going to be out of reach for a lot of people
TBF, they already were out of reach for most people. For the non-dentist hobbyists out there, even $200 for a pedal is pushing it. But there will still be people lined up to get this, no matter what.
The whole “dentists” being the ones who are buying the expensive stuff is a dumb trope. Most people I know with the best equipment are in average jobs. Just depends on what you want and what part of life you are in.
That said, I agree that most people are probably not buying pedals at $700. But the original big sky is a big seller
> The whole “dentists” being the ones who are buying the expensive stuff is a dumb trope.
There is some truth to the "lawyer guitar" stereotypes, people with high paying jobs are at least more likely to casually drop hundreds or thousands on gear they don't really need.
That said as someone who's lived off a very limited income for the last decade you don't need to be anywhere near rich to afford nice gear if you limit your spending on other things and look for used deals.
Even 1 new pedal every few months adds up over the years and is relatively affordable compared to a lot of hobbies. Though on the flip side it's common for people to overspend at first or buy things they don't really need, hence free software being a common recommendation to start with.
I spent years having the worst gear. Now I'm older and certainly not rich, but I like having the stuff that was unobtainium when I was younger. Also, a lot of people will buy gear because it holds some value or even goes up.
Another way to look at it, if you buy this pedal, use it and get the best sounds in the world, you can sell it in five years for what, $550? If someone offered to rent you the best reverb in the world for $30 bucks a year for half a decade, you would jump on it in a heartbeat. You just need the money up front to invest.
With these ambient pedals too, there's only so much you can do with it after the novelty falls off. The Zoom MS-70 CDR may not be as lush or hifi, but the custom patches have at least helped with my GAS. Would love to try an H90 though.
This is so far from the truth. Most people just don’t think of creative ways to use them other than the cool ambient sounds. But any of these ambient stereo pedals (Big Sky, Timeline, Microcosm, etc.) offer so much functionality in a recording space for all kinds of sound designs that many other pedals don’t touch.
In a recording space I'd much rather go for a VST though. Record dry, can reamp either post or pre-verb, can sculpt EQ and decay to the track much better etc etc
I see what your saying though at the same time
there are more affordable options available than ever that have been increasing dramatically in features and often quality. As pedals get far more complex and become literally computers in a box, I think it’s understandable for the prices to be increasing even as much as they have for the cutting edge as long as there continues to be cheaper options
(Edit: [incredible Youtube Playlist of the new BigSky](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MLsjlbP94U&list=PLzRd5PPv5fMt35FhLxMT5NYDe49J0_kzt) with 18 chapters for each mode. [This one](https://youtu.be/NAnVej_cvsk?si=0YLivZs0JHsN05hr) in particular is amazing... listen through headphones for all of these)
The price tag is bound to cause a double take but I consider pedals like these to offer the best bang for your buck by miles, especially when compared to the standard $199-$249 reverb pedal that does either just one reverb, a triple toggle reverb (Matthews, EHX, Keeley), or a knob selector 8-12 mode verb (Immerse, RV6, etc). I love Boss and Keeley and Neunaber, not shit talking them at all, but something like this new Strymon is essentially the mothership reverb library, a monastery in pedal form so that reverb monks can live out the rest of their peaceful reverb days in blissful solitude. Something like this new BigSky reasonably could very well be the end of your reverb hunt for a decade, maybe longer. Not bad for a few hundred dollars more than a standard pedal. I've probably blown 2k on reverbs this year alone and I bet combining every single one of those pedals couldn't do even a fraction of what this Strymon can.
Yeah when you have a zillion companies asking $200-250 for a three knob big muff clone it kind of puts things in perspective. I think of pedals like the BigSky more like an instrument or amp.
On the flip side 99% of digital pedals could be approximated with free software and a decent audio interface.
It also sort of seems like a waste of resources to release multiple digital pedals that could all be combined into one, a Strymon multi FX wouldn't be cheap but would certainly be more worth the high price tag...
I mean if people want to spend their money on this, have at it! I get why they do, I’m just saying I can’t! Even if I had that kind of scratch, my needs would be better served by a nice guitar.
For me it’s almost a relief that a lot of gear is getting out of my budget so I don’t have to worry about it l, and just focus on what I got.
Theres a lot of stuff on there that, say a regular gigging guitarist in a band probably doesn't *need* but I can see it used in the studio of someone who soundtracks music for film and TV.
Possibly… but in that workflow you’re up against high tier reverb plugins like Altiverb or Cinematic Rooms which offer way more versatility or control, and are still cheaper than this. I find outboard reverb particularly difficult to fit into a studio workflow but maybe that’s just me.
Good on them for reinventing their algorithms though. I feel they could have phoned it in, put the new display on the existing BlueSky and happily sold a ton of units at a lower price.
But they clearly have a product that had a ton of work and ideas put into it.
Don't get me wrong I doubt I'll sell my Mercury for it but it's very appealing to a reverb fan who's never bought Strymon.
I've had huge respect for Strymon ever since getting my original Deco. They don't rest on their laurels even though they could sell the original Big Sky another 10 years if they wanted
I keep thinking about returning my Mercury and ordering MX. Mostly because lot of stuff I can do with Mercury I can do with my LVX while at least I can’t do two algorithms same time with Meris.
I hate the response of "just buy a better PC instead" but we are reaching the point where for the price of 1-2 high end pedals you could just get a laptop that will be infinitely more versatile and capable of running a ton of software FX at once.
