Strymon Big Sky Hall Reverbs - Guitar Effects Pedal

Yes, it is expensive, but if you like reverb (like it a lot I mean) than you'll find it difficult to come across a better pedal. There are tons of reviews but having tried it out for the first time I can't believe how great the sounds are. It does have lots of features but the basic operation is pretty intuitive. Used with a good quality analogue delay pedal takes the listening experience to an entirely different level. But on its own it's just magical. Expensive, but magical.

Although the majority of the patches do not meet my specific musical preferences, I have been able to customise my own patches to faithfully recreate sounds from bands like Slowdive, Cocteau Twins, Tamaryn, the Verve and even My Bloody Valentine. Creating patches is easy.If you like ethereal, deep sounding reverb then the BigSky is essential.

cool

bought for grandson who also has previous model so has doubled up and he is raving about how great this is and says it is great for his gigsso will recommend this on say of grandson

The best reverb pedal ever...just smooth and beautiful harmonics and swell effects...some great vides on YouTube, check this out...if you have the budget and pedal board space this is a no brainer...

I have one of these; it's neat. If you pair it with a Strymon El Capistan the end result sounds like Dead Can Dance or The Cocteau Twins from thirty-five years ago. Turn the reverb to 100% wet and even the most indifferent strings patches become an orchestra. If you dial up one of the shimmer effects then anything you play sounds like a 1980s sci-fi film or a mid-1980s U2/Peter Gabriel album.As with Strymon's other pedals the Big Sky is aimed at guitarists, but I use it with keyboards and it works just fine. It has unbalanced L/R 1/4" inputs and outputs plus MIDI so that you can automate program changes, although I mostly dial up an effect and set the knobs to taste. There's a bunch of generally good presets although they all seem to have the tone control up too high, e.g. they're very bright. You also have the option of using the Big Sky as a plain ordinary reverb pedal, whereas the El Capistan has a distinctive sound that gets boring after a while.As with the El Capistan the reverb effects seem to tail off forever without turning into fuzz. The ordinary effects - spring, plate, hall etc - are subtle and add a bit of colour to the sound, but I suspect that like most owners I dove straight into the bloom and shimmer effects first, which are wonderful. After a while the novelty of endless shimmer wears off but I find that I can leave the bloom/cloud effects on all the time. Paired with a compressor for infinite sustain the more subtle reverbs fill the mix with a wash of background sound.Bad stuff? It's expensive. There's a cheaper option, the Strymon Blue Sky, but it's not as tweakable. I don't know if they use the same hardware. Valhalla's Supermassive VST plugin is very, very close - and totally free - but to my ears the BigSky sounds smoother and more "ooshy".That's right, ooshy. Smoother? Less granular? It's hard to say. On a prosaic level it holds its value on the used market so you're not spending money, you're merely transferring it from one form to another.

Absolutely incredible. If god had a reverb pedal...

Best pedal of all time