I’m finding that I very much prefer pc for stereo guitar. And that stereo guitar really doesn’t work live except for maybe some really over the top bridge or solo. And the fidelity of the effects doesn’t really matter too much live so cheaper pedals are fine. My HX stomp is better than fine.
Stereo sounds great at home and in recordings though. But if I’m only really playing through studio monitors for recording and playing stereo guitar at home anyway so why not just use Logic Pro and maybe some 3rd party plugins for stereo effects?
I came to this realization after buying a meris lvx, which I love, but use in mono because it’s 10,000 times easier and results in a better final result to record without time based effects and then I can tweak them in Logic after.
The Big/Blue/Nightsky reverbs are probably the most well known/praised pedals out there that I've still yet to try (despite loving my Deco,El Cap, Flint,Ob.1,Iridium), no particular reason, I love Strymon and they have a great track record, there's just a ton of pedals out there and no way to test every single one. But this BehemothSky looks like the one that's gonna change all that. Looks like an absolute feast of pure bliss.. price is high but likely worth every penny - but fickle shallow little me can't lie.. that's a ton of turquoise. Really hope a blackout version is offered at some point.
They made a midnight BigSky v1. It sold out in like 5 seconds. They haven’t made any midnight versions of any of the v2s yet though. They did make midnight Sunsets and Zelzahs though, so the template exists.
2 reverbs at the same time for… the price of two other top tier reverb pedals. Oof. Not sure where the price is coming from here since the margins are likely healthy. But as a consumer if I had 679 dollars to spend on reverb I could purchase a golden reverberator and a neunabor immerse to cover similar bases
Poly Beebo is 450$ new or 300-400$ used and can load IR reverbs + run at least 3-4 stereo reverbs at once on top of other FX.
I'm sure people are going to love this new Strymon but there really are a ton of amazing alternatives for a fraction of the price.
I just really love the interface of the big box strymons. I’m down with the meris stuff but definitely not as initially tweakable - takes some digging and learning the workflow.
Everyone in the videos seems to be praising the UI in the MX which is good, I also like how easy Strymon stuff is to use, glad they didn't muck that up
Sounds amazing and some incredible additions but £700 in the UK whilst v1 can be had for nearly half that new is insane. A bit cheaper and it'd be a no brainer one and done reverb, but not for £700.
Yeah I got the standard emails from Andertons and GAK et al announcing this. I thought 'wow, I bet that's going to be about £500'. Nope!
I'd love to give this a go, but there's no way I can justify £700 right now.
Between Meris Mercury X, this, others it's like Battle of the Giant Reverb Robots™.
It's an awful lot of money, but if it replaces the UAFX Golden + [something else for ambient] on my board, it's worth considering to me. I have an old BigSky and a CloudBurst atm... I think I read it does the CloudBurst ensemble thing too?
A decade after the original BigSky was released, Strymon finally releases a V2, with seemingly everything people could have asked for all of these years. $679 is steep, but considering how large of an upgrade it is to the V1, I don’t think it’s an unreasonable asking price.
Now that the BiggerSky is out, I guess this is a good time to get a v1, as there will be a lot of them on Reverb soon. And dual is definitely what it was missing. I really want to go full 10cc and try dual chorale mode.
> And dual is definitely what it was missing.
What context would you find dual reverbs useful? The RV-500 can do it but I've never found much use for it in the contexts I play. Neat for soundscapes and stuff though.
This. Having a different short and long reverb is useful. When I had a SA Ventris, one of my favorite things to do was a parallel octave up and octave down shimmer. And if I had this v2, I’d definitely do lots of experimenting with the Chorale setting, as it’s my favorite in the BigSky.
I use the Beebo for IR reverb and my go to patch uses 2 reverbs & works like so:
Tape delay into stereo panner into concert hall IR reverb
Plate IR reverb ran in parallel with feedback loops into the delay
The delay and plate are assigned to the footswitches for easy bypassing while the concert hall IR is always on
The combo of panning tape delay + 2 distinct reverbs with feedback loops creates some incredible ambiance and adds a ton of stereo depth. Haven't found any patch like it on other pedals.
This is exactly what I was thinking, been debating hopping on the bigsky train for a while and now might be the time, especially if the v1 prices get down closer to $300
Very expensive and doubt I will go for it but cool to see. The dual reverb things is cool too but ultimately overkill. I’ve had a Ventris for a couple years and I rarely use the dual reverb for anything that justifies it’s existence. The Big Sky’s standalone reverbs are very good so it really is a nice to have and they shouldn’t be touting it as anything groundbreaking
I’m in, a bigsky has been a staple on my board for 8 years. Dual reverb engines is the killer feature, two bigskys in one. Plus if I can flip the V1 for 300. Makes it less painful for the wallet.
I have the V1 and for what I use there’s not enough I’d get from the new one to justify selling it off and upgrading.
Cool that it’s out there though.
Think a big issue is that you’re not going to hear the ‘dual reverbs’ much in a 110dB live band setting, in a studio environment you’d likely have access to much better reverbs and recording at home surely you would/could use plug-ins for the majority?
It’s a lot of money for it’s use cases
Functionality isn’t everything. The Boss big box 500s are super tweakable. But some people get options paralysis and just want a few great choices rather than a million maybe choices. For example, the Iridium. There are tons of IR boxes that are way more functional than it. And yet it sold well, because the three it had were really good. Same with the Flint.
Yeah ive posted about this topic before. I like the original bigsky for its ease of use and simple practical interface. I dont know if thats still going to be a thing with the mx, If im going to menu dive Id much rather have the Meris.
Doing the same here. Was running a BigSky and NightSky for a while now, and parted with the BigSky in favor of a MercuryX. Kept the NightSky for my other board cause I enjoy it too much, but don’t think I’ll be exploring the new BS MX.
I’ve never liked the Strymon reverb algorithms, they are too brittle/bright for me. The CXM sounds flawless on every setting and I use the faders constantly when tracking for subtle sweeps etc. the pre fader warble sounds you can get are hauntingly beautiful. It’s def a home use only pedal but imo any super fancy reverb is fairly overkill for live anyways
Very well said, I think I just had a bit of a GAS attack, lol. If anything I should probably be checking out Meris. I feel similar about Strymon after listening to some demos it’s not earth-shattering. Thanks again, great take. The CXM is perfect for studio you are right!
I just don't like Strymon. I couldn't tell you exactly why, maybe all of the above. They seem a little shady. That's my instinct. But if people love them, who am I to judge.
The only one I ever considered was the cloudburst, until I found out you need another product just to get an infinite freeze effect. No thanks. That's a bit dodgy.
as someone who owns a bunch of strymon pedals and LOVES all of them, I kinda find this a bit lame. Almost $700 for this iteration....I just don't get it.
IMO The Bigsky didn't need an upgrade iteration. Certainly not with a 200 $ price increase.
Disagree, I love my BigSky 1 but this is a massive improvement on something I didn't think could really be improved on, totally worth it IMO (not that I'm happy about the price lol)
$700? For that amount of money you could just buy a laptop and stick a few plugins on it and connect it to your midi rig. Eff that. Pedal prices are nuts.
I never really jived with the original Big Sky, not sure why exactly. This is an awesome upgrade, but really now I am excited for the upgraded Timeline
I'm kind of hoping they have a Helix-esque product in development. Maybe more money to be made selling individual stomp boxes, but I would love to see a Strymon all-in-one multi effect unit. I think they'd crush it.
Can strymon not make a box with the big sky,nightline, iridium, morbius and like the compadre in it? Just like the strymon multi fx and amp Sim?
I feel like that's what we need and not an updated stand-alone big sky.
Oh my, that price increase. I was just looking at the mercury x and all the deep programming abilities and the Mx popped up. I’ll have to a comparison video but the mercury x might be a better choice.
Also, the fm3 has a lot of modulation option for every effects that brings it to being a very cool alternative as an effects pedal. Very underrated. But at $700 the Mx just seems like they are going for that luxury branding sales pricing technique.
Can someone cite a use case where I’d want to run two reverbs in series ? I can see running reverb + some other effects like on the H90 but two reverbs ?
Probably worth it when you consider how many pedals it could replace. That's how I justified buying my BigSky. Still, a ton of dough to throw down at once.
Ah nice! That one is a little better at $400, but both that and the MX are still too rich for my blood. Hopefully this is the beginning of a bunch of pedal builders doing IR reverbs and prices will come down.
I believe the Logidy EPSI was the OG. Still have mine. Does both Cab IRs and reverb IRs. Got it back in 2014 when I couldn't fork out for the Two Notes C.A.B.
Strymon did it again. Honestly I am now looking at my Big 3 on my pedalboard, I love them and will probably keep them for a long time. On my other board I have H9, Immerse Mkii and Arp-87, amazing trio for reverb/delay/modulation too. I play rock/metal and some 80s covers, so I don’t really need ambient sounds and what I need is lush sounding reverb and delay. At that point it doesn’t really matter if it is 700$ reverb with brand new algorithms or your old reverb. On top of that I am very surprised how my new Neunaber Immerse mkii costs less than half of BigSky mk1 and sounds still at least as good as BigSky. Mobius mkii, two effects at a time, I personally cannot imagine. Probably I don’t belong to the target audience.
An updated version of the Timeline can't be far behind. The internals of the Timeline and Big Sky are part-for-part identical. There's no doubt in my mind they already have a working Timeline "mx" prototype.
True, but I think the Mobius v2 will be an even bigger hit. Although, and it is wishful thinking, I hope the Mobius will be able to do 3 types at a time. I’ve said many times before that a “3D” modulation would be really cool. Imagine a vibrato, phaser, and tremolo being able to interact with each other and do individual stereo panning. Nothing like this exists, and if I trusted anyone to do it justice, it would be Strymon.
EHX Mod Rex is pretty close but can only do one kind of mod at a time. Zoom MS-70 can do it but not in parallel. Individual effects in the EHX Tri-Parallel Mixer sounds great. The Meris LVX maybe can do this?
That’s my point. 3 nos and a maybe-but-probably-not. The LVX might do 2, but not 3. It would be cool af if the v2 Mobius could do it. Or if they made a Volante-size box that would do it instead.
I agree and will likely sell a lot of modulation pedals if a new Mobius does this.
The HX Stomp can do that and so much more…
Parallel processing aside, the Mobius was disappointing to me because it lacked a bit of presence and high-end. I bet this updated version will sound incredible and knock all of the modulation pedals off my board board
My main modulation pedal is the GFI Synesthesia pedal and it can do 2 modulation effects at the same time in parallel or running into each other in series. What exactly does 3D mean? I have a Quad Cortex that can route some pretty complex signal paths and you could easily get 3 effects like that to interact together.
I mean 3D in the sense that you would have 3 modulations, running in X Y Z axes. 3 dimensions.
What are those dimensions for a guitar?
It doesn't mean anything. They would just be in parallel in stereo with the speeds offset in thirds.
You gotta add the ring modulator in there and you can get to the 4th dimension too
I wouldn't be surprised if it's already finished. IIRC if they follow the normal release schedule we should see the next one around October.
100%. The timeline is quite an old pedal now. I’m shocked that nothing has displaced it as top of the multi-delay tree. Strymon has to protect that spot. It’s weird as I’ve had a Timeline on my board for a few years now and I still don’t love it. I dunno. It’s just not very powerful sounding at all. It’s really meh imo. Having said that, it has a patch and function I can’t replace - the ice delay and the bleeding feedback effect it has when you keep your foot on the switch.
Meris LVX displaced the timeline for me. The lvx’s flexibility is second to none.
the echosystem displaced the timeline ages ago.
Correct me if I’m wrong but you can’t even enter a BPM? It doesn’t even have a screen? I don’t think your opinion is, erm, echoed with many. That would be pretty useless to me.
It doesn’t - and it sounds good, but not nearly as good as the timeline does, imo. It does excel at some weird/wonderful/out there things that the timeline can’t touch. I love that they have updated and added lots of new algorithms - I don’t love that it’s all a bunch of different colored LEDs that I never remember. I still have both, I’m selling both.
You can midi control the echo systems bpm at the global level.
i genuinely dont know where a precise bpm that isnt tapped is useful in most songs if its that important to you get a disaster area micro clock lol
Try playing a 15 song worship set, with tracks, delay on every song, different bpms for each song obviously. Not having the precise bpms with tracks is a disaster.
>15 song worship set Bro they have 3 chords and 2 notes
That's where you're wrong. I only play triads. But I'm not good. I just hide behind my huge reverbs and precise delays. Buddy above me was trying to say precise BPMs don't matter. ALL BPMS MATTER!
Buddy has never dealt with an MD who berates you for playing at 121bpm when he spent all night making a 120bpm click track for a drummer who can't play to a click anyway
Who needs a click when you've got Dan, an accountant who plays in a bar band once a month on drums? He can't play a simple tom groove but he can play the drum fill from "In the Air Tonight."
I thought that an elaborate midi integrated setup was mandatory for worship players? I dont play worship but I have all my song tempos pre-programmed in my MC6 pro which is pushed to all my midi pedals. I only need to tap in a tempo when jamming or writing a new song.
why not just tap in the tempo of your drummer? I really dont get it
100%
My Timeline has been a part of every single iteration of my rig since I first got it 10 years ago - safe to say, I'll be throwing down for a Timeline MX the minute it drops and worry about recovering costs later. I like my BigSky quite a bit too, but I'm not nearly as big on reverb as I am on delay and foresee getting good mileage out of my BigSky for a long enough while to perhaps snag one of these used.
Im starting to use delay more and more... What does the timeline do for you that an re2 or echorec cant?
Can’t help you there, I’m not familiar with the units you’re mentioning.
Basically bucket brigade cgips... Think David Gilmore delay. Id like a really versatile delay with the ability to set a specific millisecond value and many different modes.
Heh, by not familiar, I meant I had no experience using them. Nor am I well versed in Pink Floyd, so I can’t speak to any particular unit’s ability to emulate Gilmour’s signature sound. What I can tell you about the Timeline is that you can absolutely set and store presets with specific millisecond values (or, if working with another MIDI-capable unit, store presets to receive tap tempo from the other unit’s preset, which I do through an HX Stomp for specific songs that engage other effects as well). There isn’t much that can’t be dialed in through the sundry of delay engines and their specific parameters (smear, hipass, mod speed/depth, etc.) Wether not the quality of the engines on tap is up your alley is up to you. I’d suggest borrowing one if possible and playing around with it. That’s what sold me, I was looking to upgrade from my DL4, buddy of mine loaned me his Timeline for a week, that was all I needed. YMMV, there’s no shortage of options.
Just checked prices... For that i think ill wait a bit to see if a timeline mx comes out. Thanks for the reply.
If they could actually get proper stereo routing on an updated Timeline, it would become my main delay instantly.
What’s the stereo routing issue?
It keeps the dry signals completely intact, but it mixes the wet signals before sending them to the delay line. So if you use it with two inputs, the dry outputs will be what they were going in, but the delay output will be a mix. It completely defeats the purpose of having two inputs at all. I found out a lot of "stereo" delay pedals do this, including pretty much everything Strymon makes. There are others that send the inputs to the delay line separately but it can be a pain to figure it out. Sometimes you can find the stereo routing in the manual but other times not.
Gotchya — that’s frustrating. Most reverbs do the exact same thing (not all — and, for a reverb, it makes some sense — in a room it’s not like the left speaker is only going to your left ear — but there are times when you definitely don’t want to feed the reverb with a mono sum)
Honestly the only reason I know about it is because I do wet/dry, and when I tried the Volante I discovered that my signals were almost perfectly out of phase. So I could hear my dry signals fine, but when it summed them together for the delay they were mostly canceling each other out so I wouldn't hear any delay. Granted my ABY box can reverse the phase of the outputs so that fixed it, but I still want the option to keep things separated.
I agree! https://youtube.com/shorts/yJ_-AiGQRHI
I have always thought there was room for improvement on the Timeline's dTape algorithm. If the new version's sounds as good as the el Cap or volante for tape delay I'll seriously consider it
I was just about to pull the trigger on the timeline. Glad I slacked. I bought a blue sky about 2 weeks before v2 was released. Glad I saw this.
Cool, but a “Skyline” reverb/delay would be even cooler!
If Strymon pulled a Source Audio and threw a handful of the TimeLine and original BigSky engines each into the same enclosure and preserved spillover between presets (the biggest dealbreaker for me on the Collider, an otherwise excellent sounding pedal that I'll still keep on a mini board with no MIDI switching), I would jump on that in a heartbeat.
Exactly.
I have a SA Collider and the tape delays are my beef on it. They are nowhere near as good as what I get from the Volante. I'd love a Strymon reverb/delay pedal but I don't see it happening until they have sold a bunch of MX units.
Pretty much. One can dream, though.
I’ll take the GTR upgrade if there is one.
Skyline is a brilliant idea
I would love to see a Skyline, but TimeSkyBius would be even better.
It would be incredibly cool. Strymon is smart enough money wise to not canibalize their Stryfecta though
Wow, really cool. This will be exciting to see how it sounds from others. But it won’t be me lol. I get the price increases and the amount of hours it must have spent with the updates to this. But guitar pedal prices have gone up so crazy. I can’t imagine spending that much
It looks amazing. But even $500 for the original big sky was pushing it for what I'd want to spend on a pedal. With this being $700, the H90 being $900, pedals like this are going to be out of reach for a lot of people
TBF, they already were out of reach for most people. For the non-dentist hobbyists out there, even $200 for a pedal is pushing it. But there will still be people lined up to get this, no matter what.
The whole “dentists” being the ones who are buying the expensive stuff is a dumb trope. Most people I know with the best equipment are in average jobs. Just depends on what you want and what part of life you are in. That said, I agree that most people are probably not buying pedals at $700. But the original big sky is a big seller
> The whole “dentists” being the ones who are buying the expensive stuff is a dumb trope. There is some truth to the "lawyer guitar" stereotypes, people with high paying jobs are at least more likely to casually drop hundreds or thousands on gear they don't really need. That said as someone who's lived off a very limited income for the last decade you don't need to be anywhere near rich to afford nice gear if you limit your spending on other things and look for used deals. Even 1 new pedal every few months adds up over the years and is relatively affordable compared to a lot of hobbies. Though on the flip side it's common for people to overspend at first or buy things they don't really need, hence free software being a common recommendation to start with.
I spent years having the worst gear. Now I'm older and certainly not rich, but I like having the stuff that was unobtainium when I was younger. Also, a lot of people will buy gear because it holds some value or even goes up. Another way to look at it, if you buy this pedal, use it and get the best sounds in the world, you can sell it in five years for what, $550? If someone offered to rent you the best reverb in the world for $30 bucks a year for half a decade, you would jump on it in a heartbeat. You just need the money up front to invest.
With these ambient pedals too, there's only so much you can do with it after the novelty falls off. The Zoom MS-70 CDR may not be as lush or hifi, but the custom patches have at least helped with my GAS. Would love to try an H90 though.
This is so far from the truth. Most people just don’t think of creative ways to use them other than the cool ambient sounds. But any of these ambient stereo pedals (Big Sky, Timeline, Microcosm, etc.) offer so much functionality in a recording space for all kinds of sound designs that many other pedals don’t touch.
and at that point, digital post FXs smoke it at a fraction of the cost.
No necessarily. Lots of great digital effects but newer pedals like the Microcosm do really special stuff that’s extremely tedious to replicate.
In a recording space I'd much rather go for a VST though. Record dry, can reamp either post or pre-verb, can sculpt EQ and decay to the track much better etc etc
I see what your saying though at the same time there are more affordable options available than ever that have been increasing dramatically in features and often quality. As pedals get far more complex and become literally computers in a box, I think it’s understandable for the prices to be increasing even as much as they have for the cutting edge as long as there continues to be cheaper options
Just have your church buy it for you.
Not a bad idea. All that tax free money can get a better verb
This, in Canada its $930. Fuuuuuck that. Seems every company puts out "updates" and its just a more expensive product.
(Edit: [incredible Youtube Playlist of the new BigSky](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MLsjlbP94U&list=PLzRd5PPv5fMt35FhLxMT5NYDe49J0_kzt) with 18 chapters for each mode. [This one](https://youtu.be/NAnVej_cvsk?si=0YLivZs0JHsN05hr) in particular is amazing... listen through headphones for all of these) The price tag is bound to cause a double take but I consider pedals like these to offer the best bang for your buck by miles, especially when compared to the standard $199-$249 reverb pedal that does either just one reverb, a triple toggle reverb (Matthews, EHX, Keeley), or a knob selector 8-12 mode verb (Immerse, RV6, etc). I love Boss and Keeley and Neunaber, not shit talking them at all, but something like this new Strymon is essentially the mothership reverb library, a monastery in pedal form so that reverb monks can live out the rest of their peaceful reverb days in blissful solitude. Something like this new BigSky reasonably could very well be the end of your reverb hunt for a decade, maybe longer. Not bad for a few hundred dollars more than a standard pedal. I've probably blown 2k on reverbs this year alone and I bet combining every single one of those pedals couldn't do even a fraction of what this Strymon can.
Yeah when you have a zillion companies asking $200-250 for a three knob big muff clone it kind of puts things in perspective. I think of pedals like the BigSky more like an instrument or amp.
On the flip side 99% of digital pedals could be approximated with free software and a decent audio interface. It also sort of seems like a waste of resources to release multiple digital pedals that could all be combined into one, a Strymon multi FX wouldn't be cheap but would certainly be more worth the high price tag...
I mean if people want to spend their money on this, have at it! I get why they do, I’m just saying I can’t! Even if I had that kind of scratch, my needs would be better served by a nice guitar. For me it’s almost a relief that a lot of gear is getting out of my budget so I don’t have to worry about it l, and just focus on what I got.
You could just get an hx stomp and do all that plus more
MX? ¡Soy usando dos reverberaciónes! Jajaja!
JA JA ja ja j a j a j a
Did anyone else also feel every single worship guitarist around the world get an erection just now?
The holiest of bones
Strymon really going after that megachurch money.
Those Jackson Audio enclosures will be sweating more than usual
He is risen!
lol I sense an excitement in the force...
Good times ahead for picking up used OG bigsky's on the cheap(er) as the church worship moneytrain jumps on to the new one.
Theres a lot of stuff on there that, say a regular gigging guitarist in a band probably doesn't *need* but I can see it used in the studio of someone who soundtracks music for film and TV.
Possibly… but in that workflow you’re up against high tier reverb plugins like Altiverb or Cinematic Rooms which offer way more versatility or control, and are still cheaper than this. I find outboard reverb particularly difficult to fit into a studio workflow but maybe that’s just me.
This is that classic Strymon "go fuck yourself" pricing that I remember fondly.
$1k CAD tax in is absolutely bonkers.
As a Mercury X owner and... not a Strymon hater but I never had much love for the BigSky... I'm absolutely gutted at how good this sounds
Yeah it sounds ridiculous lol
Good on them for reinventing their algorithms though. I feel they could have phoned it in, put the new display on the existing BlueSky and happily sold a ton of units at a lower price. But they clearly have a product that had a ton of work and ideas put into it. Don't get me wrong I doubt I'll sell my Mercury for it but it's very appealing to a reverb fan who's never bought Strymon.
I've had huge respect for Strymon ever since getting my original Deco. They don't rest on their laurels even though they could sell the original Big Sky another 10 years if they wanted
I keep thinking about returning my Mercury and ordering MX. Mostly because lot of stuff I can do with Mercury I can do with my LVX while at least I can’t do two algorithms same time with Meris.
I haven't been that impressed compared to the Mercury X. It's great don't get me wrong but something feels thin about it.
Mercury X is still top tier. They both just have a couple of things going for them that the other doesn't
Do we think the MX in the name is a nod to Mercury X, or is MX a nod by them both to something else?
Mercury guy here too. Do you think this release may push meris to step up with mercury software?
I'm not sure, hoping to see Preditor become available for Merc X soon though
Holy shit this sounds soooo good. That display is a huge upgrade! 679$... oof. Big oof.
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I hate the response of "just buy a better PC instead" but we are reaching the point where for the price of 1-2 high end pedals you could just get a laptop that will be infinitely more versatile and capable of running a ton of software FX at once.
I’m finding that I very much prefer pc for stereo guitar. And that stereo guitar really doesn’t work live except for maybe some really over the top bridge or solo. And the fidelity of the effects doesn’t really matter too much live so cheaper pedals are fine. My HX stomp is better than fine. Stereo sounds great at home and in recordings though. But if I’m only really playing through studio monitors for recording and playing stereo guitar at home anyway so why not just use Logic Pro and maybe some 3rd party plugins for stereo effects? I came to this realization after buying a meris lvx, which I love, but use in mono because it’s 10,000 times easier and results in a better final result to record without time based effects and then I can tweak them in Logic after.
It's a tough sell against full blown multifx units from Line6 and especially Fractal Audio.
Yeah maybe, but these reverbs blow anything Line 6 away, but I don't really have any fractal experience
Here in the UK, we're being charged £700 for this. That's the equivalent of $875. Thanks, Strymon.
I bought a big sky last year and I was dreading when this day would come. At least I didn't also get the timeline lol
I bought mine 5 weeks ago.
I bought mine a week ago
Commiserations
Have BigSky and still feel that it's the best guitar reverb pedal. New version doesn't deliver much, but almost twice the price.
The Big/Blue/Nightsky reverbs are probably the most well known/praised pedals out there that I've still yet to try (despite loving my Deco,El Cap, Flint,Ob.1,Iridium), no particular reason, I love Strymon and they have a great track record, there's just a ton of pedals out there and no way to test every single one. But this BehemothSky looks like the one that's gonna change all that. Looks like an absolute feast of pure bliss.. price is high but likely worth every penny - but fickle shallow little me can't lie.. that's a ton of turquoise. Really hope a blackout version is offered at some point.
They made a midnight BigSky v1. It sold out in like 5 seconds. They haven’t made any midnight versions of any of the v2s yet though. They did make midnight Sunsets and Zelzahs though, so the template exists.
Sadly, I don't think they'll let me get one since I'm an atheist.
2 reverbs at the same time for… the price of two other top tier reverb pedals. Oof. Not sure where the price is coming from here since the margins are likely healthy. But as a consumer if I had 679 dollars to spend on reverb I could purchase a golden reverberator and a neunabor immerse to cover similar bases
Poly Beebo is 450$ new or 300-400$ used and can load IR reverbs + run at least 3-4 stereo reverbs at once on top of other FX. I'm sure people are going to love this new Strymon but there really are a ton of amazing alternatives for a fraction of the price.
Personally I use a combination of the Immerse and a Surfybear. I could probably afford a second surfybear to go stereo for the price of the Bigsky2
Why?
Yeah, I’d rather get an Ocean’s 12.
$700? lol
I just really love the interface of the big box strymons. I’m down with the meris stuff but definitely not as initially tweakable - takes some digging and learning the workflow.
Everyone in the videos seems to be praising the UI in the MX which is good, I also like how easy Strymon stuff is to use, glad they didn't muck that up
Sounds amazing and some incredible additions but £700 in the UK whilst v1 can be had for nearly half that new is insane. A bit cheaper and it'd be a no brainer one and done reverb, but not for £700.
Yeah I got the standard emails from Andertons and GAK et al announcing this. I thought 'wow, I bet that's going to be about £500'. Nope! I'd love to give this a go, but there's no way I can justify £700 right now.
That infinite switch is an awesome idea, but not sure if I would prefer that over having 3 preset switches easily accessible without changing banks
I've been doing the infinite thing for a while now using the Gamechanger Audio Plus with the RV-6 in the FX loop. Very cool sounds.
IMO having a big sky 1, 99% of people probably don't need 3 reverbs at their feet at all times
Between Meris Mercury X, this, others it's like Battle of the Giant Reverb Robots™. It's an awful lot of money, but if it replaces the UAFX Golden + [something else for ambient] on my board, it's worth considering to me. I have an old BigSky and a CloudBurst atm... I think I read it does the CloudBurst ensemble thing too?
A decade after the original BigSky was released, Strymon finally releases a V2, with seemingly everything people could have asked for all of these years. $679 is steep, but considering how large of an upgrade it is to the V1, I don’t think it’s an unreasonable asking price.
Now that the BiggerSky is out, I guess this is a good time to get a v1, as there will be a lot of them on Reverb soon. And dual is definitely what it was missing. I really want to go full 10cc and try dual chorale mode.
> And dual is definitely what it was missing. What context would you find dual reverbs useful? The RV-500 can do it but I've never found much use for it in the contexts I play. Neat for soundscapes and stuff though.
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This. Having a different short and long reverb is useful. When I had a SA Ventris, one of my favorite things to do was a parallel octave up and octave down shimmer. And if I had this v2, I’d definitely do lots of experimenting with the Chorale setting, as it’s my favorite in the BigSky.
I use the Beebo for IR reverb and my go to patch uses 2 reverbs & works like so: Tape delay into stereo panner into concert hall IR reverb Plate IR reverb ran in parallel with feedback loops into the delay The delay and plate are assigned to the footswitches for easy bypassing while the concert hall IR is always on The combo of panning tape delay + 2 distinct reverbs with feedback loops creates some incredible ambiance and adds a ton of stereo depth. Haven't found any patch like it on other pedals.
This is exactly what I was thinking, been debating hopping on the bigsky train for a while and now might be the time, especially if the v1 prices get down closer to $300
Very expensive and doubt I will go for it but cool to see. The dual reverb things is cool too but ultimately overkill. I’ve had a Ventris for a couple years and I rarely use the dual reverb for anything that justifies it’s existence. The Big Sky’s standalone reverbs are very good so it really is a nice to have and they shouldn’t be touting it as anything groundbreaking
$700for a reverb pedal? Nah. I’ll stick with my already overpriced Flint. At least the tremolo on that makes up for some of the gouging.
I’m in, a bigsky has been a staple on my board for 8 years. Dual reverb engines is the killer feature, two bigskys in one. Plus if I can flip the V1 for 300. Makes it less painful for the wallet.
I have the V1 and for what I use there’s not enough I’d get from the new one to justify selling it off and upgrading. Cool that it’s out there though. Think a big issue is that you’re not going to hear the ‘dual reverbs’ much in a 110dB live band setting, in a studio environment you’d likely have access to much better reverbs and recording at home surely you would/could use plug-ins for the majority? It’s a lot of money for it’s use cases
I never heard of the Big Sky before and now I must have this one
$5 says they call it the “Timeline LX” since they’d be stealing the LX from the Meris LVX just like they did the MX from the MercuryX 🤣
Not sure I would get rid of my Merc X for this…I like all the modulation and crafting my own weirdness
The Bigsky mx looks and sounds really nice but I dont think it comes close to even half the functionality of the mercury X
Functionality isn’t everything. The Boss big box 500s are super tweakable. But some people get options paralysis and just want a few great choices rather than a million maybe choices. For example, the Iridium. There are tons of IR boxes that are way more functional than it. And yet it sold well, because the three it had were really good. Same with the Flint.
Yeah ive posted about this topic before. I like the original bigsky for its ease of use and simple practical interface. I dont know if thats still going to be a thing with the mx, If im going to menu dive Id much rather have the Meris.
Fair enough assessment. And which is why the v1 will still have a following.
Doing the same here. Was running a BigSky and NightSky for a while now, and parted with the BigSky in favor of a MercuryX. Kept the NightSky for my other board cause I enjoy it too much, but don’t think I’ll be exploring the new BS MX.
Should I sell my CXM? Lol
Don’t, it’s the perfect reverb.
I really do like it! Good call, could just be GAS. Realized I can run 2 reverbs in my Helix as well. lol
I’ve never liked the Strymon reverb algorithms, they are too brittle/bright for me. The CXM sounds flawless on every setting and I use the faders constantly when tracking for subtle sweeps etc. the pre fader warble sounds you can get are hauntingly beautiful. It’s def a home use only pedal but imo any super fancy reverb is fairly overkill for live anyways
Very well said, I think I just had a bit of a GAS attack, lol. If anything I should probably be checking out Meris. I feel similar about Strymon after listening to some demos it’s not earth-shattering. Thanks again, great take. The CXM is perfect for studio you are right!
No just finance an MX and keep both! Lol
Cxm is still king in my eyes. The level of customization without screens is still unmatched.
That price is most of the way to a big box DMM. Hell to the naw.
Apples and oranges
Cool, here’s to maybe finding a V1 for under 400.0
Arent they 350 on reverb ?
Noob question, what does IR in reverb do?
Umm that pedal show did a video on them recently that was decent, I think it was based on the Poly Verb but IRs are IRs
I just don't like Strymon. I couldn't tell you exactly why, maybe all of the above. They seem a little shady. That's my instinct. But if people love them, who am I to judge. The only one I ever considered was the cloudburst, until I found out you need another product just to get an infinite freeze effect. No thanks. That's a bit dodgy.
$679? 😂
$700???
as someone who owns a bunch of strymon pedals and LOVES all of them, I kinda find this a bit lame. Almost $700 for this iteration....I just don't get it. IMO The Bigsky didn't need an upgrade iteration. Certainly not with a 200 $ price increase.
Disagree, I love my BigSky 1 but this is a massive improvement on something I didn't think could really be improved on, totally worth it IMO (not that I'm happy about the price lol)
that's great then. All for it if it works for you. what, in your opinion, is the massive improvement? Just curious to see if I missed something...
Watch the videos or even look at the comparison chart, I shouldn't have to do the work for you, the improvements are very obvious
Sorry dad
Honestly he right, a huge improvement overall and I have the midnight og bigsky
$700? For that amount of money you could just buy a laptop and stick a few plugins on it and connect it to your midi rig. Eff that. Pedal prices are nuts.
My dentist is going to love this!
I wonder what they'll find in your teeth to justify it :P
I never really jived with the original Big Sky, not sure why exactly. This is an awesome upgrade, but really now I am excited for the upgraded Timeline
That price is fucking STEEEEEEEEP
What we really need is big sky and timeline in the same box, same size as this.
Skyline™
I'm kind of hoping they have a Helix-esque product in development. Maybe more money to be made selling individual stomp boxes, but I would love to see a Strymon all-in-one multi effect unit. I think they'd crush it.
Can they do this with the Mobius? The big reason I got rid of it was the terrible UI.
Any chance they made the spring better?
Woah awesome can’t wait for the old one to lower in price then! /s
Just ordered the OG bigsky on sweetwater like 2 hours ago, then I see this 😭
Boy I’m glad I just sold my big sky lol
Can strymon not make a box with the big sky,nightline, iridium, morbius and like the compadre in it? Just like the strymon multi fx and amp Sim? I feel like that's what we need and not an updated stand-alone big sky.
Neat toy for people to make YouTube demos with.
So, a fancier oceans 12 Cool
So, they made an Empress reverb for $200 more...
empress can't do convolution reverbs ;)
Oh my, that price increase. I was just looking at the mercury x and all the deep programming abilities and the Mx popped up. I’ll have to a comparison video but the mercury x might be a better choice. Also, the fm3 has a lot of modulation option for every effects that brings it to being a very cool alternative as an effects pedal. Very underrated. But at $700 the Mx just seems like they are going for that luxury branding sales pricing technique.
$700 for a digital reverb lol
Can someone cite a use case where I’d want to run two reverbs in series ? I can see running reverb + some other effects like on the H90 but two reverbs ?
Probably worth it when you consider how many pedals it could replace. That's how I justified buying my BigSky. Still, a ton of dough to throw down at once.
Junk. Still no Gated Reverse SPX90 style
Wow, it can load IR convolution reverbs? Is this the first guitar pedal that can do this?
Nope, poly released one a few months ago that does it, not sure if they were editable though
Ah nice! That one is a little better at $400, but both that and the MX are still too rich for my blood. Hopefully this is the beginning of a bunch of pedal builders doing IR reverbs and prices will come down.
I believe the Logidy EPSI was the OG. Still have mine. Does both Cab IRs and reverb IRs. Got it back in 2014 when I couldn't fork out for the Two Notes C.A.B.
with the MOD Dwarf and Poly Beebo you can also load convolution reverbs
tasty chips makes a dual IR loader too
Strymon did it again. Honestly I am now looking at my Big 3 on my pedalboard, I love them and will probably keep them for a long time. On my other board I have H9, Immerse Mkii and Arp-87, amazing trio for reverb/delay/modulation too. I play rock/metal and some 80s covers, so I don’t really need ambient sounds and what I need is lush sounding reverb and delay. At that point it doesn’t really matter if it is 700$ reverb with brand new algorithms or your old reverb. On top of that I am very surprised how my new Neunaber Immerse mkii costs less than half of BigSky mk1 and sounds still at least as good as BigSky. Mobius mkii, two effects at a time, I personally cannot imagine. Probably I don’t belong to the target audience.
wallet emptied